Thursday 8 March 2012

Intel Prepares to Retire 510 Series “Elm Crest” SATA 6Gbps SSDs | Technology News

No longer than a year after the introduction of the 510 Series of SATA 6Gbps SSDs, Intel has announced that it will soon retire these drives to replace them with the much faster 520 Series built around SandForce’s SF-2281 controller.

Intel announced its decision in a recent “Product Discontinuance Notice” which states that the last orders for these SSDs can be placed on June 7, 2012.

The chip maker will continue to ship these solid state drives until September 7, 2012.

Both the 120GB and the 240GB 510 Series SSDs are affected by this decision, with customers being advised to direct their attention towards the company’s new drives based on SandForce controllers.

The 510-series of solid state drives was designed by Intel to cater to the needs of high-end users and enthusiasts and can reach a maximum sequential read speed of 470MB/s, while sequential write speed is rated at 315MB/s.

In addition, 4K random write performance has been measured to reach 20,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second), while 4K random read is rated at about 5000 IOPS.

The SSDs connect to the system via a SATA 6Gbps interface and use the regular 2.5-inch form factor.

Their replacements in the 520 Series, also known as Cherryville, utilize the same interface and form factor, but are built to deliver much greater performance.

According to Intel, these drives can achieve a maximum sequential read speed of 550MB/s, while their sequential write speed is rated at 520MB/s.

In addition, 4K random write performance has been measured to reach 80,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second), and 4K random read is rated at about 50,000 IOPS.

Contrary to most other SandForce-based SSDs out there, the 520 Series drives were also tweaked in order to deliver improved reliability.

Right now, Intel’s 120GB and 240GB 5120 Series SSDs retail for $239.99 and $584.99, respectively, while their Cherryville counterparts are listed at $199.99 and $369.99.

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