Intel Preps 3D TLC NAND PCIe SSD

As one of the pioneers in the consumer SSD market, Intel has been at the forefront in flash storage innovation. While the company has fallen behind in leadership of the regular SSD market, they haven’t given up on it. According to a new leak, Intel is readying a new series of drives to replace their 600 series of performance PCIe SSDs. Using the M.2 2280 form factor, the new 610P SSDs feature TLC 3D NAND, a first for Intel.

As expected, the NAND comes from IMFT, the joint venture with Micron. The drive comes in 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities. Interestingly, Intel has chosen to use TLC for the performance series. TLC due to its fundamental nature has lower performance than MLC but allows for larger capacities at a lower price. With the advent of SLC caching and 3D NAND though, TLC has been able to deliver acceptable performance. It will be interesting to see if Intel will be able to deliver on their performance expectations.

In addition to the M.2 2280 drive, there will also be an M.2 1620 drive. This is a BGA form factor for use in notebooks and small form factor devices. This variant will come in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB capacities. There is no word yet on the controller, specifications, or price but the release date is supposedly Q4 2017.