Intel's SSD 310: G2 Performance in an mSATA Form Factor ( Small,...real small - storage)

Anandtech ^ | 12/29/2010 12:22:00 PM | Anand Lal Shimpi

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Although not quite the Intel SSD announcement we were expecting in Q4, today Intel unveiled its first mSATA SSD: the Intel SSD 310.

Based on the 34nm Intel X25-M G2 controller, the 310 will be available in both 40GB and 80GB capacities. The 80GB version should perform a bit slower than an 80GB X25-M G2 while the 40GB version will perform like a 40GB X25-V.  

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The top image is a 2.5" storage drive.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Currently an OEM device.

[JRandomFreeper]

I have a 'postage stamp' 1.5 gig HD from when they started this. Kanguru sold them for a while.

I can only imagine how far they have come on reliability and robustness.

Time to put the 'postage stamp' HD with the box of 8" SSSD floppies.

Being alive today is cool for nothing else, if not for the advancements in tech. Zoom! Swoosh!

/johnny

[JerseyHighlander]

Looks like a good addition to a VIA pico ITX motherboard... could build entire PC in the volume of two 3.5” HDDs.

Can fit a PC in the center console of my car and still use the center console to store stuff... hmmm... might have a project here.

[ThunderSleeps]

You remember 8” floppies too!? I thought I was the only techie in these parts that harks back that far. I can remember playing frisbee in the office with damaged ones. Of course, the corners were sharp and dangerous, probably get arrested for throwing one in an office environment today...

[JRandomFreeper]

Remembers? I've got a bootable CP/M with WordStar on it.

I'm not going to tell you it still boots, or that I still do the reflex ctrl-k,ctrl-b to block stuff to copy and paste.

But I'm not stuck in the past. The most recent machine in the house is a quad core running SUSE 11.2. WHICH IS BROKEN FOR GPS!

But I'm not bitter, or crazy... it's just dealing with these computer problems for so many years.....

/johnny

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Fudzilla has a note:

Intel introduces miniscule SSD

1/8 of 2.5-inch standard

Intel has launched a new series of miniature SSDs aimed at particularly compact devices and embedded systems.

The SSD 310 series is based on MLC technology and comes in two capacities, 40GB and 80GB. The larger driver offers read/write speeds of up to 200/70MB, while the 40GB version delivers 170MB/s and 35MB/s.

This is rather impressive performance considering the size of the new drives. At 51x30x5mm they are roughly eight times smaller than regular 2.5-inch drives and they feature a mini-SATA connector. The tiny dimensions will allow manufacturers to incorporate them into a wide range of mobile devices, such as very thin netbooks and tablets and there is also an interesting expansion option.

The 40GB drive is priced at $99, while the 80GB version goes for $179.

[clamper1797]

That’s a bunch of Wumpus shit

[ShadowAce]

[martin_fierro]

Table made from a vintage, gigantic hard-drive. No idea what the capacity of the platter was -- probably like 8k.

[Still Thinking]

I used to work in a shop where part of the job was running thermal simulations on TRS-80's with a daisy wheel printer and bootable floppies. The calcs took so long on the anemic computers that you would just load your data and leave, then check back in a few hours to see if they were done. The problem was that the program would crash and you'd have to restart the entire process, or the calcs would run to completion and it would go into the printing stage, but the daisy wheel printer would sometimes crash, thus crashing the program, and you'd have to start all over....

You wouldn't believe what a transformation it was when we got our first DOS PC's (Compaq's) with laser printers. You'd go in (we still didn't have them on our desks) and enter your data, press go, and the results would start rolling out of the laser printer in just a few seconds. You could just wait for them and take them with you.

[Varmint Al]

OCZ OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G Vertex 2 Solid State Drive
Drive Type: Solid State Drive
Capacity: 60GB
Interface: SATA II
Interface Type: SATA
Write Speed: up to 275 MB/sec
Read Speed: up to 285 MB/sec
Form Factor: 2.5"
MTBF: 2,000,000 hrs.
Temperature, Operating (°C): 0 to 70
Temperature, Nonoperating (°C): -45 to 85
Shock, Operating: 2 msec (Gs): 1500

Formatting 60 Gb SATA hard drive partition takes about 30 minutes. Formatting this 60 Gb SSD takes 30 seconds. That is fast.
I have been running one of these on my base computer for about 6 months and it is solid and very reliable. No need to defrag either.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Some things about SSDs.

1. It doesn’t have to be all of none - can use SSDs along with conventional HDs to get the advantages of both - quick bootup from the SSD and cheap storage from the HD.
2. The failure pattern of SSD is more predictable than for HDs. A HD failure can happen basically anytime (although statistically rare) whereas the SSDs will fail after a quantifiable number of writes.
3. SSDs can operate in some environments where HDs cannot.

Point being it’s not *all* about price per GB.

[Dr. Sivana]

You remember 8” floppies too!?

Who needs floppies when a spool of DEC Tape can hod 700 blocks for $7?

[NerdDad]

Ok. Guess it’s time to date myself. My first IT job was on a 4381 mainframe. I still have a stack of 80-column cards in the back bedroom. I use them for bookmarks now. They have become handy conversation starters, especially in the computer classes I am taking. When we shut the old workplace down, I managed to snag the small SCSI 9-track tape drive that we were using to sneaker-net our EDI data from the PC over to the mainframe and back. Also a great conversation starter.

My first (personal) computer was the Osborne. I was an absolute wizard with that 5 inch CRT and 2 90k floppies. I built the RS232 interface to tie it to a Royal electronic typewriter. I was USAF back then (late 70s-early 80s) and the first admin weenie to put a computer on a squadron desktop. Those were magical days. When I wore that system out, my “upgrade” was to a Radio Shack Model 3. That DW-II printer was the fastest thing anyone had ever seen.

Nowadays, I carry 2 laptops along with my books to class. I have Windows on one and the other is usually running the flavor of the day of Linux distros. Being a prudent fellow, the wife’s laptop is the newest — Daddy gets the hand-me-downs. When I’m not taking classes, I work in the university IT shop now and am learning to love virtualization.