Sandisk postpones SSDs with capacity higher than 4TB until next year

Sandisk has confirmed that it plans to release SSDs higher than 4TB in capacity next year. The company announced this during the presentation of its quarterly figures. Such models were first planned for 2015.

This does not concern SSDs for the consumer market, but storage for the enterprise market. That is also the target group for the current Optimus Max with 4TB. These are probably models with 6TB and 8TB, both with the same SAS interface as the Optimus Max. Where the interface currently still offers 6Gbit/s, a new generation will have to boost that to 12Gbit/s. The SSDs with higher capacities are based on Toshiba memory, which is made using a 15nm process. Further details about the upcoming SSDs are still missing.

Sandisk estimates that the SSDs with capacities higher than 4TB will contribute to sales from the end of 2016, which makes it look like the SSDs will hit the market later in the year. The company previously thought it would be able to supply SSDs with 8TB from 2015, but that has not been possible. It is unknown what caused the delay.

It is not clear when SSDs with such capacities will be made available to consumers.