Tim Smalley of bit-tech fame recently managed to spend some quality time with Intel's upcoming X18-M 80GB SSD during the IDF show that is being held in San Francisco.

 

X18 is the mainstream SSD from Intel based on SATA interface operating at 3GB/s. Tim was presumably able to convince Intel to allow him to open up the drive and get an inside look at the chips and PCB. The controller chip was actually removed to prevent the drive from making its way into competitors' hands well ahead of the planned availability date.

 

There are a grand total of ten 8GB NAND flash chips (it was not mentioned if they are SLC or MLC) with five chips on each side of the PCB. There is also an additional Samsung K4S281632I-UC60 SDRAM chip which is probably used for buffering and Advanced Dynamic Write Leveling, according to the story.

 

For a close up look inside Intel's upcoming 80GB SSD, head on over to this link for the goods.