Sandisk launches new pSSDs and SDHC cards for netbooks

Sandisk has revealed some new solid-state drives as well as SDHC cards targeted to netbooks. Sandisk has always been keen to add prefixes to its SSDs, we have previously had the Sandisk uSSD range (quarter the size of a 1.8-inch SSD), and now Sandisk has announced its second-generation pSSD drives.

These pSSDs (parallel ATA solid state drives) feature new technology called nCache, which supports burst performance up to five times the steady to enhance the user experience. This prevents the incidence of “stalling” or “shuddering” often seen in first generation netbook SSDs. As nCache is non-volatile, the user’s data is also protected in the event of a power interruption.

The P2 and S2 pSSDs offer 9,000 vRPM (virtual revolutions per minute) of steady state performance, with nCache pushing this rate beyond this and offers a non-volatile cache of up to 320MB. These new pSSDs will be available in capacities of 8, 16, 32 and 64GB, although prices have yet to be disclosed.

“SanDisk pSSD drives with nCache offer up to 50 times the random write performance of our first generation SSDs, delivering on the SSD promise for netbooks,” said Doreet Oren, director of Sandisk product marketing.

Sandisk has also announced some netbook-specific SD cards that seem to be just normal SD cards but with a high price tag. These netbook SDHC cards are priced at $39.99 for 8GB and $79.99 for 16GB.