Fujitsu & Lenovo laptops pick SanDisk SSDs for caching

Fujitsu and Lenovo have chosen to use SanDisk SSDs in their portable computers, with the Fujtisu LIFEBOOK Ultrabook U772, UH772 and UH572 models to feature a 32GB SanDisk iSSD and Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430 & E530 laptops to feature the SanDisk U100 mSATA SSD. All will use the SSD in combination with Condusive Technologies ExpressCache software, where the SSD is used a cache for the much larger capacity HDD to speed up boot time, application loading and general use.

By using the SSD as a cache instead of the main OS drive, laptop and Ultrabook makers can get away with a much lower capacity SSD coupled with a large capacity HDD, while providing similar performance to having one large SSD without the cost. SanDisk has an exclusive license to sell the Condusive Technologies ExpressCache, either with SSDs as a caching solution or as a standalone product. A boot-up and application launch demo of ExpressCache can be seen on YouTube.

One drawback with having the cache SSD provided is that some computer makers are choosing to use integrated SSDs such as the Fujitsu models here. What this means is that the SSD is physically soldered on-board and cannot be upgraded or replaced, unlike an mSATA SSD. The advantage however is that it does help cut costs a little and the chip takes up a tiny fraction of the space of even a small mSATA SSD.