Boise (ID) - Micron announced a new generation of its RealSSD flash disk drives for server and notebook applications Capacities are now hitting 256 GB, but the real questions appears to be pricing and not storage space.

Micron’s new drives will come in two flavors, the P200 for servers and the C200 for notebooks. The server models will range from 16 GB to 128 GB in size in a 2.5" form factor. Micron claims that the P200 will be more than 10 times faster at accessing transactional data when compared to a typical enterprise HDD. It is promised to hit a sub-millisecond latency while a typical enterprise HDD has an average latency of approximately 8 milliseconds.

The C200 for notebooks will be available as 1.8" units with up to 128 GB of space and as 2.5" devices with up to 256 GB. Micron said that the C200 models provide a read speed of up to 250 MB/s and a write speed of up to 100 MB/s.

All new RealSSDs are sampling now with mass production expected in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Pricing remains the big mystery, as it was the case with other SSD announcements in recent history. However, industry sources told TG Daily that the time appears to be right for a substantial price adjustment in the SSD segment. Low flash prices are believed to be contributing to an environment in which major vendors are ready to compete more aggressively for consumers. Sources suggested that 128 GB and 256 GB SSDs will be in reach for enthusiasts later this year with 128 GB models falling well below the $500 mark and 256 GB versions targeting a price point "around $500".

SSD could be aiming for the first mainstream notebooks as early as 2009, sources indicated.