Intel Corporation announced today it is shipping its first solid-state drive (SSD) using industry leading 20-nanometer (nm) NAND flash memory process.

The new Intel Solid-State Drive 335 Series (Intel SSD 335 Series) uses the smallest, most efficient multi-level cell NAND flash on the market, allowing Intel to advance its 300 Series client/consumer SSDs to the next-generation technology. SSDs offer users an overall PC performance boost accelerating productivity applications and other computing activities, such as Web surfing, movie watching, video chatting and content creation.

The Intel SSD 335 Series is a 6 gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) SATA drive that can replace a traditional, slower operating hard disk drive (HDD) for faster access to files and programs. The Intel SSD 335 comes in a 240 gigabyte (GB) capacity that performs 500 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) sequential reads and 450 MB/s sequential writes to provide users a blend of cutting-edge performance and Intel quality at a consumer friendly price.

The product is Intel's first SSD to use the latest 20 nm NAND flash memory jointly developed by IM Flash Technologies (IMFT). Announced last April, with shipping beginning in December 2011, the 20 nm IMFT NAND uses a new cell structure that enables more aggressive cell scaling than conventional architectures. The 20 nm 64Gb NAND uses a planar cell structure -- the first in the industry -- to overcome the inherent difficulties that accompany advanced process technology, enabling performance and reliability on par with the previous 25 nm generation. The planar cell structure successfully breaks the scaling constraints of the standard NAND floating gate cell by integrating the first Hi-K/metal gate stack on NAND production.

"The Intel SSD 335 uses Hi-K/metal gate planar cell technology, which overcomes NAND process scaling constraints to deliver the smallest-area NAND cell and die in the industry," said Rob Crooke, Intel vice president and general manager for the Intel Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group. "By pushing technology constraints and using process innovation, Intel can continue to progress SSD technology and pass along savings to our customers."

The Intel SSD 335 Series offers best-in-class performance, quality and value. Measuring Random Input/Output (I/O) Operations per Second (IOPS) using 4KB IOPS, the Intel SSD 335 Series reads up to 42,000 IOPS and writes up to 52,000 IOPS. Available in a 2.5-inch form factor 9.5 mm case, it is a speedy replacement to a conventional HDD. Backed by a 3-year limited warranty, the Intel SSD 335 Series is available worldwide beginning today.

Also available for Intel SSD purchasers is the Intel SSD Toolbox with Intel SSD Optimizer, a free utility that provides Microsoft Windows users with a powerful set of management, information and diagnostic tools to help maintain the health and out-of-box performance of the drive. Available in 11 languages, the Intel SSD Toolbox is also Windows 8-compatible. To help ease the installation process, all Intel SSD users can download the free Intel Data Migration Software to help clone the entire content of a previous storage drive (SSD or HDD) to any Intel SSD.