Intel makes shock entry into hard disk market

 

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By David Fearon in Shanghai

Posted on 2 Apr 2008 at 10:52

In a seemingly off-the-cuff announcement at IDF today, Intel announced it will be launching solid-state hard disks (SSDs) based on its NAND flash-memory technology.

The devices are designed to replace traditional mechanical hard disk drives. Rumours on the subject have been circulating for a while but the sudden confirmation of their existence is a big surprise.

The move has nonplussed even some of Intel UK's own people, who claimed that they'd seen and heard nothing about it until the announcement during Intel's Dadi Perlmutter's mobile-computing keynote.

It represents a foray into a completely new market for the company and will worry current mobile hard-disk manufacturers.

Not only is Intel's entry into SSDs a surprising and potentially industry-shaking move, the little information that's been announced gives even more cause for competitors to be concerned.

The single slide devoted to the topic during Perlmutter's keynote claimed capacities ranging from 32GB up to an amazing 160GB - far larger than 32GB and 64GB SSDs available from Samsung, although the company has announced plans for a 128GB drive.

The disks will be in SATA form only, and come in 1.8in and 2.5in versions to be a direct drop-in replacement for standard mechanical SATA disks.

SSDs' strengths are lower power consumption, greater shock resistance than the relatively delicate mechanism of a normal hard disk and potentially better performance. Intel is claiming shock resistance of 1,500G. By contrast, a typical mechanical disk can only survive a 300-400G shock while it's operating.

Intel is also implying it will improve on the relatively disappointing performance of solid-state disks up until now, with a demonstration of an SSD-equipped laptop against a standard one showing applications apparently loading up near-instantly.