Intel's Z68 Chipset to Bring SSD Caching to Sandy Bridge

MacRumors · Feb 28, 2011

VR-Zone reports (via Hardmac) that Intel has begun production of its new "Z68" chipset for Sandy Bridge-based processors, with availability set for May. Most notably in light of rumors regarding the new MacBook Pro that failed to materialize, the Z68 chipset will support Intel's Rapid Storage Technology SSD caching.

Interestingly, Intel has also started production of their Z68 chipset this week along with other Cougar Point SKUs like H61 and Q65. All of them are based on the new B3 stepping therefore the SATA port 2-5 issue is fixed before they hit the market. Judging from the specs, it seems Intel has catered Z68 specially for enthusiasts which allows better processor overclocking, discrete graphics support and SSD caching capability.

SSD caching marries a conventional hard drive to a relatively small solid-state drive (SSD), with the most frequently-accessed data automatically placed on the SSD for fast access while the two drives appear to users simply as a single drive. The functionality serves to bring users much of the speed benefit of SSDs but with the storage capacity and lower cost of traditional hard drives.

Several rumors in the days leading up to last week's MacBook Pro refresh claimed that the updated models would offer a dedicated SSD to host the operating system and other essential files. The claims did not, however, come to fruition.

Article Link: Intel's Z68 Chipset to Bring SSD Caching to Sandy Bridge

2499723 · Feb 28, 2011

And I just bought a new MBP 13"....

ghostlines · Feb 28, 2011

mac1984user said:
And I just bought a new MBP 13"....

It's not like they're going to incorporate this anytime soon anyway. This solution is handy because SSD's are still kinda expensive, but I think it would be better to bite the bullet and buy an SSD even if it's not that big.

sevimli · Feb 28, 2011

I thought this is a chipset for desktops.

Jarbo · Feb 28, 2011

New BTO MBP with a 256 SSD on order and it's already out of date.

And so it goes.

notabadname · Feb 28, 2011

Jarbo said:
New BTO MBP with a 256 SSD on order and it's already out of date.

And so it goes.

You should be excited about the blazing new performance of you coming MBP. These chips aren't going to be in a Mac next week. You will have the latest and greatest for a while - enjoy

Cabbit · Feb 28, 2011

Give em 5 years and we'll have a computer on a chip from intel for laptops complete with storage, graphics, processing, memory, and several thunderbolt ports.

Apple Expert · Feb 28, 2011

Maybe for the MacBook Air?

locovaca · Feb 28, 2011

This has been around for years

Obviously nobody remembers Turbo Memory. This is just embedding it into the board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Turbo_Memory

It did very little to improve performance and actually hurt performance in several areas.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2252

canyonblue737 · Feb 28, 2011

Apple Expert said:
Maybe for the MacBook Air?

Ummm... no. The Macbook Air has an ALL SSD drive already, that's why they seem so fast despite slow processors. The idea here is to give the Pros the benefit of the SSD speed (for the OS) paired with the huge capacity of conventional drives (1 TB etc.)

I think this is likely to come LATE 2011, or for sure first half of 2012.

hcho3 · Feb 28, 2011

Coming to next MBP on this holiday.

ghostlyorb · Feb 28, 2011

Cool! I wonder if Apple will use this next year?

haruhiko · Feb 28, 2011

I'm quite confident that we'll see another refresh of the MBP some time in October 2011.

Popeye206 · Feb 28, 2011

I was really hoping for the SSD for the OS rumor... I thought that would have been great... but looks like it might be more widespread soon.

vincenz · Feb 28, 2011

Kinda makes me glad I held out in getting an SSD for my MBP. It's still a very nascent technology and there's still tons of improvements being made over a short period of time.

I think I might just hold off on it for another 2-3 years when it's time to upgrade the computer. For sure SSDs will be likely mainstream by then.

wizard · Feb 28, 2011

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Is this not a desktop chip?

Even so as someone else mentioned most people would be better off biting the bullet and installing a true SSD suitable for their needs. Since most people don't need a lot of storage on a fast disk this should not be a problem.

Tears Apart · Feb 28, 2011

Under the light of this news...

EDIT: found this is for desktops only...

Umbongo · Feb 28, 2011

THIS IS FOR DESKTOPS

It just adds SSD caching and on-die GPU support over P67.

H67 is also currently available with on-die GPU support but you can't overclock memory like you can on a P67 chipset.

John.B · Feb 28, 2011

Jarbo said:
New BTO MBP with a 256 SSD on order and it's already out of date.

And so it goes.

Nope, this will be for those of us who continue to live in the world of HDDs with spinning platters. That new MBP w/ SSD is still golden.

velocityg4 · Feb 28, 2011

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This has limited uses. Enthusiasts will be disappointed by the SSD size in hybrids and just use separate SSD and platter HD. For the average consumer the 64GB should be the standard and only drive in a computer.

Most people's total files do not take up more than a DVD. The vast majority of space is taken by apps and OS.

Cabbit · Feb 28, 2011

velocityg4 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)
Most people's total files do not take up more than a DVD. The vast majority of space is taken by apps and OS.

Not by there photos, videos, and music?

Salacion · Feb 28, 2011

Not exactly exciting when you really think about what this means.

Hellhammer · Feb 28, 2011

velocityg4 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

This has limited uses. Enthusiasts will be disappointed by the SSD size in hybrids and just use separate SSD and platter HD. For the average consumer the 64GB should be the standard and only drive in a computer.

Most people's total files do not take up more than a DVD. The vast majority of space is taken by apps and OS.

Can't you put there as big SSD as you want? This allows you to create your own hybrid drive as there haven't been any good ones in the market. IMO this is pretty interesting feature but I want to see it in action before making any further conclusions.

mactactic · Feb 28, 2011

October mbp update here we come

I knew there was a reason I didn't jump and and buy a new mbp this week.

steeex · Feb 28, 2011

that and a 1440x900 screen on a MBP 13" and I'll sell my 15" i7 right away...

Intel's Z68 Chipset to Bring SSD Caching to Sandy Bridge

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