Other World Computing has recently broken the news about the release of the 6G Mercury Aura Pro Express, a 2011 MacBook Air replacement SSD which completely utilizes the 6Gbps SATA interface. It is available in 120GB and 240GB capacities. These new drives are a combination of a SandForce 2200 series controller and Tier 1/Grade A NAND memory which helps them to easily achieve a reading speed of 507MB/s and writing speed of 454MB/s making these almost twofold faster than the stock drive in MBAs.

Apple’s current MacBook Airs come with SATA 3Gbps SSDs and it doesn’t at all promote SATA 6Gbps even when the hardware has a support for it. As the non-standard SSD form factor is used by the ultra thin and light notebook, this disapproves the usage of the typical 2.5 inch drives available on the market as a replacement.

OWC claims that the new Aura Pro Express 6G SSD is going to be the first and only available 6Gbps SSD available on the market which is especially designed in such a way that it works well with the 11.1 inch as well as 13.3 inch models of Apple’s new MacBook Air.

Company also claims that the data protection that it provides is about 100 times more than what is provided by the ordinary SSD available in the market as it combines the highest level of Error Correction Code and SandForce RAISE technology together with an over-provisioning of about 7%.

The 120GB model is available at $345 and the 240GB model is priced at $600. There is also a plan of bringing out a model of 480GB capacity meant for 2011 MacBook Air, its launch date has not yet been announced.

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