14 DAY TRIAL // Intel really wants to become a power on the SSD front, which means that it must have a roadmap clear in its mind, roadmap that has now leaked over to the web.
Being the large-scale company that it is, Intel always does benefit, or suffer, from a high level of attention from the media.
This means that information on its upcoming products tends to leak before the actual releases, either in controlled doses or not.
In this case, the entire solid state drive roadmap for 2012 has been revealed.
The Santa Clara, California-based company really seems to be pulling out all the guns, or preparing to do so.
All levels of the SSD market are targeted, the outfit aiming to launch even affordable (more or less) units, despite SSDs having a reputation for expensiveness.
The first quarter of 2012 will see the outfit selling the 520, 710 and 720 Series (Cherryville, Lyndonville and Ramsdale, respectively).
The first of these two were already launched, and Ramsdale will be joined by Hawley Creek units in the first quarter of 2012 (by March).
The Ramsdale MLC are next, set for the second quarter. They are based on 25 nm MLC-HET NAND chips instead of SLC (single-level cell), for twice the capacity at minor loss in endurance.
Furthermore, “King Crest” SSDs will succeed the Cherryville around the same time, based on the same 25 nm MLC-HET (520 use 25nm regular multi-level cell NAND).
So far, no monumental jumps in capacity are expected, but the evolution in chip technology should enable extra performance and reliability.
Two more series are featured on the roadmap: The Taylorsville and the Lincoln Crest.
The former is a successor to Lyndonville 710 and has 200 GB, 400 GB and 800 GB planned capacities, all made of MLC-HET and running on SATA 6 Gbps.
The latter is also a SATA III series, successor to the SSD 320 series and designed for the mainstream and lower.