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Following the success of its high performance X25-M solid state drive, Intel is getting back into the SSD game, this time with higher capacity models that will reportedly offer a much better bang-for-buck.
According to German news site Golum.de, Intel's upcoming Postville family of SSDs will top out at 320GB, with both 80GB and 160GB capacities also planned. These will be MLC-based drives built around a 34nm manufacturing process. By comparison, the X25-M is an SLC-based drive.
Even so, the new series should be decent performers if Golum's information is accurate. The site says the Postville family will serve up read speeds over 200MB/s, putting them in line with the rash of high performance SSDs recently being offered by competitors. The new series might also use a new controller.
No official word on price or release date, but Golum did say both the 80GB and 160GB Postville drives will cost less than the X25-M (80GB).
Comments are closed on this article
mesiah
July 21, 2009 at 11:06pm
The drives released today with no 320gb version, only 80gb and 160gb. The 80gb drive is priced at $224 and the 160gb drive is $440. It looks unlikely that a 320gb desktop drive will be released by intel any time soon. The drives supposedly have a faster 4kb random write speed as well as slightly lower read and write latency. The other numbers apear to be unchanged.
GMoney86
July 20, 2009 at 5:02pm
I can't say much, especially since I do not know much. However, I am interning at Intel and there is word that the new drives will come out in the coming months. I have no clue when that is exactly, but I hope they keep their promise of launching it before my internship ends. In fact, the employee store isn't selling the current SSDs because they want us to purchase the bigger, more cost-effective drives. Hopefully the prices are more reasonable than before...
StahnAileron
July 20, 2009 at 4:56pm
The X25-M is MLC-based...It's the X25-E that's SLC based.
I just hope the performance of the new drives are the about the same as the X25-M at least, if not better. (Especially for random writes.)
TechJunkie
July 20, 2009 at 4:35pm
These drives, along with thier CPU's, will still cost you your 1st born. When they reach levels of that of standard HDD's cost wise, then I'll purchase one that's not intel branded.
