Intel SSDs

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Jonathan
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Intel SSDs

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quantus
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Re: Intel SSDs

Post by quantus »

The closer we got to release and the more time I spent with competing products, the more I realized that Intel's biggest launch of 2008 wasn't going to be Nehalem
Ouch, Nehalem gets upstaged... Still, good job Intel. Keep leaping, or prancing, or whatever it is you do...
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VLSmooth
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Re: Intel SSDs

Post by VLSmooth »

Needs more SLC action!

Despite the ridiculous price tag, I'm tempted to try one out in my next quiet system.

Especially if I can use my current quiet system as a NAS located in another room, forgoing any mechanical hard drives in the new system.

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Re: Intel SSDs

Post by quantus »

VLSmooth wrote:Needs more SLC action!

Despite the ridiculous price tag, I'm tempted to try one out in my next quiet system.

Especially if I can use my current quiet system as a NAS located in another room, forgoing any mechanical hard drives in the new system.
Dude, 10k cycles per block and it's wearing out? No way for me at that price. I might consider it for use as a read-only data store in place of tape or dvd's. Still, I could just buy like 4 hard drives of that size and mirror the data for that price!

I like how that article was able to point out yet another way that Vista is complete crap.
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Jonathan
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Re: Intel SSDs

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http://techreport.com/articles.x/15433
Actual drive lifespans aside, Intel rates the X25-M's Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) at 1.2 million hours. That's competitive with the MTBF rating of other MLC-based flash drives and equivalent to common MTBF ratings for enterprise-class mechanical hard drives.

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Re: Intel SSDs

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http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/200 ... -ssds.html

I'm sure the Torvalds family is really excited about SSDs. :P

Jonathan
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Re: Intel SSDs

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We might get a X25-M for Amber (for $300). I'd feel more secure about her data. I think the key is to have a desktop computer (with corresponding magnetic disk levels of capacity) which has all the iTunes Movies we own on it. Damn the lack of updated Mini. I just don't think Apple TV is going to be a Hulu-watching device.

Anyone have any experience with products that would play both iTunes and Hulu on a TV? I know I could build a computer, but I hate to buy a copy of Windows. ITunes just doesn't work with Linux, not even wine.

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Re: Intel SSDs

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http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=804&p=6

Here is a super nifty graph showing what Linus and Anand are talking about. The Intel SSD gets the same throughput on 4KB blocks that the traditional disk drive does on 1MB blocks. The other SSDs are worse than the disk drive on 4KB blocks.

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Re: Intel SSDs

Post by Jonathan »

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdo ... =3531&p=13
The Intel drives are of course architected for the type of performance needed on a desktop/notebook and thus they deliver very high random write performance.

Random write performance is merely one corner of the performance world. A drive needs good sequential read, sequential write, random read and random write performance. The fatal mistake is that most vendors ignore random write performance and simply try to post the best sequential read/write speeds; doing so simply produces a drive that's undesirable.

Jonathan
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Re: Intel SSDs

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http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/ ... 01comp.htm

Intel is shipping 25nm devices for SD cards. SSDs using these devices won't be far behind. They'll get up to 600GB max capacity and prices per GB will drop.

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Re: Intel SSDs

Post by quantus »

Good to know, but when will the SSD's actually be priced low enough for true mass market appeal and make Intel and Micron some real money? My thoughts:

Hard drives in a 2.5" form factor are at about $0.15/GB while SSD's are still about $2.50/GB. Even if the price drops nearly in half to $1.25/GB, that's still pretty expensive. Seagate's new hybrid drive that you posted will be about $0.25/GB which isn't too bad. Really, I think the $100 (+/-20%) price point is crucial and seems to be what traditional drive manufactures are targeting for consumers. 64GB SSD drives could be at that price point if the price really does drop in half, but I doubt that'll be the case since they won't want to undercut other producers by that much and shrink their potential profit margin. In any case, I don't expect consumers to really start adopting SSD's until at least the next generation past 25nm and probably 2-4 generations for netbooks. I also don't expect that 15-25x price gap between HD's and SSD's to change.
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Re: Intel SSDs

Post by Jonathan »

NAND density is not likely to threaten platter density.
PCM density could get there.
Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent Intel's positions, strategies, or opinions.

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Re: Intel SSDs

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http://www.behardware.com/articles/810- ... rates.html

Return rate is one measure of reliability.

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