Oh Lord, won't you buy me, a solid-state drive...
Intel's solid-state drives (SSDs), available in mainstream models for notebooks and desktops or extreme models for workstations and servers, are widely regarded as some of the best currently on offer. So much so, that Kingston Technology isn't bothering to develop its own drives, opting instead to just sell rebranded Intel models.
Holding back mass adoption, however, are two obvious drawbacks; high pricing, and limited capacity. Fortunately for those of itching to get our hands on flash-based storage sooner rather than later, the latter drawback is quickly coming to an end. Toshiba already has plans to produce a 512GB SSD in Q2 2009, and according to a document sent from Intel to its customers, the semiconductor giant will be doubling its highest SSD capacity from 160GB to 320GB later this year.
According to reports, Intel's new drives will utilise the 34 nanometer NAND process developed by Intel and Micron, allowing for cost-effective drives with a greater storage density.
There's of course no word on pricing at this early stage, but it's clear to see that solid-state technology is set to take giant strides throughout the year. We'd expect to see these larger Intel drives adopted by Corsair, too, but no word yet on when to expect that magic 400MB/s read speed.
