Intel has made available availability new small form factor and high-capacity versions of the Intel SSD DC S3500 Series, which now offer up to 1.6TB of capacity. Intel has also boosted the capacity of its M.2 form factor flash expansion card so that it can be used as a mass storage device and not a client boot drive.

Intel's latest S3500 2.5-in form factor SSD comes in two new capacities, 1.2TB and 1.6TB. The new 2.5-in. S3500 SSD models have a top performance of 75,000 read IOPS and 18,500 write IOPS.

The new S3500 M.2 expansion card comes in 80GB, 120GB and 340GB models.

The M.2 form factor, roughly the size of a stick of gum, delivers performance, hardware-based AES 256-bit encryption and power loss protection.
These features meet the demands of server boot, micro server storage and embedded devices such as ATMs, digital signage and point-of-sale systems.

The M.2 flash card has a sequential read/write performance of up to 500MBps and 460MBps, respectively and a random performance of 67,000 read I/Os per second (IOPS) and 8,300 write IOPS.

The S3500 series SSDs can sustain up to three full drive writes per day - 880TB in writes over a lifetime. They have a 2-million hours mean time between failures rating, according to Intel. Both the 2.5-in. and the M.2 S3500 SSDs come with five-year warranties.

Intel also upgraded its NAND flash controller with additional I/O paths to address the higher density products.

Recommended customer pricing for the 2.5-in. S3500 SSD is set at $1,099 for the 1.2TB version and $1,444 for the 1.6TB drive. The M.2 card will sell for $99 for 80GB, $124 for 120GB and $314 for 340GB.