When Intel released the X25-M 2.5” SSD back in 2008, they revolutionized the storage market and created an entirely new segment of product that generated growth opportunities across the entire computer industry. Today, Solid State Drives are utilized in a wide range of applications including general purpose computing, gaming, workstations, data center, storage, and a growing number of verticals. Intel’s leadership in continuing to introduce new technologies that include PCIe SSD, high capacity QLC NAND, Optane Memory, and unique form factors such as M.2, U.2, and E1 (Ruler) have ensured the expansion of the product category for all resellers.
Intel’s family of Solid State Drives are positioned in two categories including Data Center and Client where they offer a range of solutions that are tailored for each market. Intel’s product mix of SSDs are designed to deliver performance, reliability, endurance, and capacity to all segments.
Why Intel Solid State Drives – Value Proposition
Manufacturing
- NAND – Own Factories manufacturing Flash since 1986 as well as first to produce PCIe QLC product
- Controller – Own Silicon for SSD controllers
- Firmware – Develop own firmware for all Intel SSD products
Quality
- Reliability – High standard across all products
- Testing – Conducted over 5,000 unique tests on over 1,000 configurations
- Endurance – 60 DWPD on Optane
- Validation – Platform alignment and co-validation
- Warranty – 5 Years
Innovation
- 3D NAND
- QLC NAND
- Optane Memory
- NVMe/PCIe Transition leadership
- M.2 and U.2 Form Factor Introduction and transition leadership
- E1 (Ruler) Standardization and development
Support
- Tools – SSD DC, TCO, and Endurance Tools
- Software – RSTe / VROC, SPDK, and CAS (Cache Acceleration Software)
Intel Data Center Solid State Drives
Intel categorizes their Data Center drives which are designed for performance, endurance, and capacity in four groups, which include D1 for the value segment, D3 for legacy drives, D5 for capacity optimized applications, and D7 which are engineered for high-end mixed workloads and higher endurance.
Intel Part Number Structure for Data Center SSD
Intel follows the below structure for their naming guidance for data center SSD. As an example the Intel DC-4801X is defined as follows.
DC = Intel Optane Technology
P = PCIe
4 = 4th Generation Controller
8 = Very High Endurance 60 DWPD
0 = 1st Media on controller
1 = Low Power
X = Intel Optane Technology
Intel D7 Series SSD
Intel’s D7 series of Solid State Drives are built specifically to accommodate cloud and data center workloads. Utilizing 96 or 64 layer TLC NAND and PCIe/NVMe interface for greater bandwidth, Intel’s D7 series of SSD deliver high performance and greater endurance. Improved QoS is ensured with an intelligent firmware algorithm that helps to keep data reads and writes at an optimum balance to improve storage efficiency enabling data centers to do more per server. Other features include TCG Opal 2.0 and built-in AES-XTX 256 bit encryption, which is required by some secure platforms.
| Features at-a-Glance | P5600 | P5500 | P4610 | P4618 | P4510 | P4511 | P4501 |
| Capacity | 1.6 TB, 3.2 TB, and 6.4 TB | 1.92TB, 3.84TB, 7.8TB | 1.6 TB, 3.2 TB, 6.4 TB, and 7.68 TB | 6.4 TB | 1,2,4,8TB | 1, 2 TB | 500GB, 1, 2, 4 TB |
| 128k Sequential Read/Write | Up to 7000/4300 MB/s | Up to 7000/3500 MB/s | Up to 3200/3200 MB/s | Up to 6650/5350 MB/s | Up to 3200/3000 MB/s | Up to 1950/1000 MB/s | Up to 3100/860 MB/s |
| Random 4KB R/W: | Up to 1000K/260K IOPS | Up to 780K/118K IOPS | Up to 654K/220K IOPs | Up to 1210K/484.5K IOPs | Up to 637,000/139,000 IOPS | Up to 295,000/31,000 IOPS | Up to 361,000/46,700 IOPS |
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe* 3.1 x4 | PCIe* 3.1 x8 | PCIe* 3.1 x4 | PCIe* 3.1 x4 | PCIe* 3.1 x4 |
| Form Factor | U.2 2.5in x 15mm | U.2 2.5in x 15mm | U.2 2.5in x 15mm | HHHL Add-in Card | U.2 2.5in x 15mm | M.2 22x110mm | 2.5 in x 7mm |
| Media | Intel® 3D 96-layer TLC | Intel® 3D 96-layer TLC | Intel® 3D 64-layer TLC | Intel® 3D 64-layer TLC | Intel® 3D 64-layer TLC | Intel® 3D 64-layer TLC | Intel® 3D 64-layer TLC |
| Endurance | Up to 3 DWPD | Up to 1 DWPD | Up to 3 DWPD | Up to 3 DWPD | Up to 3 DWPD | Up to 3 DWPD | Up to 4.99 PBW |
| Power | Up to 20W | Up to 18W | Up to 15 Watt | Up to 29 Watt | Up to 16 watt | Up to 7.6 Watt | Up to 12.5 Watt |
| Warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty |
Note – (U.2 is ideal for serviceability supporting hot-plug capability)
Intel D5 Series SSD
The Intel D5 series of SSDs deliver large, affordable, and reliable storage to the warm data tier. As the first PCIe SSD to utilize Intel QLC NAND, the D5 series are optimized for mixed storage workloads found in the data center. The D5 also is home to the revolutionary P4326 which introduces the E.1L (Ruler) a new form factor to the storage market that starts with capacities of 15.36TB.
| Features at-a-Glance | P4320 | P4326 | P4420 |
| Capacity | 7.68 TB | 15.36TB | 7.68 TB |
| 128k Sequential Read/Write | Up to 3200/1000 MB/s | Up to 3200/1600 MB/s | Up to 3200/1000 MB/s |
| Random 4KB R/W: | Up to 427K/36K IOPs | Up to 580K/11K IOPs | Up to 427K/36K IOPS |
| Interface | PCIe* 3.1 x4 | PCIe* 3.1 x4 | PCIe* 3.1 x4 |
| Form Factor | U.2 2.5in x 15mm | U.2 2.5in x 15mm and E.1L (Ruler) | U.2 2.5in x 15mm |
| Media | Intel® 3D QLC | Intel® 3D QLC | Intel® 3D 64-Layer QLC |
| Endurance | Up to 2.8 PBW | Up to 5 PBW | Up to 5.6 PBW |
| Power | Up to 15 Watt | Up to 20 Watt | Up to 15 watt |
| Warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty |
Note – (U.2 is ideal for serviceability supporting hot-plug capability)
Intel D3 Series SSD
The Intel D3 Series SSD are built for compatibility in legacy infrastructures by minimizing the cost associated with modernizing a data center. Available in a range of capacities and in a standard 2.5” form factor consuming 6x lower power and cooling, these SATA based SSDs can store up to 3.2x more data in the same space as comparable HDDs.
| Features at-a-Glance | S4610 | S4510 |
| Capacity | 960GB, 3.84TB | 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, 1.9TB, 3.84TB |
| 128k Sequential Read/Write | Up to 560/510 MB/s | Up to 560/510 MB/s |
| Random 4KB R/W: | Up to 96K/42K IOPs | Up to 97K/32K IOPs |
| Interface | SATA 3.0 | SATA 3.0 |
| Form Factor | 2.5 in x 7mm | 2.5 in x 7mm |
| Media | Intel® 3D TLC | Intel® 3D TLC |
| Endurance | Up to 22 PBW | Up to 13.1 PBW |
| Power | Up to 3.7 Watt | Up to 3.6 Watt |
| Warranty | 5-year limited warranty | 5-year limited warranty |