SANDISK G3 SOLID STATE DRIVE SHIPS TO RETAILERS
Reliable SanDisk G3 SSD Opens Files up to Twice as Fast and
is More Rugged
Compared to a 7,200 RPM Hard Disk Drive
Milpitas, Calif., February 23, 2010
- SanDisk
Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), the global leader in flash memory
cards, today announced that it has begun shipping its SanDisk® G3 Solid State Drives
(SSD) to retailers in North America and Europe. The flash
memory-based SanDisk G3 SSD offers a compelling alternative to a
7,200 RPM Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for many customers - including
do-it-yourself enthusiasts, IT managers or anyone seeking increased
durability and performance with high reliability.
"Our rugged drive enables a superior
customer experience by delivering extended endurance and fast
performance in a resilient SSD design," said Eric Bone, vice
president, retail product marketing, SanDisk. "SanDisk believes in
an uncompromising development approach which insists that an SSD's
long term reliability and durability are just as important as its
overall speed. We're leveraging our long history of flash memory
and retail expertise to bring the SanDisk G3 SSD to market."
- Long-term reliability: The 120 gigabyte
(GB)* SanDisk G3 SSD can endure up to 80 terabytes (TB)*
of data written to it over its lifetimeiv. The solid state drive
uses a smart flash management system called ExtremeFFSTM technology
that has the potential to accelerate random write performance and
thus extend the endurance of SanDisk G3 SSDs inside computers that
use operating systems such as Microsoft Windows XP and Windows
7v
- Rugged durability: SanDisk G3 SSD uses no
moving parts, enabling improved durability that helps resist drive
damage. Backed by rigorous shock and vibration testing procedures
and a 10-year limited warrantyii, the drive offers some
of the best-in-class quality assurance that could only come from a
trusted leader in flash memory.
- Fast performance: SanDisk G3 SSD opens files
up to twice as fast as a 7,200 RPM HDDi, so users can enjoy faster
boot-ups and improved system responsiveness. SanDisk G3 SSD has
sequential performance of up to 220 megabytes per second (MB/sec)
read speediii and up to 120MB/sec write
speediii.
- Lower maintenance costs: By replacing standard
HDDs with SanDisk G3 SSDs, users can defer laptop purchase costs
and reduce maintenance requests associated with disk drive
failure.
SanDisk G3 SSD is Microsoft Windows 7
certified and is compatible with Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard as
well as Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux. The drive also
supports the newest Windows 7 TRIM feature, which contributes to a
substantial gain in the SanDisk G3 SSD's performance by allowing
the drive to continuously manage its resources and retain optimized
performance throughout its lifespan.
SanDisk G3 SSD is available now at www.sandisk.com via the U.S. and
UK e-commerce sites in 60GB and 120GB capacities with prices of
$229.99 and $399.99 respectively. The drive will be available at
retailers in North America and Europe soon, with exact pricing to
be set by retailers.
About SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is the global
leader in flash memory cards, from research, manufacturing and
product design to consumer branding and retail distribution.
SanDisk's product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile
phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video
players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise;
embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for
computers. SanDisk is a
Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company, with more than half its
sales outside the United States.
i Based on SanDisk
internal testing using Microsoft Windows Performance Tool Kit.
Performance varies depending upon OS and application. Platform:
Intel Core 2 Processor E8400, 2GB DDR2; OS: Microsoft Windows 7
Ultimate; HDD: Seagate HDD 7200.4 RPM 250 GB; SSD: G3 RC304
60GB
ii 10 Year warranty in regions not recognizing
limited warranty.
iii Based on SanDisk internal testing; performance
may be lower depending upon host device. 1 megabyte (MB) = 1
million bytes.
* 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. 1 terabyte
(TB) = 1 trillion bytes.
iv Based on 120 GB G3 SSD; Approximations based on
LDE (Long-term Data Endurance) - an industry metric, introduced by
SanDisk, that quantifies how much data can be written to a SSD in
its lifespan expressed in terabytes written (TBW). Data is written
using typical PC transfer size, written at a constant rate over the
life of the SSD, and data is retained for at least 1 year upon LDE
exhaustion. Based on SanDisk internal measurements, a typical
client PC user writes 4GB/day.
v ExtremeFFS is a SanDisk page-based flash
management algorithm, optimized for popular operating systems, has
the potential to greatly increase SSD random write speeds and
efficiency thus accelerating the performance and extending the
endurance of SSDs inside PCs.
SanDisk's product and executive
images can be downloaded from:
http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/media.asp
SanDisk's web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com
© 2010 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk
and the SanDisk logo are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation,
registered in the United States and other countries. ExtremeFFS is
a trademark of SanDisk Corporation. Other brand names mentioned
herein are for identification purposes only and may be the
trademarks of their respective holder (s).
This press release contains certain
forward-looking statements, including expectations for new product
introductions, specifications, applications, markets, and customers
that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous
risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking
statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these
forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others:
market demand for our products may grow more slowly than our
expectations or there may be a slower adoption rate for these
products in new markets that we are targeting, our products may not
perform as expected or may not be available at the prices, in the
regions, in the capacities or at the time expected and the other
risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange
Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our
most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent quarterly
reports on Form 10-Q. We do not intend to update the information
contained in this press release.