14 DAY TRIAL // Last year, Intel has let us know that 2011 will mark the arrival of the third generation of X25-M solid state drives, dubbed Postville Refresh, and latest reports suggest that these new mainstream drives are scheduled for a mid-April launch.
Just as it was the case with Intel's high performance 510-series solid state disks, the news comes to us via the VR-Zone website, which, yet again was tipped by Intel regarding the release date of the drives.
When released, these drives will replace the current models that are to be found in the X25-M series and, just as their predecessors, are packed inside a 2.5-inch enclosure which makes them compatible with a wide range of notebook and desktop systems.
As far as performance is concerned, Intel says the SSDs can reach sequential read speeds of up to 250MB/sec while the sequential write speed is rated at 170MB/sec.
In terms or IOPS performance, the new drives are expected to reach up to 50K IOPS when random 4K reads are performed and a maximum of 40K IOPS in 4K random write scenarios.
The drive's lifespan is estimated to vary between 30TB and 60TB worth of 4KB random writes.
To put things into perspective, the current Intel X25-M Postville SSDs can reach sequential write speeds of “only”100MB/s, the 4K random read/write performance is estimated at 35K/8.6K IOPS and their lifespan varies between 7.5TB and 15TB worth of 4KB random writes.
Contrary to the current X25-M SSD family, the third generation drives will use 25nm MLC NAND flash manufactured by IMFT (a joint venture between Intel and Micron)
The Postville Refresh drives will be available in 40GB, 80GB, 160GB, 300GB and 600GB capacities.
No details regarding pricing were made official, but they should become available as we get nearer to the launch date.