Intel SSD 520 Series ‘SandForce Driven’ SATA 3 SSD Release Imminent – As Predicted

Saturday, December 3, 2011

If you are a fan of The SSD Review, you will remember our prediction of the inevitable Intel/SandForce partnership which goes back several months now.

Our first article was in March of this year where we were bombarded with e-mails and returns by those who were upset at such speculation. The second article followed in April after yet another Intel road map was leaked but carried some great details!

If you look at the 520 ‘Cherryville’ information on the below road map you will see the SSD sizes match that of only ‘SandForce Driven’ SSDs which brought forth our first clue that Intel and SandForce had finally come together in the SSD arena.
Today we can go one further and actually provide Intel specifications for you thanks to BouweenPC via T-Gathering. Click on the picture for high resolution shots!

If you look close, you will see the performance listed at 550MB/s read with 520MB/s write and 70,000IOPS at random 4k aligned write disk access. Intel has really gone to town with capacities adding on 60 and 180GB capacities to their originally planned 120, 240 and 480GB capacities reflected in the road map. Originally scheduled for release in November 2011, the drive has a great five year warranty and…what? No ‘SandForce Driven’ acknowledgement? Come on Intel!!!

It seems the only question left is whether it’s going to be a Christmas of New Years release!!! Congrats Intel!!!

UPDATE:

It seems that BouweenPC has even gotten a hold of the Product Brief which we have posted on the following page! Here is another by Softpedia that speaks to delay in release.

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About the Author

Les Tokar is a technology nut and Founder of The SSD Review. His early work includes the first consumer SSD review along with MS Vista, Win 7 and SSD Optimization Guides. Les is fortunate to, not only evaluate and provide opinion on consumer and enterprise solid state storage but also, travel the world in search of new technologies and great friendships. Google+

MRFS
I do understand these properties of Nand flash. Thanks for the crystal clear summary: your understanding is obviously superior to mine.
Nevertheless, I was reacting to the above recommendation that we “look close” and “see the performance listed at … 520MB/s write”.
Well, I did “look close” and confirmed what you just explained so clearly below … only it was buried in microscopic text in “Footnote 1″ ;(
MRFS
Kristian
Keep in mind that there is a 120GB Intel SSD 320 Series drive, so it’s not necessarily a SandForce controller. SF based drives have 128GB of NAND in them, so it’s basically just a matter of how you want it to be reported. Other drives report the total capacity, although some of it is used by over-provisioning.
JohnhardyII
LSI is a very promotional management team, they have for years promised wins in the hdd controller space that never come to fruition. when they announced the SF acquisition they made no mention or even a hint at a “new” ssd customer. in addition, while SF controllers tend to be the best performance on paper when new, they deteriorate quickly…i doubt intel would offer a 5 year warranty on a SF drive. and finally, the existing 510 doesn’t use SF, and it too has “off” capacities (120 and 250). i don’t think the 520 being a SF drive is a done deal, in fact based on the above, i’d say the odds are at best 50/50, but i suppose only time will tell
http://twitter.com/kimmono kimmono
If this is true, then its fantastic news. I would much rather trust SandForce based Intel SSDs in a server than from other brands.

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Intel SSD 520 Series ‘SandForce Driven’ SATA 3 SSD Release Imminent – As Predicted

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