Toshiba outs blade-type SSDs for mobile devices

If you glance quickly at the new blade-type SSDs that Toshiba is showing off today they look like normal sticks of RAM. Look closer and you will notice the little SATA connector on the end for plugging into the SATA sockets on small and portable devices and gadgets of all types. The new SSDs are in the Blade X-gale series.

Toshiba offers the SSDs in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities and they are very thin. The SSDs measure in at 24mm W x 2.2mm H x 108.9mm L in the 64GB and 128GB versions with the 256GB version slightly larger at 24mm W x 3.7mm H x 108.9mm L. The two smaller capacity drives are 9.8g in weight and the 256GB version is 13.2g.

The mean time between failure for the SSDs is 1 million writes. Those small dimensions are 42% thinner than the typical mSATA SSD meaning that they can fit into the crazy thin new machines with profiles like the MacBook Air and still give you lots of storage. The SSDs are good for read speed of up to 220MB/s and writes at up to 180MB/s.