Toshiba Begins Mass Production Of MLC NAND Solid State Drives

Toshiba Begins Mass Production Of MLC NAND Solid State Drives

128GB MLC NAND Drive is the Largest Capacity SSD to be Featured in a Notebook PC

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IRVINE, Calif., March 18, 2008 — Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)* announced today that Toshiba Corp.’s first multi-level cell (MLC) NAND-flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs) have started mass production. The initial models to begin shipping this month are 128GB1 drives in a lightweight, 15 gram embedded module form factor.

“Our first customer for these drives will be the PC Division of Toshiba Corp., in Japan, which will be the first to feature a 128GB SSD in a notebook PC2, said Scott Nelson, vice president, memory for TAEC. “We believe that Toshiba MLC SSDs offer the right mix of cost and performance to satisfy today’s demanding storage requirements for notebooks and Ultra Mobile PCs.”

To achieve performance levels of 100MB/second read and 40MB/second write in these first generation drives, Toshiba utilized a SATA II interface and an innovative MLC controller supporting fast read-write speed, parallel data transfer, and wear-leveling. As a result, Toshiba SSDs achieve overall PC Benchmark scores that are better than 5400 rpm and 7200rpm HDDs and comparable to selected SATA SLC NAND SSDs3 . The SSD drives excel in Windows Vista™ boot speed, application loading, general usage and virus scan operations. Compared to hard disk drives, SSDs realize a number of advantages that address needs in the mobile computing market for performance, ruggedness, and lightweight, compact form factors. For more information on the Toshiba SSD product family, please visit ssd.toshiba.com.

The Toshiba 64GB embedded module MLC NAND SSD is also ready for mass production. Additional models in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch drive enclosures are scheduled to sample next month.

*About Toshiba Corp. and TAEC

Through proven commitment, lasting relationships and advanced, reliable electronic components, Toshiba enables its customers to create market-leading designs. Toshiba is the heartbeat within product breakthroughs from OEMs, ODMs, CMs, distributions and fabless chip companies worldwide. A committed electronic components leader, Toshiba designs and manufactures high-quality flash memory-based storage solutions, discrete devices, displays, advanced materials, medical tubes, custom SoCs/ASICs, digital multimedia and imaging products, microcontrollers and wireless components that make possible today’s leading cell phones, MP3 players, cameras, medical devices, automotive electronics and more.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, Japan ‘s largest semiconductor manufacturer and the world’s third largest semiconductor manufacturer (Gartner, 2007 WW Semiconductor Revenue Estimate, Dec. 2007). For additional company and product information, please visit http://www.toshiba.com/taec/ .

1 When used herein in relation to memory density, gigabyte and/or GB means 1,024×1,024×1,024 = 1,073,741,824 bytes. Usable capacity may be less. For details, please refer to specifications.

2As of the date of this announcement.

3Based on internal test results from Toshiba Corp.

Information in this press release, including product pricing and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current and believed to be accurate on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice. Technical and application information contained here is subject to the most recent applicable Toshiba product specifications. In developing designs, please ensure that Toshiba products are used within specified operating ranges as set forth in the most recent Toshiba product specifications and the information set forth in Toshiba’s “Handling Guide for Semiconductor Devices,” or “Toshiba Semiconductor Reliability Handbook.” This information is available at chips.toshiba.com or from your TAEC representative.

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