TDK has unveiled the new CAS1B series of 6 Gbps serial ATA compatible CFast type solid state drives for industrial applications, featuring the NAND flash memory controller chip GBDriver GS1. Available from January 2016, the new products include a new series of CFast cards, which boast 3.2 times faster read and 1.9 faster write speed than the existing CAG3B series, while maintain their high reliability.

Industrial applications also increasingly call for solid state drives with MLC NAND type memory. The new GBDriver GS1 controller not only features the recovery and refresh functions implemented by the existing GBDriver series of controllers, but also comes standard with a power interruption tolerance algorithm as well as an integrated power supply protection circuit. This assures highly robust data reliability both with SLC and with MLC NAND type flash memory.

The standard lineup also provides the choice of pSLC flash memory, which offers higher robustness than MLC and lower cost per bit than SLC.

Data security has also been enhanced. In addition to the standard ATA security complement, AES 128-bit and 256-bit encryption and a TDK proprietary security function are also available. This makes it possible to store data in the NAND type flash memory in encrypted form, to guard against the risk of data leaks and tampering, resulting in highly robust storage security.

The controller is compliant with Serial ATA Revision 3.1 Specification, supporting SATA Gen. 3 (6.0 Gbps) and NCQ commands. TDK says it can deliver a 360 MByte/second read access and 110 MByte/second write access, when SLC flash memory is onboard.