Intel's SSD 525: Bringing iSandForce to mSATA
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 28, 2013 11:30 AM ESTToday Intel is officially announcing what we've had in house since the end of last year: the Intel SSD 525. Based on SandForce's SF-2281 controller but using a special Intel validated (but SandForce developed) firmware, the 525 is an mSATA version of the 2.5" SATA Intel SSD 520 that launched last February. Unlike the Intel SSD 335, the 525 uses the same 25nm 2-bit MLC IMFT NAND as the 520, the only difference here is the form factor.
Similar to the 520, Intel is claiming max sequential performance of 550/520 MBps (compressible reads/writes). Random IO specs are listed as up to 50K/80K for 4KB random reads/writes.
The 525 features a 5-year warranty from Intel and will be available in capacities ranging from 30GB all the way up to 240GB. The 120GB and 180GB 525s are shipping today, with the rest of the models scheduled to be available later this quarter. Pricing is listed below:
| Intel SSD 525 Launch Pricing | ||||||||
| Capacity | 30GB | 60GB | 90GB | 120GB | 180GB | 240GB | ||
| RCP/MSRP | $54 | $104 | $129 | $149 | $214 | $279 | ||
Intel's suggested pricing is a bit higher than Crucial's mSATA m4, but street pricing is almost always lower than what we see in these press announcements. The range of capacities and granular size options will make the 525 good for everything from a very small boot drive (30GB) all the way up to a full fledged OS/apps drive at the higher capacities.
By the middle of the year we should see the arrival of the first NGFF (now known as M.2) form factor SSDs that should eventually supplant mSATA. It will take a little while for motherboards and OEM systems to implement M.2, so I expect that we'll continue to see mSATA used. I do hope for a quick transition to M.2 however, not only is the standard more flexible (e.g. longer cards can deliver even higher capacity drives) but it also supports PCIe as well as SATA as an interface.
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mayankleoboy1 - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
lolled at "iSandforce" :DSleepyFE - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
Did Anandtech get sued yet?The i+name_of_device is probably patented by Apple.
If they can patent square with rounded angles.....
Just a heads-up.
netmann - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
Maybe Apple bought Sandforce! :-)RU482 - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
30GB specifically only has 3yr warranty, the rest have 5 yrsAlso, from the slides I've seen, the M.2/NGFF drives coming later will be the 22mm x 80mm long variety (by comparison, mSATA is 30mm x 50.95mm). the 22mm x 42mm M.2/NGFF will be cache.
Death666Angel - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
I didn't find any mention of mSATA SATA 6Gb/s capabilities. All I found was that it supports SATA 1.5 and 3.0 Gb/s. Does this article and the specs of the Intel drive mean that mSATA _does_ support SATA 6Gb/s? :)edlee - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
it would be rather impossible to hit anything over 300MB/s on sata 3GB/s, it mist support sata 6GB/sDeath666Angel - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
You don't say.The problem is, that even the official press release for mSATA from SATA IO only states up to 3.0 speeds and I could not find anything official that says otherwise, except from mSATA manufacturers.
I guess they are just being lazy then and 6.0 is supported without issue. :)
tuxRoller - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
That's the revision number.http://www.sata-io.org/technology/6Gbdetails.asp
RU482 - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
Straight off the datasheet Intel provided me:By combining Intel's high quality 25nm NAND flash memory technology with SATA 6Gb/s interface support, the Intel SSD 525 Series delivers sequential read speeds of up to 550 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 520 MB/s.
netmann - Monday, January 28, 2013 - link
Can some one confirm that TRIM is supported with these mSATA SSDs in RAID? Thanks