Western Digital launches its first SSD

Posted on 4 Mar 2010 at 14:55

Hard disk manufacturer Western Digital has launched its first range of solid state disks (SSDs).

The SiliconEdge Blue series of SSDs are Western Digital's first range of solid state disks. SSDs tend to be more reliable than hard disks since they don't have moving parts.

Western Digital claims its new SSDs have write speeds of 170MB/s and read speeds of 250MB/s – far faster than any hard disk. These aren't the fastest claimed speeds for an SSD though – Corsair claims its just announced Force series SSDs have write speeds of 260MB/s and read speeds of 280MB/s thanks to an integrated SandForce SF-1200 processor

64GB, 128GB and 256GB versions of the SiliconEdge Blue will be available but they won't be cheap. Although UK pricing has yet to be confirmed, the 64GB model will cost US$279 (approx. £185), the 128GB model will go for US$529 (approx. £350) while the 256GB version cost an eye-watering US$999 (or around £660).

Now that Western Digital has entered the SSD market, Hitachi is the only remaining major hard disk manufacturer that doesn't sell SSDs. Memory manufacturers, such as Corsair and OCZ, have been more aggressive than hard disk manufacturers in the SSD market, selling mostly to early adopters. It will be interesting to see if this early lead will help the memory manufacturers dominate the SSD market at the expense of the hard disk companies.

Author: Alan Lu

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