Intel Ships X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SSDs

Santa Clara-based leading chip maker Intel announced yesterday that it had started shipping its highly anticipated solid state drives, based on multi-level cell NAND flash technology. The new drives are available for both desktop and notebook systems, and have been designed to bring a whole new level of system performance in a rugged and low-power package that, Intel claims, can replace current traditional hard drives.

 

The new X18-M and X25-M SSDs will be offered in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, and are capable of delivering several main features compared with traditional hard drives, including faster overall system response, boot and resume times. As its competitors, Intel claims that the new drives can work in cooler and quieter conditions, being a more reliable solution than standard HDDs. As the company’s internal testing shows, the new X18-M and X25-M drives increase storage system performance by up to nine times, compared with traditional hard disk drive performance.

 

“Validated by our rigorous testing and OEM customer feedback, we believe that we have developed an SSD that delivers on the promises of SSD computing,” said Randy Wilhelm, Intel vice president and general manager of the NAND Products Group. “By combining our experience in flash memory design with our processor and computing expertise, we have added advances such as our parallel 10-channel architecture, proprietary controller, firmware and memory management algorithms that address write amplification and wear leveling issues to redefine SSD performance and reliability for computing platforms.”

 

Aside from the features the drives bring, users should expect the new 18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs to become available in 80GB and 160GB capacities, in Q4 this year. The 80GB drives boast a maximum read speed of 250MB/s and up to 70MB/s write speed for a price tag of $595 (in 1,000 units quantities).

 

Intel has also announced that it’s planning to release a new line of single-level cell (SLC) SSDs, designed for server, storage and enterprise environments. Expected to be introduced within 90 days, the new X25-E Extreme SATA SSD has been designed to improve IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) level.