Intel 310 Series Mini SSDs Now Shipping, Benchmark

MojoKid writes "Intel's new 310 Series SSDs utilize the same 34nm NAND flash memory technology and controller found on the chip maker's 2.5-inch SSDs, but in a form factor just 1/8th the size; a scant 2 inches (51mm) long by 1.18 inches (30mm) wide and flatter than a pancake. The new tiny Intel SSDs are now shipping and despite their diminutive stature, performance is actually pretty similar to that of the company's popular X25-M 34nm SSD. Intel says the 310 Series is shipping to customers for $179 in 1,000-unit quantities for the 80GB version of the drive."

Comments

Units?

[NBolander]

As a European reader, I haven't really gotten my head around those imperial units yet. How many mm would this pancake measurement of yours represent?

Re:Units?

[Adustust]

Ideal American pancake flatness should be around 8 to 10mm in thickenss. A 30mm pancake would be a custard pie.

Re:Units?

[pieterh]

In Scotland, a pancake aka "dropped scone" is made from the same dough as Belgian waffles, and is traditionally cooked on a griddle. The English call these "Scotch pancakes". Well made, they are extremely satisfying, and make a great accompaniment to haggis & neeps and black bun, washed down with huge quantities of strong tea with milk. The Flemish also make "pannenkoeken" which are similarly cooked on griddles but with a thinner batter that allows the pancake to be gently spread over the griddle as it cooks, giving the large and thin "pancake" the Brettons called "crêpe" when they imported it from Artois in 1490. Just a year later the French crown took over Brittany, and it has been said this was to seize control of the new pancake industry.

Now to the use of the word "flat"... are we talking about surface curvature (or lack thereof) or thickness? Because Scotch pancakes are not flat at all, they are gently convex, due to the raising agents used (typically buttermilk and baking soda, demonstrating historical cultural connections between lowland Scotland and Flanders, where buttermilk was invented). Whereas the Flemish pannenkoek is somewhat concave, due to the effect of batter pushed out to the edges. French crêpes of course will take the shape of the pan they are cooked in, but are often more concave than convex.

This has absolutely nothing to do with SSDs but neither does the reference to pancakes in the summary.

Re:How to attach?

[gstrickler]

RTFA. First off, you wouldn't, you would buy a 2.5" SSD. However, Intel provided the testers with an interposer card than includes a standard SATA connection.

Re:$200 for 80gb?

[dc29A]

Spoken like someone who never used one SSD. I was exactly like you, dismissing SSDs as hype. Until I got an OCZ Vertex 2 60GB for less than 100$. My opinion has shifted dramatically, yes windows boots up fast, but it's not just that. Every program installed on SSD boots fast, the system is much snappier, it almost feels like it was an iPad, wake up from sleep takes less than a second. As for price / GB, yes it's steep, but if you keep only applications and OS on the SSD, the price is well worth it.

Re:$200 for 80gb?

[LordKronos]

and why is the 80gb faster than the 40gb version of the otherwise identical product?

The way they double the capacity is by using twice as many of the same chips. Since it writes to all chips in parallel, twice as many chips means it can read/write twice as much data in the same time period. You see that in the fact that the write performance spec is exactly double. The reason the read performance isn't double is because it has been known for a while that Intel puts a performance cap on the non-enterprise versions of their SSDs

Re:So are these compatible with any laptop?

[tepples]

mSATA is physically, but not electrically, compatible with miniPCIe slots.

Then the designers screwed that up. A CompactFlash card can operate in both PCMCIA and parallel ATA modes.