Intel's Z-P230 PATA SSD: now in bite sized mini-card flavor

First off, we just want to sincerely thank Intel for not making this confusing at all. Not only does the new mini-card Z-P230 PATA SSD boast the same model name and mostly the same specifications as the netbook-focused Z-P230 PATA SSD (scratching your head yet?), but as you've probably gleaned by now, it's rocking the same name, too. The 8-gram device (compared to 11-grams on its similarly same-named sibling) was designed to fit into tiny laptops and comes in 4GB / 8GB capacities with a 16GB version landing in September. All angst aside, it is pretty cute.

[Via PCWorld]

[ShadowKain @ Aug 14th 2008 8:58AM]

Those Connectors are PATA? since when? I always though pata connectors were pins, not the flat copper pieces on that, which look SATA to me, I didn't think an SSD drive would use PATA :)

??? If anyone can clarify great

[Mario @ Aug 14th 2008 9:06AM]

It is odd isn't it.

The picture is of a PCI Express mini card, and PCI Express is serial, not parallel.

[Michael Witt @ Aug 14th 2008 9:27AM]

It's a Turbo Boost card. Intel sells them to laptop manufacturers to (theoretically) speed up loading certain programs in Windows Vista.

[robyrt3 @ Aug 14th 2008 9:07AM]

check out intels site for explanation
http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/z-p230/index.htm

[Mario @ Aug 14th 2008 9:17AM]

LOL I was just about to post that link. It's still bizarre that Intel are using PATA connectors instead of SATA ones. Does anyone know why?

[Michael Witt @ Aug 14th 2008 9:29AM]

They use PATA because it is an otherwise unused connection by the chipset; these are designed to work with Intel chipsets, and laptops don't really use PATA anymore (HDDs and CD/DVD drives are SATA now), but the connection is still available via the northbridge, so they use it.

[Kukawaki @ Aug 14th 2008 9:38AM]

Because PATA uses less energy than SATA does while being fast enough for the device.

[MH @ Aug 14th 2008 11:27AM]

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks guys.

:-)

[Tim @ Aug 14th 2008 10:06AM]

So it not only "boast the same model name," but "it's rocking the same name, too?" Thanks, engadget, for your peerless journalism!

[Benson @ Aug 14th 2008 10:33AM]

Well, at first I thought that must have been the result of one of those uber-clear "corrections" that e))) makes when enough people comment on some inaccuracy. But when I looked through the comments, there was no error corrected?!

So it looks like they actually achieved this pinnacle of incoherence without the aid of a retry. Impressive.

[Knives_Out @ Aug 14th 2008 11:03AM]

omg... 4gb?!

[Nirmal @ Aug 14th 2008 11:10AM]

so is this something I will be able to add to my existing laptop or is it something to be added as part of the chipset manufacturing process?

[Boyprodigy1 @ Aug 14th 2008 12:44PM]

Shouldnt they be working on making SSD's larger

[EricLMcCormick @ Aug 14th 2008 3:40PM]

I can go down the street to microcenter and make that for about 50 bucks
http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0255159
http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0245858

And if I look around for more then 2 minutes I could probably make it cheaper.