WD Launches SLC-based SSD for Heavy Duty Use

This SSD has the SLC for your serious needs.

In addition to Western Digitals launch of its consumer-oriented SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, the storage company yesterday also announced the solid-state solution for industrial uses.

WD calls it the SiliconDrive N1x, a 2.5-inch SSD that uses single-level cell (SLC) memory. The N1x SSDs feature a native SATA 3Gb/s interface with target read speeds up to 240MB/s and write transfer rates up to 140MB/s.

What's interesting to note is that WD today also launched the consumer-oriented SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, which have read speeds up to 250MB/s and write transfer rates up to 170MB/s. The difference, of course, is that the industrial N1x uses SLC while the SiliconEdge Blue models use MLC, making them not as well suited to data-intensive applications.

That point is observed on WD's estimates for operational lifespan for both drives. WD estimates that the N1x would go through a write cycle of 701.4GB per day, while the consumer SiliconEdge Blue drive would do less than a tenth of that at 70GB per day. Both drives carry the same MTBF of 1,400,000 hours.

As an OEM product, WD did not reveal pricing, but does list models of up to 128GB in capacity.