The Future Is PCI Express!

Yes! Intel is going PCIe! Together with the launch of the Intel 520 series and Intel 710 series SSDs, Intel will also introduce their first solid state drives based on the PCI Express interface. If you have no idea what a PCI Express solid state drive is, take a look a good example, the OCZ RevoDrive.

Using PCI Express would allow Intel to far exceed the performance of even the new SATA 6 Gb/s interface. Their use of a PCI Express x4 revision 2.0 interface allows for a peak transfer rate of 16 Gbits/s, or about 2.5x faster than SATA 6 Gb/s.

Of course, the faster interface is only one part of the equation. These new Intel PCI Express SSDs will make use of multiple SSD controllers and RAID technology to enable sustained throughputs of up to 1.6 GB/s (that's gigaBYTES, not gigaBITS)! The downside - higher power consumption and thermal output. Let's take a look at these new drives :

Intel 330P Series Solid State Drive

These is essentially the PCI Express version of the newly-released Intel 320 series SSD, albeit with dual flash controllers and an integrated RAID 0 controller. Hence, the 330P series has twice the performance of the 320 series. However, it is only available in 3 capacities - 80 GB, 120 GB and 160 GB.

Intel 530P Series Solid State Drive

These is the PCI Express version of the Intel 520 series SSD. Like the 330P, it will have dual flash controllers and an integrated RAID 0 controller. For some reason though, the Intel 530P is less than twice as fast as the Intel 520 SSD.

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