Intel is the latest player to enter the solid state drive (SSD) arena. The Intel Z-U130 Value Solid State Drive will come in capacities of 1GB, 2GB, 4GB or 8GB. Read and write speeds will reach 28MB/second and 20Mb/s respectively. It will use a USB connector whereas other manufacturers, like Samsung and PQI, have offered not only bigger capacities but faster interfaces such as SATA.
Like other SSDs, the benefits over traditional hard drives are faster boot times, embedded code storage, rapid data access and reduced power consumption.
Intel plans to use its SSDs in a variety of Intel-based computing platforms but the press release does not any pricing information.
Meanwhile SSD prices continue to plummet as SanDisk announces that it will offer a 32GB serial ATA 2.5-inch SSD for $350 USD for large volume orders to computer manufacturers.