News

posted on 16 August 2008 10:12

Intel will reportedly introduce a very fast 2.5-inch SATA solid state drive (SSD) with 240/170 MB/sec sustained read/write performance later this year.

This single layer cell (SLC) X25-E will be Intel's highest-performing SSD and its most reliable with a 2 million hour MTBF (mean time between failure) rating. The IOPS ratings are 35,000 with 4Kb reads and 3,300 with 4Kb writes.

This drive joins a 2.5-inch X25-M offering 240/70 MB/sec sustained read and write performance amd 1.2 million hours MTBF. The IOPS figures are not known. A 1.8-inch X18-M has the same performance parameters.

Both the X25-M and X18-M are multi-layer cell (MLC) offerings.

Power Draw

The X25-E will draw 2.4 watts when active and 0.06W when idle. The X25-M and X18-M will draw 0.25W when active and 0.06W when idle making them very low power devices.

Capacities

The X25-E will be available, with capacities of 32GB, 64GB, and 160GB, in Q4 this year. Q3 will see an 80GB X18-M and X25-M. A 160GB X18-M is expected in Q1 2009.

Speed Race

Indilinx has announced its IDX22 'Barefoot' SSD controller offering 230MB/sec sustained read and 170MB/sec sustained write. Intel's X25-E matches the write speed and is 10MB/sec ahead on read speed.

Micron's RealSSD C200 is a multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash design with a capacity range from 32GB to 128GB in a 1.8-inch form factor and up to 256GB in a 2.5-inch form factor. It utilizes two bits per cell. Using a SATA-II interface, it has a read speed of up to 250 MB/sec and a write speed of up to 100 MB/sec. Micron's 2.5-inch RealSSD P200 has a 16GB - 128GB capacity range with sequential read speed up to 250MB/sec.

Intel's X25-E beats the C200 on write speed by a big margin but is slower on read speed.

Both Micron and Intel SSDs put a speed market down for OCZ and Super Talent.

IM Flash Technologies, the Intel and Micron joint venture has been working on advanced flash production processes. Intel also released some details of its SSD intentions in April. In February it claimed itself and Micron were working on developing the world's fastest flash memory.

More here.

These are all SATA interface SSDs and it looks as if Intel and Micron are using IM Flash Technologies output in different ways.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}