Intel rolls out third-generation solid state drives

Intel has upgraded its sold state drive (SSD) range using third-generation 25nm process engineering to increase speeds and densities while cutting the price.

The latest Series 320 drives replace Intel's X25 line and are based on similar technology to its recent 510 series SSDs.

Write times have been increased to 220MB/s and read speeds to 270MB/s, while higher capacity drives can reach 39,500 input/output operations per second.

"We see the Intel SSD 320 as a solid advancement to our SSD roadmap, and will continue to upgrade and refresh our SSD product line as we add more enterprise options for our business customers throughout the year," said Tom Rampone, general manager of Intel's NVM Solutions Group.

Intel claims that the drives are considerably more reliable than previous generations, and the hardware will be sold with a three-year warranty. Support for 128-bit AES encryptions is also included.

The drives are available from 40GB to 600GB and cost between $89 and $1,069 based on orders of 1,000 or more. This represents a 30 per cent saving over the equivalent X25 prices, Intel said.

"Intel has a solid brand in the SSD marketplace and making the price cut is a smart move," Michael Yang, principal analyst at IHS iSuppli, told V3.co.uk.

"2010 was really the year SSD adoption bloomed in the enterprise market. For consumers it's still a bit pricy but high performance can be so valuable in the business world that price is less of an issue."

Looking ahead, however, SSDs will soon reach a technological hurdle, since the limits of die miniaturisation using current techniques will be reached in the next two or three generations of the technology, Yang explained.

Intel is facing stiff competition in the SSD space, with new drives recently released by Samsung, Kingston and Seagate.