Intel solves SSD write speed issue

Posted at: 5:52pm 23rd July 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Intel claims that its forthcoming SSDs won’t have the slow write-speeds of current solid state disks

It’s not only the high price of solid state disks that’s currently stopping them from usurping mechanical hard drives, but we’ve also found that the write speed of solid state disks is comparatively slow when compared to a decent hard drive. However, Intel reckons it’s solved this issue on its forthcoming SSDs.

Intel wouldn’t provide any specific read and write speeds for the drives, saying that these would be announced at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF). However, we asked Intel’s senior performance analyst, Francois Piednoel, if the drives would suffer from the same slow write speeds as current SSDs. ‘We’ve spent a lot of time on designing this thing, and we’ve made custom silicon,’ Piednoel told Custom PC, ‘we don’t have those problems.’

Intel’s UK press relations chap, Alastair Kemp, then also added: ‘Yeah, we think we’ve cracked that.’ Intel demonstrated the speed of the SSDs to us on a laptop that was running a virus-scan, and then double-clicked the icon for Excel 2007, which loaded up almost instantly.

As well as apparently solving the write-speed issue on its SSDs, Intel’s new SSDs could also be cheaper than current solid state drives. In May, Intel demonstrated a 32nm 4GB NAND chip that Intel said would ‘enable more cost-effective SSDs, instantly doubling the current storage volume of these devices.’ Intel’s SSDs will be available in 1.8in and 2.5in form factors, but there are currently no plans for a 3.5in desktop drive.