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Report: MacBook Air slated for updated storage tech

The upcoming MacBook Air is rumored to get new storage technology--this is in addition to new Intel processors and a Thunderbolt connector.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

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Brooke Crothers

July 4, 2011 8:15 p.m. PT

Apple's upcoming refresh of the MacBook Air will get more than just new Intel processors. A Japanese report says the flash drives will get updated storage tech too.

Apple's flash drives--also referred to as solid-state drives or SSDs--in the upcoming MacBook Air will use a technology called "Toggle Mode Double Data Rate NAND Flash" 2.0 (Toggle DDR 2.0) according to Macotakara, a Japanese-language Apple enthusiast Web site.

The standard is supported by Toshiba and Samsung. Both companies currently supply flash drives for the MacBook Air.

Upcoming MacBook Air will adopt new storage interface tech, according to a report. Apple

Here's how Toshiba describes the technology: "Toggle Mode NAND is a DDR NAND solution designed to consume less power than synchronous DDR NAND flash by eliminating the clock signal typically used in synchronous DDR memories."

Samsung has a similar description of the technology.

The Toggle DDR 2.0 specification also provides faster access (read) and recording (write) times, according to Samsung and Toshiba, with about a three-fold speed increase over the 1.0 spec.

The updated MacBook Air is expected this month, packing Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt connectors, matching similar updates on the MacBook Pros earlier in the year.

Via AppleInsider