Samsung and Sun Microsystems announced today that they have teamed up to develop single-level-cell NAND flash memory for use in SSDs to offer much higher levels of endurance than other flash memory on the market. The relatively low endurance of flash memory compared to traditional hard drives is one of the key points holding the adoption of SSDs back for some users.

The new memory developed by Samsung offers a five times increase in data write and erase cycles over standard SLC flash memory. The memory is expected to deliver the highest endurance ever offered in 24/7 mission critical computing.

"We have been working with Sun to develop this new 8Gb server-grade SLC flash memory, which will give IT managers the best in high-density, high-endurance memory design with markedly less energy consumption than we see today," said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. "'Endurance up, power down' is going to be the mantra of IT innovators at enterprises everywhere, and server grade SLC flash is ideally situated to deliver on that equation," Elliott added.

Via Samsung