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A little bird has all but confirmed that Intel's enterprise-class SSD 710 (Lyndonville) will launch in mid-August. The 100GB model will be priced in the region of ~US$650, which is nearly half of the X25-E's per-gigabyte cost.

A little bird has all but confirmed that Intel's enterprise-class SSD 710 (Lyndonville) will launch in mid-August. The 100GB model will be priced in the region of ~US$650, which is nearly half of the X25-E's per-gigabyte cost. 200GB and 300GB flavours are also available and priced similarly.

Estimated Price and Price/GB

Price Price/GB Intel X25-E 32GB US$370 (retail) 11.6 Intel X25-E 64GB US$730 (retail) 11.4 Intel SSD 710 100GB ~US$650 ~6.5 Intel SSD 710 200GB ~US$1250 ~6.3 Intel SSD 710 300GB ~US$1900 ~6.3



Performance is not top priority for the SSD 710. Instead, Intel is aiming to provide SLC-level endurance at a reasonable price by using cheaper eMLC HET NAND. The SSD 710 also supports user-configurable overprovisioning (20%), which increases drive endurance significantly.

The SSD 710's warranty is 3 years or until a wear indicator reaches a certain level, whichever comes first. This is the first time we've seen SSD warranty limited in this manner. Oddly enough, the consumer-level SSD 320 has a longer 5-year warranty without any such limitations.

We've compiled a specifications table for those of you interested in the nitty-gritty:

Intel X25-E Intel SSD 710 Intel SSD 720 SandForce

SF-2500/2600 Indilinx Everest Capacities 32/64GB 100/200/300GB 200/400GB Up to 512GB Up to 1TB Interface SATA 3Gbps SATA 3Gbps PCIe SATA 6Gbps SATA 6Gbps Flash Type 50nm SLC 25nm eMLC HET 34nm SLC (e)MLC/SLC (e)MLC/SLC Cache 16MB 64MB 512MB – Up to 512MB DDR3 Sustained Read 250MB/s 270MB/s 2200MB/s 500MB/s 520MB/s Sustained Write 170MB/s 210MB/s 1800MB/s 500MB/s 410MB/s 4KB Random Read 35,000 IOPS 38,500 IOPS 180,000 IOPS 60,000 IOPS ? 4KB Random Write 3,300 IOPS 2,400 IOPS 56,000 IOPS 60,000 IOPS 20,000 IOPS Endurance

(with 20%

over-provisioning) 32GB: 1.0PB

64GB: 2.0PB 100GB: 500TB (900TB)

200GB: 1.0PB (1.5PB)

300GB: 1.1PB (1.5PB) 200GB: 18PB

400GB: 36PB ? ? MTBF 2 million hours 2 million hours ? 10 million hours ? Form Factor 2.5" 2.5" PCIe varies varies Power (idle/active) 0.06W/2.6W 0.095W/4W 8W/25W varies ? Security ATA password AES-128 AES-256 AES-256, TCG ? Warranty 3 years 3 years or when wear

level indicator E9 hits 1,

whichever comes first ? varies varies



The performance-oriented SSD 720 (Ramsdale) is expected to launch not long after, followed by Cherryville (successor to SSD 510) and Paint Creek (successor to SSD 310) in Q4.

Picture Source: Engadget