Editor Note: After this article was published we learned that TRIM was not working on our test system at the time the Extreme 240GB was tested. A follow up article has been published with accurate benchmarks. Please read it here.

Introduction

Just last week we saw the Plextor M3, the first solid state drive to use new Toshiba 24nm Toggle Mode flash. The Plextor paired the most advanced flash available today with an aging Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 controller and still achieved very good results. In that review we concluded the Plextor M3 was one of the first Marvell based products to compete head to head with the high performance SandForce SF-2281 drives.

For almost a year now SandForce toured with a SF-2281 controlled drive sporting 24nm Toggle Mode flash. The prototype was shown at Flash Memory Summit, Intel Developers Forum, LSI AIS and finally at CES 2012. It wasn't like this day was a big secret, but none the less, 24nm is now here. Today we get to see the latest evolution for high-end Team SandForce.

SanDisk 24nm synchronous Toggle Mode HBL NAND Flash???

I think by now most of our regular readers know about IMFT, Intel and Micron's joint flash venture. Toshiba and SanDisk have teamed up as well. Flash Forward, LTD celebrated the opening of Fab 5, a 300mm flash memory fabrication facility in Japan, back in July. Flash Forward is owned by Toshiba (50.1%) and SanDisk (49.9%). This puts SanDisk in a good position when it comes to manufacturing SSDs.

SanDisk 24nm Toggle Mode flash is the successor to the Toshiba 32nm Toggle Mode flash that was first introduced on many enthusiast class SandForce SATA III SSDs in 2011. Don't think Flash Forward is stopping at 24nm, they are already working on 19nm with parts sampling as I type this.