Intel Announces New-Generation SSD 530 Series In 2.5″, mSATA, And The New M.2 Form Factors

Intel is announcing its newest generation of solid-state drives (SSDs), the Intel SSD 530 series.  Utilizing multiple small form factors, higher performance and low idle power, Intel is referring to the 530 series as the next evolution of Intel SSDs.

Image credit:  pcper.com

With the introduction of the latest M.2 form factor, Intel shrinks the total storage area dramatically versus traditional 2.5″ form factor SSDs.  Use of larger storage capacities in thin and light computing devices is enabled via the new smaller-footprint M.2 form factor.  The 530 series will also be available in the current mSATA and 2.5″ standard form factors, all utilizing a SATA 6 Gb/s interface.  This allows Intel to offer the 530 series up for use in a broad range of applications in a wide variety of devices.

Featuring Intel’s latest 20nm multi-level cell (MLC) NAND Flash memory, the 530 series is able to continue Intel’s rock-solid reputation for reliability with SSDs.  With the 530 series, we can now see a significant performance boost.  With sequential reads/writes of 540 MB/s and 490 MB/s respectively, and random read/write IOPS of 41K/80K, the Intel SSD 530 series is capable of blazing right through demanding applications and intense multi-tasking.

Utilizing SATA Link Power Management (LPM), where the SATA AHCI controller puts the SATA link to the SSD into a very low power mode when there is no I/O activity, idle power consumption in the 530 series is reduced by over 90% as compared to a typical HDD.  This results in significantly longer battery life in portable computing devices.

The M.2 form factor version of the 530 series will be available in capacities of 80GB, 120GB, 180Gb and 360GB.  The mSATA version drops the 360GB capacity in favor 0f 240GB.  The 2.5″ form factor versions include capacities of 80Gb, 120GB, 180Gb, 240Gb, 360GB and 480GB.  All versions are rated by Intel at 1.2 million hours Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).

Availability and pricing have yet to be announced.  The product information sheet(s) for the new Intel SSD 530 series can be viewed here.