US memory and SSD maker Micron has announced a new SSD line – the Crucial M500. The line will consist of four different models with capacities of 120 GB, 240 GB, 480 GB and 960 GB.
As usual the Crucial M500 comes in a 2.5-inch form factor and is based on the Marvell 88SS9187-BLD2 controller and 20 nm NAND flash memory. All drives will be 7 mm thick but the 120/240/480 GB models will be available in mSATA and NGFF versions too while the most spacious 960 GB model will feature just the usual 2.5-inch form factor. Other features include support for SATA 3.0 and 256-bit AES encryption.
Now to the performance numbers – the 120 GB model is the slowest of the four with 500/130 MB/sec of read/write speed and 62K/35K of IOPS respectively. The 240 GB model is a bit faster – it offers 500/250 MB/sec of read/write speed and 72K/60K of IOPS speed. The 480 GB and 960 GB models share the same performance numbers – 500/400 MB/sec of read/write speed and 80K of IOPS for both reading and writing.
The Micron Crucial M500 drives will be commercially available in Q1 2013 but this is true for the 2.5-inch versions; drives in the mSATA and NGFF form factors will be available sometime in Q2 2013. Pricing is unknown but Micron offers a 3-year warranty if this is of any help.
Source: Micron