The Solid State Drive, or SSD, appears to be the future of Apple devices, including the recently updated MacBook Air. Toshiba, the maker of the SSD in the razor-thin MBA is making the Blade X-gale series more widely available. The drives – just around 2.2mm thick – are available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB configurations to resellers and bulk purchasers.
“Delivering a product that enables superior user experience in a smaller footprint is the ultimate goal,” said Scott Nelson, vice president, Memory Business Unit, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. A denser memory module permits the smaller size, Nelson explained.
Solid state drives permit ‘instant-on’ performance. However, traditional hard drive manufacturers complain Apple’s move toward flash memory drives for the MacBook Air, iPad and other devices amounts to a “stab in the back.” While flash drive maker San Disk is enjoying an upswing in demand, Seagate and Western Digital are struggling to stay afloat in a changing market, according to the Wall Street Journal.
