Intel ships first solid-state drives

Intel has started shipping solid-state drives (SSD) for use in both desktop and laptop computers. Leveraging on multi-level cell flash memory chips for performance, the X-18M and X-25M SSDs are both SATA drives designed to fit into 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch drive bays respectively. They don't come cheap, costing upwards of $595 for just 80GB of storage in quantities of 1,000. These are no laggards though; by using 10x NAND flash channels with native command queuing, the 80GB drive can achieve read speeds of up to 250MB/sec and write speeds of 70-80MB/sec. Intel expects these drives to be available in products in the next few weeks.

For more on this:
- check out this Information Week article