Intel debuts its first 20-nanometer flash solid-state drive

Intel will today ship its first solid-state drive -- the SSD 335 -- featuring 20-nanometer NAND flash memory.

The new drive stores 240GB in total and offers 500MB/s read speeds and 450MB/s write speeds via the SATA 6Gbps interface. The drive is a 2.5-inch model and is 9.5mm thick, but the retail kit contains all the fittings you need to fit this into a 3.5-inch drive bay.

The drive is also backed by Intel's 3-year warranty.

"The Intel SSD 335 uses Hi-K/metal gate planar cell technology, which overcomes NAND process scaling constraints to deliver the smallest-area NAND cell and die in the industry," said Rob Crooke, Intel vice president and general manager for the Intel Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group. "By pushing technology constraints and using process innovation, Intel can continue to progress SSD technology and pass along savings to our customers."

The SSD 335 uses the smallest and most efficient MLC NAND flash memory on the market today.

Intel's earlier SSDs, such as the SSD 330, made use of 25-nanometer, and apart from the architecture shrink, the new SSD 335 is essentially identical to the SSD 330. The only exception being that the SSD 330 came in 60GB, 120GB, 180GB, and 240GB capacities.

Rather than breaking new ground here, Intel seems to be simply using the SSD 335 to showcase the shrink to 20-nanometers. This technology is likely to lead to increased storage densities in the future, but for now Intel is playing it safe and sticking to 240GB as the ceiling.

You can grab the new drive for around $200 from all usual, good retailers.

Source : zdnet