Intel Reveals Future SSD Details at IDF; Launches SSD 710 Series

At IDF, Intel officially launched the enterprise SSD 710 Series, and went on to further reveal “Cherryville” and “Hawley Creek” SSD codenames along with some juicy details; most notable being the information regarding Cherryville.

Cherryville is the planned successor to the Intel 510 Series SSDs that will debut in the fall of 2011. Yes, of this year. It will be offered in a much wider range of capacities than the 510 Series, ranging from 60GB up to 480GB, and will utilize a SATA 6Gb/s interface. Inside it will be packing Intel’s IMFT 25m MLC NAND, and although Intel is being cagey about the controller it appears that it will utilize the same or similar underlying Marvell controller as the Intel 510 Series SSDs, but with much improved performance.

If reports are accurate, Cherryville will deliver up to 530MB/s reads and 490MB/s writes, with random reads/writes ranging in at 40,000/45,000 IOPS respectively. We are assuming this performance data applies to the 240GB model, but we are not sure. Regardless, these figures bring performance up to par with the latest SandForce drives in several areas, so consumers looking for a powerhouse solution with Intel’s reliability and endurance may finally get their wish.

Hawley Creek will also be launching this fall and is a direct replacement for “Larson Creek”, otherwise known as the SSD 311 Series. Enthusiasts may recall that 311 Series is the special family for Intel’s Smart Response Technology initiative. Intel directly stated Hawley Creek will continue to utilize Intel’s own proprietary in-house controller and will continue make use of Intel’s 25nm SLC NAND.

Lastly, the already well-known SSD 710 Series has now been officially revealed. The 710 Series targets enterprise and corporate solutions and will finally replace the long-in-the-tooth X25-E SSDs that launched back in 2008. Like the previously published information indicates, the 710 Series is indeed very similar to Intel’s current 3Gb/s 320 Series at heart. The most notable difference is the use of what Intel calls High Endurance Technology MLC NAND. Regular MLC NAND is expected to retain data for up to a full year after the NAND itself has been worn out, meaning users can read the data and the SSD simply acts as a ROM device. This new 25nm Intel HET NAND shortens the data window to roughly 3 months in comparison, but in exchange is able to boost program/erase cycles by an astonishing 30% over Intel’s own traditional 25nm MLC NAND.

The Intel 710 Series won’t win any performance benchmarks, but that likely won’t matter much to enthusiasts given the appeal of the special high endurance MLC NAND. For other features, the 710 employs a power safe write-cache combined with redundancies to safeguard in case of NAND chip failures.