Lite-On to Unveil Zeta Solid State Drive for Consumers at CES

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Look for Lite-On to light up the SSD scene

Tired of seeing the same old players participate in the solid state drive wars? If so, you'll be glad to know another warrior is entering the battlefield. That warrior is Lite-On, and come CES, the company that's perhaps best known for manufacturing affordable optical drives (dating back to when optical drives weren't necessarily affordable) will try its hand at making consumer grade SSDs.
The company partially spilled the beans in a press release on its website, saying it will unveil "ultra high-speed" SSDs featuring True Speed Technology.
"TrueSpeed is a technology that works to prevent the drastic write speed degradation that can occur with SSDs and delivers highly stabilized long-term performance, which provides enterprise, corporate, and OEM customers with a real-world performance advantage," Lite-On explained.
Chinese-language website expreview.com tipped the can all the way over and spilled the rest of the beans. If the site's information proves accurate, Lite-On's first consumer SSD will be called Zeta. It will use Hynix 16nm MLC flash memory and come in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities. All three will offer up to 520MB/s read transfers, while write speeds will be rated at up to 150MB/s for the 128GB model, 290MB/s for the 256GB model, and 430MB/s for the 512MB model.
Lite-On isn't going after the speed crown obviously, and instead is focusing on price. While it's early, pricing at the moment looks to convert to around $71 (128GB), $129 (256GB) and $258 (512GB) -- respectable, though not spectacular by any means. Here's crossing our fingers that domestic and street pricing end up a bit lower.
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