SanDisk's 2nd-Gen pSSD Used In Sony's Slim VAIO X Notebook

Two things we like are solid state drives and skinny notebooks, so you can only imagine our excitement over this one. Sony's super-slim, highly stylish VAIO X laptop is relying on SanDisk's modular SSD, giving this thing an extra boost of speed it may otherwise miss out on. We've shown time and time again in testing that SSD-based machines are far quicker and much more enjoyable to use then HDD-based rigs, so we think Sony's making a smart move by incorporating this one into a machine that'll undoubtedly get a lot of attention.

SanDisk's second-generation pSSD Solid State Drive (64GB) has been selected for use in the VAIO X, and given its diminutive size (54mm x 32mm x 4.4mm), the 7.1-gram device is a perfect fit. In addition, the drive’s power consumption (average power of 0.15W2) is significantly lower than that of a traditional hard disk drive. SanDisk pSSD Gen2 drives support Windows XP, Linux, and Windows 7, the OS of choice for the Sony VAIO X laptop.

SanDisk’s modular solid state drive, SanDisk pSSD, offers 9,000 vRPM³ of performance and has the added benefit of employing nCache™ technology, a large non-volatile write cache technology that boosts burst random write performance up to three times over steady state performance and up to 20 times faster than pSSD Gen1 to further enhance the user experience⁴. nCache technology improves user responsiveness and helps prevent incidence of drive "stalling".

“The release of Sony's VAIO X symbolizes a market shift towards pioneering flash-based laptop designs, eliminating the weight and size constraints of the legacy hard disk drive,” said Doreet Oren, director product marketing, solid state drives, SanDisk. “The SanDisk pSSD drive enables laptops to be thinner and lighter, while eliminating the mechanical slow downs and malfunctions most commonly attributed to the hard disk drive.”

“The selection of SanDisk pSSD drives by tier-1 OEMs for the newest small, thin and light-weight laptop designs is a vote of confidence for not only SanDisk solutions, but also for the potential of SSDs to move the computing market light years forward,” said Jim McGregor, analyst at In-Stat, a Reed Business independent industry research firm. “PC OEMs understand the performance and power consumption benefits of SSDs and are working hard to bring these solutions quickly and affordably to the end user.”