WD today announced that the company is shipping its first consumer-oriented solid state drive (SSD) with the new WD SiliconEdge 2.5-inch SSD family.

WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, in capacities up to 256 gigabytes (GB), feature a native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface with read speeds up to 250 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write transfer rates up to 170 MB/s.

The new WD SiliconEdge Blue product family has passed WD's functional integrity testing procedures, which subjected the WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs to over 250,000 hours of testing to ensure they meet the industry's highest data integrity, reliability and compatibility standards. Designed for both read-intensive client/consumer applications and write-intensive, 24/7 OEM applications, WD's new multi-level cell (MLC) -based SSDs feature patented and patent-pending technologies, such as wear-leveling and error correction control, as well as TRIM and NCQ (Native Command Queuing) command support.

WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs are available through select distributors and resellers. The manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP) for WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD 64 GB (model SSC-D0064SC-2100) capacity is $279.00, the 128 GB (model SSC-D0128SC-2100) capacity is $529.00 and the 256 GB (SSC-D0256SC-2100) capacity is $999.00 USD. The WD SiliconEdge Blue drive comes with a three-year limited warranty.

WD SiliconDrive N1x SSDs for Embedded System OEM Applications

WD is also shipping its new high performance WD SiliconDrive N1x 2.5-inch solid state drive (SSD) family. The new SSDs feature fast read/write speeds in high capacities and are designed for embedded system OEM applications. The single-level cell (SLC) -based WD SiliconDrive N1x SSDs complements the multi-level cell (MLC) -based WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs.

WD SiliconDrive N1x SSD products feature a native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface with target read speeds up to 240 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write transfer rates up to 140 MB/s in capacities up to 128 gigabytes (GB). The WD SiliconDrive N1x products also feature WD's Speed Assurance technology for consistent read/write performance.

The WD SiliconDrive N1x SSDs feature patented and patent-pending WD technologies combined with Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and Windows 7 TRIM command support for high data integrity, long product life and sustained performance levels throughout the drive's service life without the need for an external refresh utility, media over-provisioning or forced idle times used by many SSDs available today.

The WD SiliconDrive N1x SSD comes with a five-year limited warranty.