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Advanced semiconductor systems specialist Micron Technology announced the release of a client-class solid state drive (SSD), the M600 SATA SSD, which is designed to take advantage of Micron’s NAND Flash technology.
To help meet consumers’ expectations for longer battery life, the M600 offers improved SSD power efficiency. For example, it draws less than 2 milliwatts (mW)i in sleep mode and averages 150mW during active use.
Typical laptop hard drives can require far more power when idle (130mW) and 10 times as much power while they spin their platters to access data during active use.
“Low power use is critical to anyone who wants to get more battery life out of their laptop or tablet. We make our SSDs as efficient as possible, to ensure the best end-system battery life,” Ben Thiel, director of marketing for client SSD at Micron, told eWEEK. “Our ultra-high performance also helps battery life by completing data transfers faster, allowing other high-power use components—like the processor—to return to idle mode more quickly.”
The M600 is also equipped with self-encryption technology designed to meet government standards—ensuring valuable mobile data is secure even in the event of theft or loss.
“The platform’s robust encryption technology makes it an excellent choice for corporate laptops, particularly in industries that handle sensitive IP or customer data—from insurance and medical records to technology,” Thiel said. “The performance of the M600 also makes it a great fit for video production environments—whether it’s in a system handling video post-production edits or capturing data from a high-definition video camera.”
The M600’s AES-256-bit hardware encryption engine actively encrypts data without performance degradation and complies with the TCG Opal 2.0 standards and the Microsoft eDrive protocol, making it possible to enable using management tools or within Windows 8.
“Data breaches and theft appear in the news almost every day. Data is much more valuable than the hardware it’s stored on, and mobile devices—by their nature—introduce additional risk,” Thiel said. “Consumers and businesses should take every opportunity they can to protect that data. Encryption provides additional peace of mind that your data will be safe, even in the event of a theft. We also work closely with third-party encryption-management software companies to ensure that our SSDs can be easily managed by an organization’s IT department.”
The drive uses Micron’s 128Gb NAND to enable a range of capacities in small configurations.The M600 is offered in 128, 256 and 512GB mSATA and M.2 module configurations.
The gumstick-sized M.2 module is offered in both 80mm and 60mm versions (2280 and 2260) to provide more options for ultra-slim tablet systems.
The M600 is also available in a 2.5-inch, 7mm form factor, which is available in capacities from 128GB to 1TB.
“SSD technology will continue to evolve to provide higher performance, lower power use, and even smaller form factors,” Thiel said. “It’s an exciting field to be in, particularly at Micron, where our SSD teams have a direct connection to the engineers developing next-generation memory and storage technologies.”