Intel stops shipping SSDs following discovery of data loss

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

EnterpriseStorageForum.com reported on Monday that Intel has stopped shipping its new solid state storage devices, which have been on the market for less than a month. The latest crop of flash-based SSDs have been the subject of a lot of discussion in HPC, but not too much implementation

Intel logoIntel (NASDAQ: INTC) has halted shipments of its new X25-M and X18-M solid state drives (SSDs) after discovering a problem that could cause data corruption. The new drives were the result of a joint venture with Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) and used a new 34 nanometer manufacturing process that was supposed to offer more storage density at a lower cost.

…Intel found that if a user sets up a BIOS password on the SSD, then disables or changes the password, the contents of the drive become corrupted and irretrievably lost.

Intel has a fix and is working to implement it, at which time it will presumably begin shipping again. Not a good start for this relatively new class of device (not SSDs, but flash-based SSDs), though it it heartening that this problem seems to be entirely implementation-dependent, not having anything to do with the flash-storage technology itself.

Trackbacks

  1. […] Found via InsideHPC (quoting EnterpriseStorageForum.com): Intel found that if a user sets up a BIOS password on the SSD, then disables or changes the password, the contents of the drive become corrupted and irretrievably lost. […]

  2. […] Read more here: Intel stops shipping SSDs following discovery of data loss … […]