Watch Out, MacBook Air, Toshiba Announces Blade X-gale SSD Modules for Everyone Else

Teardowns of the new MacBook Airs have revealed that Toshiba’s flash memory is under the hood, which is what enables their instant wake capabilities and superfast boot times. And now this technology is available to all PC makers. Toshiba’s Blade X-gate SSD series features a new form factor that will  let Windows laptop manufacturers craft their own superslim Air competitors. It’s available in three capacities–64GB, 128GB, and 256GB–and it boasts maximum read and write speeds of 220 MB per second and 180 MB/s, respectively. That’s fast.

The other benefit for consumers is that MacBook Air buyers could potentially upgrade to a higher capacity, though we’re sure it’s not a simple thing to do. Toshiba also envisions its modules winding up in tablets and netbook PCs. We suspect that the drives will have to come down in price first. Overall, we’re pretty psyched that SSDs are finally starting to go mainstream. Ok, HP, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, and everyone else, get crackin’!