Intel SSD 710 and 720 Series

First making their existance known in April, Intel's new enterprise-grade 710 Series and 720 Series solid-state drives (SSDs) are inching closer to launch, with more specifications being known. The two series are very[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] distinct from each other, the 710 series codenamed "Lyndonville" comes in the 2.5-inch SATA form-factor, with SATA 3 Gb/s interface; while the 720 series codenamed "Ramsdale" comes in the PCI-Express add-on card form-factor, probably using the PCI-Express x8 interface.

Intel 710 series SSDs make use of new 25 nm MLC NAND flash, cached by 64 MB of DRAM. It comes in capacities of 100, 200, and 300 GB; offer transfer-rates of 270 MB/s read, 210 MB/s write; with 36,000 IOPS and 2,400 4K IOPS performance; and offers endurance of 500 TB for the 100 GB model, and 1 PB (petabyte, equals 1024 TB) for the 200 GB model on full capacity. The Intel 720 series SSDs use PCI-Express interface, 34 nm SLC NAND flash, comes in capaities of 200 GB and 400 GB; transfer rates of 2,200 MB/s read, 1,800 MB/s write; 180,000 IOPS with 56,000 IOPS 4K random write performance; and massive endurance figures of 36 PB for 200 GB (8K random writes).