Intel already sold a similar line of SSDs introduced last year, but the new devices operate more quickly. The 20GB 313 model has a sequential read/write speed of up to 220MB per second, while the 24GB model can reach 160MB per second. The older 311 models topped out at 200MB per second.

The new SSDs are being made using a 25-nanometer manufacturing process, while their predecessor was made using a 34-nm process. The new drives are also single-level cell (SLC) drives, in which one bit of data is stored per cell. Intel says the SLC SSDs offer 10 times more endurance than multi-level cell (MLC) SSDs, in which bits of data are stored at multiple levels in each cell. Most of Intel's high-capacity SSD 500 and 700 series are MLC SSDs.