Semiconductor manufacturer Intel introduced its first line of SSD (Solid State Drives) units last year and caught most of the competition off guard with impressive performance on all levels. However, one of the few problems reported was that of fragmentation. Fragmentation occurred during long periods of intense disk activity and lowered the overall performance of some X25-M drives. In some cases transfer speeds could be as low as 30-40MB/s, which is less than half of the specified speed of 80MB/s.
Recently Intel revealed a new firmware for its X25-M units and PC Perspective, the first site to test and document the fragmentation problems, has published a report on the new firmware.
“While I used to be ‘on the fence’ about this one, I can now say I will be using an X25-M in all of my primary systems. With the fragmentation effects minimized, the competition has that much more catching up to do. Good job, Intel.”
Intel once again shows us its thorough knowledge regarding NAND based flash drives and SSD’s. As the new 8820 firmware not only maintains a good level of performance but also is able to restore the performance of a heavily defragmented drive.
An honourable achievement by Intel, which shows us that the success of the X25 family of drives wasn’t pure luck or chance.
