The Intel Mainstream series of 2.5" SSDs feature a native SATA interface with support for Native Command Queueing (up to 32 concurrent operations ), and an advanced architecture that employs 10 parallel NAND flash channels to deliver very fast transfer rates while utilizing multi-level cell NAND flash memory to reduce cost and increase storage capacity. To improve reliability, these mainstream SSDs use a proprietary write-leveling algorithm to spread the writes over the entire drive.

There are actually two variants of the X25-M mainstream SSD - the first-generation X25-M which is based on 50 nm NAND flash memory, and the second-generation X25-M based on 34 nm NAND flash memory. Today, we will be taking a look at the second-generation X25-M mainstream SSD, one with a storage capacity of 160 GB.