Intel 34nm SSD Gets Upgraded Firmware

29th October, 2009 by adina
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Intel’s current-generation 34 nanometer solid-state drives will benefit from a firmware update that could significantly increase their performance. The X25-M supports now the Trim command (ATA Data Set Management Command) which avoids unnecessarily rewriting to the disk by recognizing and shuffling unused data blocks, such as those left by deleted files. This will speed up the overall transfer speed. Trim allows the operating system to pass this information on down to the SSD controller, which otherwise would not know those blocks could be sent to trash.

Actual improvement can differ from a drive to another according to its capacity. The write speed can go from 70MB per second up to 100MB per second for a 160GB unit.

The Trim command works best in Windows 7 which recognizes it natively. Windows XP and Vista can also use the Trim command through an SSD Optimizer and Toolbox which periodically refreshes the drive.

The Trim command is not yet recognized by Mac OS X and other operating systems, but future software updates could make them recognize it.


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