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Intel preparing to unveil 10TB SSDs (or you can pick up a 13TB drive today)

Intel, in partnership with Micron, is reported to be developing Solid State Drives (SSDs) with 10 terabytes of capacity. Or, if you have deep pockets, you can pick up a 13TB SSD today.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer
Intel preparing to unveil 10TB SSDs (or just pick up a 13TB drive today)

Want to make the switch to SSDs but feel they don't offer enough storage space? Then you might want to hold off making any purchases for a while because Intel, in partnership with Micron, is reportedly getting ready to unveil SSDs with 10TB of storage capacity.

Right now the largest SSD that Intel offers has 4TB of storage.

The increase in capacity is made possible by Micron's 3D NAND flash, which it is now able to produce in volume. Samsung and Toshiba already make use of 3D NAND flash technology in their SSDs, but neither have hit the 10TB mark.

According to Micron, 3D NAND allows for capacities of 256Gb for multilevel cell (MLC) and 384Gb triple-level cell (TLC) 3D NAND, and "enable 3.5TB gum stick-sized SSDs or more than 10TB in standard 2.5-inch SSDs."

3D NAND also offers significantly higher read/write bandwidth and I/O speeds, as well as power savings thanks to its new sleep mode feature that allows the power to be cut to inactive NAND, even when other chips in the same die are active.

If you really need a high-capacity SSD, and you need it now, then Fixstars offers a 13TB SSD that offers sequential read speeds of 580MBps and write speeds up to 520MBps. The only downside is the price, which works out at $10 per gigabyte. Doesn't sound like much until you realize there are 1,000 gigabytes in a terabyte, making this a $13,000 drive.

Fixstars also offer SSDs in 3, 6, and 10TB options too, at a more reasonable price.

See also:

Best high-performance storage devices: April 2015

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