Intel SSD 525 Series: Blistering Fast mSATA Storage for Ultrabooks

Lest anyone question Intel's commitment to its Ultrabook platform, the Santa Clara chip maker today announced an enthusiast-grade mSATA solid state drive (SSD) with a 6Gbps interface. The new Intel SSD 525 Series measures just 3.7mm x 50.8mm x 29.85mm and weighs a mere 10 grams, but is super quick on the draw with random read performance of up to 50,000 IOPS and random write performance of up to 80,000 IOPS.

Intel also rates its new mSATA SSD at being capable of up to 550MB/s in sequential read performance and up to 520MB/s in sequential write performance. By all means, this is a top-performing SSD in a space saving body that should help pave the way for faster, thinner Ultrabooks, as well as embedded applications like Intel's Next Unit of Computing (NUC) PC.

Intel mSATA SSD

"The Intel SSD 525 Series is Intel’s latest 6Gbps mSATA product, which brings high performance to an ultra-portable form factor targeted for Ultrabooks and a myriad of embedded solutions," said James Slattery, product line manager for Intel Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group Client SSDs. "Intel SSDs reduce the risk of data loss due to shock, vibration or jarring. With these new performance thresholds available in a small form factor package, and backed by Intel quality and reliability, the Intel SSD 525 opens the door to an unlimited number of creative embedded solutions such as in-flight entertainment, mobile workstations, microservers and IP phone storage."

Built with 25nm multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory, Intel says it's new SSDs are both fast and secure with support for 128-bit AES encryption.

The new drives will be available in 30GB, 60GB, 90GB, 120GB, 180GB, and 240GB capacities; 120GB and 180GB capacities have already started shipping.