Lite-On brings SSDs to the UK

Lite-On has announced it is bringing its solid state drives(SSDs) to the UK with the launch of its E200 range.

Aimed at the small and medium business (SMB) users, the company claims the products were designed with easy integration into existing systems in mind, at an affordable price although the actual pricing has yet to be confirmed by the company.

"With the E200 we aim to challenge the concept that SSDs are an unaffordable luxury for SMBs," said Maarten Souren, Marketing Manager atLite-On.

With the E200 we aim to challenge the concept that SSDs are an unaffordable luxury for SMB.

"Our aim is that smaller companies will be able to experience the increased speed and performance that a fast SSD provides."

The internal SSDs measure 2.5 inches and come with a 3.5 inch mounting bracket. There will be two capacities on sale, giving customers a choice of 80GB or 160GB.

Sequential read speeds are said it supports to be 503Mbps, with write speeds hitting 256Mbps, whilst random read speeds measure up to 71,000 IOPS and random write speeds achieving up to 64,000 IOPS. The drive can be plugged into a SATA 6Gbps bus (otherwise known as SATAIII).

A common issue with SSDs though is how much their performance decreases over time. Lite-On is looking to combat this with its "True Speed" certification. This ties up a Marvell controller with Instant Restore in the firmware and identifies any spare capacity, allowing data storage to be optimised.

This function carries on in the background, with no need to attach to the operating system and no administrative involvement, extending its lifetime significantly, according to the firm.

"The E200 can be used as a replacement drive in a new build or as a boot drive in an existing system," concluded a statement from Lite-On.

"Installation is as simple as fitting a hard drive, making it a fast, cost-effective way to upgrade system performance with minimal disruption to the office environment."

The SSDs will go on sale in April and will be available in the UK through CCI Distribution, Ingram Micro, Avnet and Enta.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.