INTRODUCTION

   Intel may be the leading manufacturer of high and ultra-high performance CPUs and mainboard chipsets as we speak (and has been for quite some time now) but they are also one of the most trusted SSD manufacturers around (although certainly not as popular as in the CPU market) with a global market share of around 23%. Now we all know that Intel gathers the spotlight each and every time they release a new CPU line (take the latest Core i7 68xx/69xx for example) but the same doesn't happen with their SSDs and that might just be one of the reasons they are just not as popular as with their CPUs. The most recent example of that is with the release of their 535 Series of SSDs (successor to their 530 Series) back in April of 2015 which as you may have figured out by now was not really advertised and thus just a few reviews made it online all over the world. Today we finally have a sample of our own to test and see just how it compares against many similar models currently available in the market.

   Intel pushes the boundaries of innovation so our work can make people's lives more exciting, fulfilling, and manageable. And our work never stops. We never stop looking for the next leap ahead—in technology, education, culture, manufacturing, and social responsibility. And we never stop striving to deliver solutions with greater benefits for everyone. It began with the Intel® microprocessor, the invention that sparked a revolution. Intel's history of developing groundbreaking technology continues today. We attract the most brilliant minds in science to push the boundaries of innovation and further our position as the world's leader in semiconductor technology. Our passion is to create technology that changes the world.

   Since the 535 Series of SSDs was launched as a slight upgrade to the 530 Series Intel didn't change much so once again under the hood we find an Intel BF29AS41BB0 8-channel NAND flash controller (basically an slightly tweaked Seagate/Avago/LSI SF-2281 controller) which offers several interesting features/technologies like NCQ (Native Command Queuing), RAISE (error correction, RAID like protection and recovery), DuraClass (advanced wear leveling and monitoring algorithms), DuraWrite (up to 20x or more the flash endurance compared to other controllers), DevSleep (ultra-low power consumption), AES 256 bit encryption, TRIM and intelligent garbage collection. What Intel changed from the 530 Series to the 535 Series was the NAND flash modules since whereas the 530 series had 20nm MLC NAND flash by SK Hynix the 535 Series has 16nm MLC NAND flash again by SK Hynix so although it's safe to assume that Intel followed this path to further reduce costs differences in performance should be very small (unfortunately since we never got our hands an 530 Series sample we can't do a direct comparison). The 535 Series is currently available in 56/120/180/240/360/480GB capacities and today we'll be checking out the 240GB model.