Intel finally shows off SSDs

Intel has been talking up solid state hard drives (SSDs) for a while now, so it's somewhat surprising that we still have yet to see Intel-branded SSDs on store shelves. That could all change soon, however: the company finally showed off its SSDs at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai this past week. "I played the part of Guinea Pig and had one of our pre-production solid-state drives installed in my IT laptop...I was unprepared for the powerful instant high it gave my system," Intel R&D fellow Knut Grimsrud said in a blog post. "Then the day came that my SSD was retrieved for data mining...and my original hard-disk was put back into my laptop. There's no way to feel the pain quite as intensely as having to go back." While current evidence seems to suggest that SSDs aren't quite that fast, there's no denying that the drives can reduce I/O bottlenecks. Intel plans to ship 1.8" and 2.5" SSDs ranging from 80GB to 160GB during the second quarter of this year.

For more on Intel's SSD plans:
- see this Crave article