Postville
Latest
Intel's 25nm solid state drives boast huge capacity, improved reliability, four times longer life?
Solid state storage is maturing rapidly, as you can see on this allegedly leaked slide, but AnandTech reports that the improvements aren't all about price per gigabyte -- the 25nm successor to Intel's X25-M G2 is shaping up to be one killer drive. In addition to increasing capacity to 600GB for a 2.5-incher and 300GB for a 1.8-inch size, the publication reports that the Postville Refresh will bring up to 40,000 IOPS in random 4K writes, and transfer larger sequential files with up-to-250MB/s reads and 170MB/s writes. To put that in context, they should be competitive with today's very best SandForce SF-1200 drives, and hopefully trounce them on price. More impressive (if true), however, is that these new Intel X25-M G3 units are built to last: they're reportedly able to transfer at least 30TB before they give up the ghost, and have a "power safe write cache" feature that may keep errant power outages from prematurely conking them out. We don't exactly expect OCZ, Corsair, Mushkin and Crucial to sit around while Intel revolutionizes the market, though -- even if Intel's 25nm plant only benefits Intel, smaller die sizes will help solid state storage companies across the board.
Leaked Intel roadmap details Sandy Bridge CPUs, expands SSD lineup?
If a set of supposedly leaked slides are legitimate (and they sure look convincing to us) then the shape of Intel's dirt-brown 2011 plans has finally been revealed. As you can see immediately above, Chipzilla's 25nm flash process is just about ready to double the size of the company's award-winning consumer SSDs, bring up to 400GB of "enterprise-grade" multi-level cell memory to the enterprise space, and create a series of netbook-sized mini-SATA drives with the remains of the 34nm silicon. On the processor front things are a little more iffy, but it seems safe to say that the naming scheme has changed, as the silicon wafers you'll slot into a Q67 Express motherboard will have an extra digit (and often a letter) affixed to the end. Instead of a Core i7-870, you'll see the likes of Core i7-2600, i7-2600S, i7-2600K and i5-2500T, with the K (as in the past) affording you an unlocked multiplier for overclocking and the S equaling reduced power consumption, or vastly reduced for the T models. German publication ComputerBase -- which found and subsequently pulled the slides -- somehow managed to dig up nearly full specs for desktop and laptop CPUs as well, and though we can't verify their legitimacy, you're welcome to marvel at the idea of a 3.5GHz processor running on just 35 watts by visiting the source link below. %Gallery-99426% [Thanks, Aristo]
Intel's 34nm SSDs go official, no 320GB model in sight
Ugh, seriously Intel? While we've been waiting for 34nm-based SSDs for what feels like ages now, it's not so much the new process technology that had our interest piqued. Instead, it was the hope of a 320GB model from the outfit. Today, Intel got official with a new pair of 34nm SSDs, though neither of 'em are any larger than the previous 50nm X25-M (2.5-inch) and X18-M (1.8-inch). In fact, the new units even boast the same model names. The newcomers arrive in 80GB and 160GB sizes, and while actual hard drive benchmarking tools are apt to show a marginal increase in performance, even Intel admits that most folks won't see "noticeable gains" in real-world use. So, what's the point of popping out 34nm SSDs that are silver instead of black? Lower prices, or so the company says. If the market reacts to the cost savings that are being passed forward, you can expect the 80GB model to run $225, while the 160GB edition gets marked at $440, both in quantities of 1,000. Call us spoiled, but we're still longing for more.[Thanks, Joseph]
Intel's 34nm-based 320GB solid state drive creeps closer to reality
Hankering for an SSD that's as big as your traditional HDD? So is Intel, or so we hear. In fact, we've been hearing whispers that a capacious 320GB solid state drive was in the works since January, and now those whispers have been upgraded to library-like voices. According to the generally reliable Golum, Intel's so-called Postville SSD family is well on its way to reality, and with them should come much needed price drops. The new series should top out at 320GB, with an 80GB and 160GB version falling underneath. Word on the street has it that both of the smaller two will be around $100 cheaper than the same-sized X25-M drives, though there's been no leaks on the 320GB model's MSRP. Still, Intel has a golden opportunity here if it'll just get these things to market -- a cheap(er) SSD with a brand name like Intel could blow the solid state market wide open.[Thanks, Marius]
