Intel’s Braidwood: Death to SSDs?

Intel’s upcoming Braidwood technology is likely to stifle SSD acceptance, finds a new report by Objective Analysis. PC purchasers who were considering an SSD upgrade will find NAND on the motherboard to be a cheaper alternative with nearly all the same benefits.

Objective Analysis has published an in-depth examination of the upcoming Braidwood technology and its market in a new report, Intel’s Braidwood: Death to SSDs? that explains the technology, explores its market, and reveals the outlook for the coming years.

"NAND has a role in the PC platform and Braidwood promises to be the right implementation at the right time," said Jim Handy, the report’s author. "Although this isn’t the first time that Intel has tried to bring NAND into the PC, the earlier Turbo Memory product failed for a number of reasons."

This 50-page report is an in-depth review of the market for NAND in the PC, exploring Braidwood technology, implementation costs, and expected benefits, as it explains how those benefits compare against alternatives like SSDs, larger DRAMs, and standard PCs.

The report projects how the move to NAND in PCs will boost the NAND market, soften the SSD and DRAM markets, and pose problems for those NAND makers who are not poised to produce ONFi NAND flash. The technology’s impact is discussed for NAND makers Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix, Intel, Micron, and Numonyx, along with DRAM manufacturers and SSD suppliers.

Readers will learn how Braidwood technology works and why it is likely to meet with rapid acceptance. They will also understand how and why NAND on the motherboard will impact the SSD and DRAM markets.