Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the SSDNow E50, the company's latest enterprise-class solid-state drive (SSD). SSDNow E50 enables performance-focused organizations that do not have heavy endurance needs to obtain the same enterprise-level performance as Kingston's SSDNow E100 but at a more cost-effective price point. A leader in memory solutions since 1987, Kingston will exhibit at VMworld (Booth 1647) to showcase the new drive.

SSDNow E50 allows companies to take advantage of enterprise-level SSD performance for tasks such as data caching, frequently accessed data within applications, online transactional processing and virtualization performance. SSDNow E50 helps alleviate I/O latencies and server bottlenecks by providing greater IOPS and higher bandwidth.SSDNow E50 features advanced data integrity protection via DuraWrite technology that extends the life of the SSD by effectively and efficiently reducing the number of Flash writes via an intelligent compression engine without sacrificing data integrity. RAISE reduces the number of uncorrectable errors in the drive, over and above standard error code correction. SSDNow E50 surpasses competitive market offerings with its robust intelligent power failure protection to prevent data loss in the event of a power outage or interruption.

"We found that there was a demand within our customer base and partner community for an SSD that offers enterprise-strength reliability and superior features but with lower endurance capabilities and associated costs," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "Based on this feedback, we developed SSDNow E50 and are pleased to further expand Kingston's SSD family to support the evolving needs of our customers and partners."

Kingston is celebrating 25 years in the memory industry. The company was founded on October 17, 1987, and has grown to become the largest third-party memory manufacturer in the world. The 25th anniversary video can be found here along with more information, including a timeline of Kingston's history. In addition, HyperX memory is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The first HyperX high-performance memory module was released in November 2002.

Kingston SSDNow KC300 Features & Specifications:

• Form factor: 2.5", 7 mm height
• Interface: SATA Rev. 3.0 (6 Gb/s) - with backwards compatibility to
  SATA Rev. 2.0 (3Gb/s)
• Capacities: 100 GB, 240 GB, 480 GB
• Controller: SandForce-SF2581
• Encryption: AES 128bit
• Sequential Read/Write: SATA Rev. 3.0 - 100 GB - up to 550/530 MB/s
  240 GB - up to 550/530 MB/s
  480GB - up to 530/500 MB/s
• Maximum 4k Read/ Write: 100 GB - 85,000/ 80,000 IOPS
  240 GB - 85,000/ 73,000 IOPS
  480GB - 74,000/ 36,000 IOPS
• Random 4k Read/ Write: 100 GB - 27,000/ 82,000 IOPS
  240 GB - 48,000/ 72,000 IOPS
  480 GB - 53,000/ 32,000 IOPS
• Additional Features: Enterprise SMART Tools
• Total Bytes Written (TBW):
  100 GB - 310 TB 3 DWPD
  240 GB - 739 TB 3 DWPD
  480 GB - 1747 TB 3 DWPD
• Power Consumption:
  100 GB - 1.26 W Idle / 1.28 W Avg / 1.44 W (MAX) Read / 2.32 W (MAX) Write
  240 GB - 1.25 W Idle / 1.27 W Avg / 1.43 W (MAX) Read / 2.74 W (MAX) Write
  480 GB - 1.29 W Idle / 1.31 W Avg / 1.47 W (MAX) Read / 3.2 W (MAX) Write
• Storage temperatures: 40°C ~ 85°C
• Operating temperatures: 0°C ~ 70°C
• Dimensions: 69.9 mm x 100 mm x 7 mm
• Weight: 92.34g
• Vibration operating: 2.17G Peak (7-800Hz)
• Vibration non-operating: 20G Peak (10-2000Hz)
• Life expectancy: 1 million hours MTBF
• Warranty/support: three-year warranty with free technical support