TDK announced today the launch in April 2010 of the SHG2A series of half slim type solid state drive (SSD) modules. The new modules, which have a maximum capacity of 32 GB, are about one half the size of a 1.8-inch hard disk drive (HDD). The new drives are half slim Flash drives equipped with the GBDriver RS2 series SATA controller ICs developed by TDK. They support high-speed access with an effective read speed of 95 MB/s and an effective write speed of 55 MB/s. They also feature error correction capabilities scalable to 15-bit/sector error correction code (ECC). In addition, the use of an internal power supply protection circuit prevents errors in the event of power interruption. These SATA Flash drives are also equipped with an auto-recovery function that automatically recovers data when read disturbance errors occur from repeated reading of data, making them ideal for automotive applications such as car navigation systems.

TDK claims that it has achieved substantial increases in the life spans of semiconductor memory storage devices. A static wear leveling function developed by TDK equalizes data writing among all of the Flash memory blocks, maximizing the life span of the memory. SMART (self-monitoring and analysis reporting technology) data makes it possible to grasp the number of times each memory block is rewritten (erased) and diagnose drive status in real-time, facilitating quantitative assessment of the life spans of silicon disks used in systems. In addition, a life span assessment tool is being made publicly available for the first time in the world and can be downloaded from TDK?s website, enabling customers to monitor the life span of half slim SSDs in their systems.

The drives also feature an advanced encryption function using the 128-bit AES encryption that has been registered as United States Department of Commerce Federal Information Processing Standards FIPS PUB197. Data is automatically encrypted before writing to the Flash memory, preventing data leaks and tampering. A high level of storage security is provided to prevent unauthorized copying and other data risks by using both ATA standard security functions and an original TDK password lock function.