SSDs the size of a postage stamp coming soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- One-terabyte (TB) solid state drives (SSDs) are expected to be released in a couple of years, and they will be about the size of the average postage stamp.

A team of Japanese researchers from Toshiba and the Keio University in Tokyo, led by Professor Tadahiro Kuroda, claims to have developed a technique that will reduce the size of SSDs by around 90 per cent. Not only that, but the technology also increases their energy efficiency by 70 per cent and makes them cheaper to manufacture.

A prototype of the new SSD consists of one controller chip and 128 NAND flash memory chips. The data transfer speed is said to be 2 GB per second, and Nikkei said that since the system is based on radio communication its production costs are lower. All this could help SSDs become the standard system for data storage in the future.

The SSDs are expected to be available commercially in 2012, and by then their specifications may have improved even further. Their expected retail price is unknown at this stage.