TDK has developed the mSATA SMG3B series of SSDs with
support for 3 Gbps serial ATA. The products will be
available from July 2012.
Designed for industrial applications, the SMG3B series
drives measure only about 30 mm x 50 mm and offer
storage capacities up to 64 GB. The mSATA implementation
achieves actual read access speed of 170 MB per second
and a 70 MB/sec write speed. The mSATA standard,
established by the Serial ATA International Organization
(SATA IO), was initially adopted mainly for digital
consumer products such as tablet computers and netbooks.
Because of its space-saving advantages, the standard is
now gaining increased acceptance also for social
infrastructure equipment and smart grid applications.
The SMG3B series uses the TDK original SSD controller
GBDriver RS3 , featuring error correction expandable to
44-bit ECC. Data reliability has been enhanced thanks to
a sophisticated power interruption data preservation
algorithm and the auto refresh function. Another special
feature is the data randomizer that varies data patterns
during writing to reduce the risk of bit errors.
The SSD is using Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND type flash
memory. Along with a global static wear leveling
capability, the SSD achieves a storage life that meets
the requirements of industrial equipment characterized
by high usage frequency and long service periods.
The ATA standard security functions of the SMG3B series
allow the user to set a password to counter the risk of
data leaks, tampering, or unauthorized copying. AES
128-bit encryption used when writing data to the flash
memory, makes it impossible to analyze data by reverse
engineering. The ATA Trim command also allows complete
data erasure which is vital when re-placing or
discarding a drive.