At the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung announced that it has developed a multi-level cell (MLC) flash-based 128 Gigabyte (GB) solid state drive (SSD) that it will produce this year in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch versions for notebook and desktop PCs, as well as other mobile applications.

The new drive offers a data writing speed of 70 megabytes per second (MB/s), the industry’s highest for MLC-based SSDs. Samsung’s 128GB SSD reads data at 100MB/s.

The 128GB SSDs will be available in a thin-standard 1.8-inch version that is five millimeters thick, to spur the design of thinner ultra-mobile PCs, in addition to a conventional 1.8-inch version for mobile consumer applications and a 2.5-inch version for standard-sized notebooks.

Featuring a 3.0 gigabit-per-second SATA II interface, the new 128GB SSD uses native command queuing and spread-spectrum clocking to add to its higher performance levels. It also features device/host-initiated power management for an exceptionally low power consumption level of 0.5W in active mode.

Samsung expects to begin mass producing its 128GB SSD in the first half of 2008.