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What did the one Toshiba desktop SSD say to the other? Our cell size has shrunk

One's capacity doubles, the other's stays virtually the same

Toshiba is busily upgrading its PC/workstation SSD line at the same time as it’s scaling back its PC product activities.

Its Q300 and Q300 Pro consumer/gamer SSDs were announced in September last year. The Q300 was a TLC (3bits/cell) unit storing 120, 240, 480 or 960GB of data while the Q300 Pro used MLC (2 bits/cel) NANd and stored 128, 256 or 512GB of data. They used, we understand, 19nm NAND, and Tosh has now upgraded them to 15nm process technology, giving them both a capacity bump.

The TLC Q300 now stores 120, 240, 480, 960 or 1024GB of data, a trifling 6.7 per cent increase, while the Pro version goes up to 1TB as well, meaning a 100 per cent increase – now we’re talking.

The random and sequential read/write performance numbers have not changed but the Q300 Pro’s endurance has. Previously it supported 160TB written over its five-year warranted life time at the then maximum 512GB capacity. That shoots up to 640TB written for the new 1TB capacity model.

Here's a table of the basic speeds and feeds:

Tosh_Q300_table

Green row for new models

The Q300 is for the PC disk replacement market, ditto the Q300 Pro, which is better suited for high-end PCs, meaning workstation and gamers' needs, according to Tosh. Both are shipping this month with purchase prices starting at a cheap £40 for a 120GB Q300 and £105 for a 256GB Q300 Pro.

Tosh_Q300s

We expect the next Q300 iteration, if there is one, to involve 3D NAND with a potential capacity doubling. ®

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