Register Hardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/23/intel_centrino_2_ssd_push/

Intel to use Centrino 2 to promote solid-state drives

By Tony Smith
Published Friday 23rd May 2008 09:39 GMT

Intel will offer to bundle its promised solid-state drives with its upcoming Centrino 2 platform, it has been claimed. The plan is being portrayed as a bid to push SSDs into the mainstream.

Today, SSDs generally command a significant premium over the price of equivalent notebooks fitted with a hard drive. Quite how far Intel will use the bundle approach to drive down the cost of implementing SSDs remains to be seen.

Centrino 2 - codenamed 'Montevina' - is due to debut late June (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/21/intel_mobile_roadmap/), according to industry moles. Back in March, Intel executive Troy Winslow said the chip giant would ship 80GB and 160GB 2.5in- and 1.8in-format SSDs (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/11/intel_to_launch_laptop_ssds/) in Q2, so the timing of both product types could easily coincide.

According to insiders cited (http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20080522PD214.html) by Digitimes, the Flash drives will be branded Intel High Performance SSD, with the model codes X25-M and X18-M for 2.5in and 1.8in sizes, respectively. The first SSDs will be 80GB. They'll use a SATA interface.

That makes the 1.8in model a logical update for Apple's MacBook Air - reviewed here (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/11/review_macbook_air/) - allowing the company to deliver a second-gen machine that connects to storage over a SATA bus rather than the slower, parallel ATA bus the current version uses. The report claims the 160GB version won't arrive until late Q4, with 250GB SSDs following next year.