Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the immediate availability of the Crucial® M500 solid state drive (SSD). Featuring terabyte-class capacity, increased response times, and an advanced feature set, the Crucial M500 SSD is available now through select global channel partners and at www.crucial.com/ssd.   The 2.5-inch drives are available in 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB capacities with MSRPs of $129.99, $219.99, $399.99, and $599.99, respectively.

Dramatically faster than a hard drive, the Crucial M500 SSD enables users to boot up their systems almost instantaneously, provides ample storage and powerful data transfer speeds, and easily addresses the multitasking demands of today's applications. Using  Micron's 20nm MLC NAND flash, a SATA 6Gb/s controller combined with Micron's custom firmware to deliver up to 80,000  input/output operations per second (IOPS), the drive's sequential read and  write speeds reach up to 500 MB/s and 400 MB/s, respectively.¹

The Crucial M500 SSD incorporates features important for data protection and reliability, such as hardware-based encryption that meets TCG Opal 2.0 and  IEEE 1667 standards (TCG Opal 2.0 + IEEE 1667) when combined with appropriate  software², thermal management technology, protection against unexpected power-loss, and  advanced error recovery techniques. In addition, the  drive offers device sleep (DEVSLP), which increases system battery life while  maintaining system responsiveness. This feature enables the drive to draw less  than 5 milliwatts of power while the system is in sleep mode— a 93% power  improvement compared to Crucial's previous-generation drives.³

"We designed the Crucial M500 to  meet the reliability and performance expectations of today's systems, and are  thrilled to offer the first terabyte-class. SSD for under $600," said Robert  Wheadon, senior worldwide product manager, Crucial. "The Crucial M500 is  equipped with an impressive new set of features, making it a multifaceted solution  for today and tomorrow."

Leveraging the industry-leading  memory, design, and manufacturing capability of Micron Technology, the Crucial  M500 is compatible with both PC and Mac® systems, and is backed by a limited three-year warranty. The  2.5 form factor is available in 7mm height and comes with a 9.5mm bracket. M.2 form  factors are expected to be available in the second quarter of 2013.