BOISE, Idaho and GLASGOW, United Kingdom, April 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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.

Follow us online!

Crucial

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/crucialmemory
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/crucialmemory
• YouTube™: www.youtube.com/crucialmemory

About Crucial

Crucial is a global brand of Micron Consumer Products Group, a division of a subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc., one of the largest memory manufacturers in the world. Crucial® products include award-winning solid state drives (SSD) and DRAM for more than 50,000 desktops, laptops, servers, workstations, and other systems. Crucial products are available worldwide at leading retail and e-tail stores, commercial resellers, and system integrators who can be found at www.crucialproducts.com. For more information or support, visit www.crucial.com.

About Micron

Micron Technology, Inc., is one of the world's leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions. Through its worldwide operations, Micron manufactures and markets a full range of DRAM, NAND and NOR flash memory, as well as other innovative memory technologies, packaging solutions and semiconductor systems for use in leading-edge computing, consumer, networking, embedded and mobile products. Micron's common stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the MU symbol. To learn more about Micron, visit www.micron.com.

©2013 Micron Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Information is subject to change without notice. Crucial and the Crucial logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micron Technology, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

¹Based on 480GB and 960GB capacities.

²When combined with software applications, including Microsoft® BitLocker with Windows 8 Pro/Enterprise/RT or Wave® Systems' EMBASSY® Trust suite

³Comparing Micron and Crucial 240GB M500 SSD with device sleep to Micron and Crucial 256GB C400/m4SSD