Intel's New SSD Drive Delivers Blazing Fast Performance

From PC World: Finally, a solid-state drive arrives that can capitalize on the theoretical advantages solid-state memory offers as compared with hard disk drives. Intel isn't new to SSD, but it is looking to reinvent the rule book with is latest--and most mainstream--entry to the market, first announced at August's Intel Developer's Forum.

The Intel X18-M and X25-M drives are shipping this month, and are designed to fit 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch SATA hard drive bays, respectively. Both lines come in 80GB and 160GB versions. The drives use multi-level cell (MLC) flash technology, and feature complex wear-leveling algorithms to handle the write stresses placed on drive technology.

The biggest news, though, lies with the performance of Intel's new SSD line. In the PC World Test Center's evaluation of an engineering sample, the X-25M dramatically outperformed both a 4200RPM hard drive and another SSD drive from Ridata.

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