Solid-State Drive Toolbox Released by Intel®
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Thursday, 05 November 2009 12:01 |
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 The general availability of the Intel® Solid-State Drive (SSD) Toolbox, with Intel® SSD Optimizer and firmware update, for its 34nm Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs has been revealed by Intel after the release of Windows 7. These new tools are being introduced in order to help better manage and retain the out-of-box performance of Intel SSDs.
SSD's were introduced in order to replace a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) by adding more performance, decreasing power power consumption and offering higher reliability. Users can monitor and manage the SSD's health better by using the Intel SSD Toolbox. The firmware upgrade and Intel SSD Optimizer are taking benefit from the Windows 7 ATA Data Set Management Command which is also known as Trim in order to help keep the Intel SSD running at a sustained high performance, and in addition to this, the SSD Toolbox and Optimizer also permits the respective enhancements to work with the older Windows XP and Vista operating systems.
Director of marketing, Intel NAND Solutions Group, Pete Hazen, declared: "Fast and reliable access to data is critical for our SSD users." He added: "The latest firmware and toolbox upgrade for Intel 34nm SSD users provide a host of new management, information and diagnostic tools to help SSDs retain out-of-box performance. We are encouraging our 34nm customers to download the new firmware update today. Not only will Windows 7 users receive the performance enhancements of the Trim command, but so will our Windows XP and Vista users."
The owners of 34nm X25-M 160GB could be very excited because the firmware update also offers a performance boost to sequential write speeds by delivering up to 100MB per second, which represents a 40 percent performance improvement over the existing firmware version.
Often called just Trim, the Trim attribute of the ATA Data Set Management Command is able to synchronize the operating system's view of deleted files with those that are deleted, but not erased on the drive. Trim reveales to the SSD which data blocks are no longer in use and so helping stabilize the performance and health of the SSD over time.
Comparing Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) drive attributes to manufacturer threshold, the Intel SSD Toolbox is used to provide SSD management tools and information about the drive. It is able to provide basic and full diagnostics followed by recommended actions. An easy-to-use graphical user interface is shown by The Toolbox which will allow end users to schedule and run the Trim command separate of the operating system. Intel is recommending users to install the firmware update and toolbox, and to run the Trim function daily if they want to ensure best performance. Visit www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware and the Intel SSD Toolbox and Optimizer at www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox if you want to download the firmare upgrade and the Intel SSD Toolbox.
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