Distracted by a royal marriage, Osama Bin Laden's death and all manner of world shattering developments over the weekend, you may have missed the news of Intel's 2011 SSD roadmap leaking.

Courtesy of the chaps and chapettes at Engadget, Intel's SSD strategy for the next seven months appears to have been laid bare, with some very interesting additions.

As well as the Marvell-based Elmcrest range of SSDs (review next week), it looks as though Intel will move its drives with the in-house Intel controllers, rebadged as the 320 series, to cheaper 25nm NAND, with the Elmcrest SSDs also migrating over to 25nm NAND later in the year. There's also a whopping 600GB SSD nestled in there too - one of the first signs of SSDs significantly growing in capacity.

What's more, it looks as though Intel is planning a whole new range of ultra-high performance SSDs in the form of the 720 'Ramsdale' SLC SATA 6Gbps, featuring single-level cell (cell) NAND, as well as a 2.5in MLC-based SSD under the tag of 710 'Lyndonville.'


Perhaps most intriguing though, is the 'Larsen Creek' 20GB SLC-based SATA 3Gbps SSD Intel looks to be offering at the very bottom of its range. Why Intel is shipping such a small SSD, and with such expensive NAND, remains to be seen. However, it certainly looks as though Intel is looking to expand its presence in the SSD market in a big way.

Do you have a theory about Intel's 20GB SLC SSD? Surprised Intel hasn't begun the migration to 25nm NAND already? Let us know in the forums.