SSDs are growing in popularity for notebooks and netbooks as they are lighter and use less power than hard drives. They are also used in situations where faster operation is importnat.

Originally manufactured using a 50nm process, the 80G and 160G X25-M will now be made using a 34nm process.

The new versions reduce latency by 25 percent to 65 microseconds, and double random write speeds to up to 6600 4K write operations per second.

The 80G SSD now lists at $US225 for quantities up to 1000 (compared with $US595 on introduction), while the 160G drive costs $US440 in the same volume (vs $945 on introduction).

A 34nm version of the X18-M 1.8in SSD will ship later this quarter.

"Our goal was to not only be first to achieve 34nm NAND flash memory lithography, but to do so with the same or better performance than our 50nm version,” said Randy Wilhelm, vice president and general manager of Intel's NAND solutions group.

"We made quite an impact with our breakthrough SSDs last year, and by delivering the same or even better performance with today’s new products, our customers, both consumers and manufacturers, can now enjoy them at a fraction of the cost," he added.