Archive for the ‘Solid State Drives’ Category
Intel announces affordable 40GB X25-V Value SATA SSD for netbooks and desktops
Intel looks to make solid state drives more affordable with today’s introduction of the new X25-V Value SATA SSD. The 40GB SSD is priced at $125 dollars making it a viable storage upgrade for low-cost netbooks or dual-drive/boot-drive desktop setups.
Features of the X25-V include:
- 2.5 inch form factor
- 40GB of 34nm NAND flash memory
- Sustained sequential read speeds of up to 170MB/s
- Sustained sequential write speeds of up to 35MB/s
- Features Intel SSD Toolbox, Intel SSD Optimizer, Intel Matrix Storage Manager
- SATA Revision 2.6 compliant and compatible with SATA 1.5Gb/s and 3Gb/s interface
- The X25-V also supports the Microsoft Windows 7 Trim function via the Intel SSD Optimizer
BTW, for those of you not familiar with the boot-drive option for SSDs, it’s the idea of placing the OS and your favorite applications on the SSD. Since SSDs are faster than standard hard disk drives, system boot times will speed up and application launch times will also start-up accordingly. Of course, a 40GB SSD will only get you so far so we’d probably just stick the OS and maybe one or two favorite apps on the SSD.
Corsair announces Reactor and Nova Series of Solid State Drives
Corsair announced on Friday two new solid state drive product lines – the Reactor Series and the Nova Series.
The Reactor Series is available in 60GB and 120GB capacities and features the new JMicron JMF612 controller which incorporates 128MB of DDR2 cache memory for fast performance. The 60GB drive has read speeds up to 250MB/sec and write speeds up to 110MB/sec while the 120GB drive has read speeds up to 250MB/sec and write speeds up to 170MB/sec.
The Nova Series uses the Indilinx Barefoot controller which comes with 64MB of cache memory and is available in 64GB and 128GB storage capacities. The 64GB drive has read speeds up to 270MB/sec and write speeds up to 130MB/sec while the 128GB drive has read speeds up to 270MB/sec and write speeds up to 190MB/sec.
Amazon has the 60GB Reactor SSD for $187.65 while the 120GB Reactor SSD is available for $363.09.
They also have the 64GB Nova Series SSD for $193.99 and the 128GB Nova Series SSD for $373.29.
Intel release Solid State Drive Toolbox with SSD optimizer
Intel X25-M Solid State Drive owners listen up. Intel’s released a new Solid State Drive Toolbox with SSD Optimizer and firmware update for the X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs.
Here are the detail from the press release:
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Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox with Intel® SSD Optimizer Enables Users to Maximize SSD Performance over Time
SANTA CLARA, Calif. –(Business Wire)– Oct 26, 2009 On the heels of the Microsoft* Windows* 7 introduction, Intel Corporation today announced the availability of the Intel® Solid-State Drive (SSD) Toolbox, with Intel® SSD Optimizer and firmware update, for its 34nm Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs. The latest tools are designed to help better manage and retain the out-of-box performance of Intel SSDs.
An SSD is built to replace a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) with added performance, lower power consumption and higher reliability. The Intel SSD Toolbox allows users to more effectively monitor and manage the SSD’s health. The firmware upgrade and Intel SSD Optimizer use the Windows* 7 ATA Data Set Management Command (known as Trim) to help keep the Intel SSD running at continued high performance. In addition, the SSD Toolbox and Optimizer also allow the respective enhancements to work with Windows* XP and Vista* operating systems.
“Fast and reliable access to data is critical for our SSD users,” said Pete Hazen, director of marketing, Intel NAND Solutions Group. “The latest firmware and toolbox upgrade for Intel 34nm SSD users provide a host of new management, information and diagnostic tools to help SSDs retain out-of-box performance. We are encouraging our 34nm customers to download the new firmware update today. Not only will Windows 7 users receive the performance enhancements of the Trim command, but so will our Windows XP and Vista users.”
For 34nm X25-M 160GB owners, the firmware update also offers a performance boost to sequential write speeds by delivering up to 100MB per second, a 40 percent performance improvement over the existing firmware version.
The Trim attribute of the ATA Data Set Management Command, often referred to as Trim, synchs the operating system’s view of deleted files with those that are deleted, but not erased on the drive. Trim tells the SSD which data blocks are no longer in use. This helps stabilize the performance and health of the SSD over time.
The Intel SSD Toolbox provides SSD management tools and information about the drive, including comparing Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) drive attributes to manufacturer threshold. It provides basic and full diagnostics, along with recommended actions. The Toolbox also features an easy-to-use graphical user interface that will allow end users to schedule and run the Trim command independent of the operating system. The company recommends users install the firmware update and toolbox, and run the Trim function daily to ensure best performance. The firmware upgrade can be found at www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware and the Intel SSD Toolbox and Optimizer at www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox.
Intel’s award-winning X25-M SSD began shipping on 34nm in July. The multi-level cell (MLC) Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD is aimed at laptop and desktop PCs, and available in 80 Gigabyte (GB) and 160GB versions. SSDs are data storage devices found inside computers. Because SSDs have no moving parts they offer faster performance and greater energy efficiency and durability than traditional HDDs. A draw for gamers, media creators and technology enthusiasts, SSDs have also played a key role in the emergence of ultra-thin and light notebook PCs that are becoming increasingly popular due to their design, size and longer battery life. For more information on Intel SSDs visit www.intel.com/go/ssd.
Intel [NASDAQ:INTC], the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.
Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
for Intel Corporation
Deborah Paquin, 916-984-1921
dpaquin@strategiccom.biz
or
Claudine Mangano, 408-765-0146
claudine.a.mangano@intel.com
“
SanDisk announces pSSD P2 and S2 Solid State Drives are now shipping
SanDisk has announced they have begun shipping their next generation solid state drives for netbook systems – the pSSD P2 and S2 drives. The new SSDs target the netbook market and feature a new technology called nCache which is a non-volatile write cache designed to support burst performance up to 5 times the “steady state vRPM” (also known as virtual RPM – a new metric to compare SSDs with standard hard drive performance). According to SanDisk, the pSSD drives “offer 9,000 vRPM of steady state performance in addition to nCache”.
In addition, SanDisk has worked closely with Canonical to help optimize the new drives with the Ubuntu Linux OS. According to Chris Kenyon, director, OEM services, Canonical, “Canonical is enabling original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and designers (ODMs) to offer consumers a fantastic user experience with Ubuntu Netbook Remix running on netbooks,”
The new SanDisk pSSD P2/S2 drives will be available in 8, 16, 32, and 64GB capacities. No word on pricing although SanDisk claims the drives will be “attractively priced”.
SanDisk to release 2nd gen SSDs for netbooks
Looking to leverage the ever growing market for netbook systems, SanDisk announced their second generation solid state drives for netbook systems at CES 2009 called the SanDisk pSSD Gen 2. These modules are designed as drop-in replacements for traditional hard drives, offering faster performance, and more reliability.
The new pSSD Gen 2 drives will be available in 8, 16, 32, and 64GB capacities and will be “aggressively priced” according to SanDisk. The drives utilize 43 nm Multi-Level Cell (MLC) flash memory produced at a fab in Yokkaichi Japan.
The pSSD Gen 2 drives will be available in February and will be sold directly to IHVs (Independent Hardware Vendors) – sorry they will not be sold directly to consumers. Hopefully this means more and more netbooks will ship with higher capacity SSDs this year.
