Introduction

We have been waiting on Intel's firmware update for a few weeks now. At the same time we knew Kingston would have their first consumer solid state drive built with Intel technology on the way to us. Little did we know that the two would arrive within days of each other.

If you missed the news reports, Intel launched an updated firmware for their X25-M Series of solid state drives. The new firmware is supposed to address issues found when specific data patterns are used in benchmarks. At the same time Intel used the opportunity to rework their algorithms for a little more oomph, not that the X25-M really needed anymore.

Kingston started out with a single product back in 1987 and is now one of the largest privately held companies in America. Every year Kingston adds to their product portfolio and in many cases if it has the Kingston "Redhead" on it you know it is the best product available.

Solid state storage technology has evolved faster than anyone could have dreamed. New retail drives are coming to market faster than were released at the height of the NVIDIA / ATI video card wars from just a few years ago. To be a player in this market you need to be able to throw hundreds of millions of Dollars towards R&D, spend months testing and by that time someone else has already came up with a competing product that out shines your latest creations. Another avenue would be to team up with a company that is already at the top. Since Kingston is dedicated to bringing the highest quality parts to market they have chosen to release solid state drives that meet their high expectations.