Intel touts solid state drive breakthrough

Intel hopes that cheaper SSDs will widen the potential market

Intel has claimed that a breakthrough in the design of solid state drives (SSDs) will allow prices to fall to as low as 60 per cent of the current cost.

The drop is down to the use of new 34nm Nand Flash memory chips in place of the older 50nm chips. The smaller die size allows for lower production costs, making the drives more efficient and cheaper to manufacture.

Intel will price the first of the new drives to system builders at $225 (£137) per unit. The 80GB X25-M model will replace a drive of the same size which currently costs $595 (£363).

"Our goal was to be the first to achieve 34nm Nand Flash memory lithography, and to do so with the same or better performance than our 50nm version," said Randy Wilhelm, vice president and general manager for Intel's Nand solutions group.

"We made quite an impact with our breakthrough SSDs last year and, by delivering the same or even better performance with today's new products, our customers, both consumers and manufacturers, can now enjoy them at a fraction of the cost."

Intel hopes that the lower costs could widen the potential market for SSD hardware. SSDs are faster and more efficient than disc-based drives, but the high cost of manufacturing has limited the technology to high-end and specialised systems.