Intel Corp. has temporarily suspended shipments of its latest solid-state drives that utilize multi-level cell (MLC) flash made using 34nm process technology. Apparently, the company has found a bug in its firmware that causes data corruption.

According to numerous reports citing Intel, when a user sets a password in BIOS to limit accessibility to the drive and then either changes or removes it, data becomes corrupted. If a password is not set, the error does not occur. In order to fix the issue, Intel needs to update the firmware on its X25-M second generation SSDs, which effectively suspends shipments.

Compared to its previous 50nm version, the new Intel X25-M offers 25% reduction in latency for quicker data access. Besides, Intel X25-M delivers 6600 4KB write IOPS and up to 35000 read IOPS. The original Intel X25-M features up to 250MB/s sequential read speed and up-to 70MB/s sequential write speed and offers 1.2 million hours MTBF. Actual performance figures for the new X25-M were not revealed now.

New channel prices for the X25-M 80GB are $225 for quantities up to 1000 units (a 60% reduction from the original introduction price of $595 a year ago). The 160GB version is $440 (down from $945 at introduction) for quantities up to 1000 units. The X25-M comes in a standard 2.5” form factor.

Tags: Intel, SSD, 34nm, X25-M, Failures