Intel’s 313 “Hawley Creek” Caching SSDs Expected Around Ivy Bridge?

By now, solid-state drives shouldn’t need any introduction. The performance, latency, power, and even longevity of most SSDs easily exceeds that of a traditional hard disk drive – but so does the price. Perhaps this is why the solid-state caching phenomenon has seemingly exploded, with just about every SSD manufacturer and even some motherboard makers hopping on for the ride with their own SSD caching solutions.

In most cases, SSD caching promises to offer more affordable prices with one simple trick, selling less flash NAND. Standard caching solutions range from 4GB on up to 20GB of flash NAND, so by selling a smaller caching SSD the asking price will also be significantly smaller. So as long as the most commonly used programs, OS files, and data remain cached on the SSD, then the user gets to enjoy SSD-levels of performance at just a fraction of the price.

Intel’s own SSD caching drives up till now has been the Intel 311 Series, or “Larson Creek”. Intel has been prepping its replacement for some time, and the latest word from VR-Zone is that we will finally see it launching around the same time as Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPU refresh in April.

Intel relies on its Smart Response Technology feature (currently found in only Z68 chipset equipped motherboards) to provide the software side of the caching and allow these drives to function as cache drives, so it would make sense that Intel would wait until the new 7-series Ivy Bridge chipsets debuted which will also include SRT.

Intel’s 313 Series drives will introduce 25nm SLC NAND and it’s suggested they will arrive in both 20GB ($99) and 24GB ($119) models. The 24GB model will offer additional performance thanks to one more 4GB NAND channel tied to the controller (Intel’s controllers such as those on the 320 Series feature 10 channels), but exact performance data is not yet known. Even amongst SSD standards, $120 for 24GB is on the expensive side, but this is because these drives are packing SLC NAND, which offers 10x the write endurance and better performance over the standard MLC NAND found in most competing cache drives.