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Analyst: Intel's Braidwood Flash Module Could Kill SSD
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Jason Mick/DailyTech
September 04, 2009
Turbo memory is returning in 2010, says
chipmaker Intel. Intel’s original Turbo
Memory, which first debuted in 2006, was less than well
received. While it shipped millions of units by Intel’s own
estimates, reviews of the product were lukewarm. Armed with new
drivers and a new plan, this time around Intel believes it has what
it takes to achieve a much greater success.
Intel’s upcoming
Turbo Memory successor, Braidwood, will consist of NAND flash
module residing on “5 Series” motherboards (used with the
upcoming Westmere 32 nm processors) and serve as a cache for
all reads and writes. Capacities will be approximately 4GB to
16GB, and the cost increase will be approximately $10 to $20 per
system, according to analyst Jim Handy, who authored a recent report
on Braidwood. The technology is set to launch in the
first quarter of 2010, though it may be delayed.
Some former
skeptics of Turbo Memory have become Braidwood believers.
Some are even going as far as to say that it could send the
burgeoning SSD market reeling.
Mr. Handy is among those convinced that the new product will trouble
solid state drive markers. He points out that the new cache
uses SLC (single level cell) NAND, which is approximately a quarter
of the cost of the DRAM traditionally used in caches.
Meanwhile, it provides better performance than most solid state
drives, which use the cheaper, but lower performance MLC (multi-level
cell) NAND.
He states, “The move to NAND in PCs will
boost the NAND market, soften the SSD and DRAM markets and pose
problems for those NAND makers who are not poised to produce ONFi
(open NAND flash interface) NAND flash.”
Traditionally,
performance has been the strongest selling point of SSDs. Other
benefits include lower power consumption and increased reliability
over hard disc drives.
If the SSD market suffers, Intel could
be hurting itself. Intel currently
makes two relatively well selling drives — the X25-M and the
X25-E. The company, however, disagrees with Mr. Handy’s
analysis.
Intel responded to the analyst’s remarks, stating,
“It’s not just the performance, but also the added
reliability…[SSDs] can help facilitate versus a hard drive. We see
a long life ahead for SSDs, and won’t stop inventing a variety of
other technologies that make computers faster and/or more energy
efficient.”
However, Mr. Handy counters, “If you
really get down to what makes consumers buy SSD, the reliability
issue is not something they often cite as reason [for] spending extra
money on an SSD.”
According to Mr. Handy current SSD
makers — Toshiba, Samsung, Hynix, Micron — as well as DRAM
suppliers will be most effected. He believes that if SSDs no
longer offer significantly superior performance, few will buy them
for their improved reliability and lower power consumption, when hard
drive power consumption is already low in comparison to other system
components and most drives are already relatively reliable.
He
concludes, “Intel has got a very good [SSD] product. But, they
view additional layers of NAND technology in PCs as inevitable. They
don’t think SSDs are likely to take over 100% of the PC market, but
they do think Braidwood could find itself in 100% of PCs.”
_© 2009, DailyTech
