pureSilicon has just announced the expansion of its SSD offer with the new Renegade R2 family of ruggedized drives. Coming in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors and 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256GB capacities, the drives use 34nm SLC (single-level cell) NAND flash memory chips, SATA 3.0 Gbps or PATA connection interfaces, and deliver sequential read and write speeds of 255 MB/s and 180 MB/s, respectively.

The R2 models also feature a hard-anodized aluminum unibody enclosure and top-notch components which enable it to resist high temperatures, shocks, vibrations and humidity, and will be available (optionally) with the SiPher technology providing hull-disk hardware 256-bit AES encryption.

"pureSilicon is dedicated to providing high-performance, rugged storage solutions to the defense, military, industrial, and government markets," said Jason Breakstone, founder and CEO of pureSilicon. "While many SSD manufacturers are focusing their efforts on the mass consumer markets, pureSilicon is committed to designing and delivering technologies that will provide significant benefits to our customers such as full-disk encryption and data declassification methods. Renegade R2 is designed to operate in the harshest conditions."

The 2.5-inch 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128GB Renegade R2 models have now started shipping, while the 256GB SATA, as well as the PATA 1.8-inch, and SiPher-equipped drives are slated for a Q1 2010 arrival.