The manufacturer of memory modules, drives, and flash cards – Apacer has announced new Serial ATA Flash Drive (SAFD) 254 and 254-M. The company has claimed that the SAFD 254 is going to be the industry’s only SSD solution to provide high capacity and withstand a wide range of operating temperatures.

The SAFD 254 will come equipped with stacking technology, making it capable of withstanding a wide range of operating temperatures. It will come with 128GB capacity. The NAND SLC memory of the drive will offer read/write speed of up to 150/130 MB/sec. The SAFD 254 will be suitable for using in tough conditions of military, aeronautics, aviation, and oil well drilling industries.

The SAFD 254 will feature life enhancing global wear leveling technology, which is used in stabilizing uneven wear on the flash media memory sectors. It will also feature Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) to provide interface facilitating quick display of important information. It will cut the risk of data losses due to unpredicted disk damages, and will inform users to backup their data and system.

The SAFD 254 will come with data saving system in the form of built-in low power detector, which starts caching content saving when the power supply gets low. The drive’s SSD+ optimizer with the help of InvisiTasking technology will work alongside the main operation to detect errors without hampering the main operation. It will help in providing quickest read/write output and increasing the durability of the SSD. The drive will also come with SSD Optimizer software for maintaining the long term peak operational performance.

Apacer has announced Multi-Level Cell SAFD254-M for usage in notebooks, netbooks and MID products. The Multi-Level Cell SAFD254-M will have read/write speed of 150/90 MB/sec with capacity ranging from 8GB to 128GB. The drive will be well equipped with impact-resistant capabilities to withstands bangs and hits, and prevent data losses due to sudden accidents. It will use minimum electricity.  

The operating temperatures of the new Apacer drives will be ranging from 0°C to 70°C, while storage temperature will be ranging from -40°C ~ + 100°C. The drives will consume 400mA in active mode, and they will consume 140mA in Idle mode. The drives will be able to withstand humidity ranging from 5% to 95%. The SAFD 254 128GB extended temperature model will be available for US $900 (approx Rs. 44,467). The company is expected to start the production of the drives in second quarter of 2009.