Intel has built over 10 million QLC NAND-powered SSDs – QLC is becoming mainstream

QLC NAND is a gamechanger for the SSD market, offering users high storage speeds and low pricing. Within the market, Intel is a leader, with its 660p series SSD seeing a lot of usage amongst both OEM system builders and home builders alike. 

Intel has confirmed that it has created over 10 million QLC-powered SSDs, confirming that they have not only talked about QLC, but that they have shipped it at scale. 

Even now, QLC SSDs remain rare within the SSD market, but that will start to change in the coming years, especially as the need for high-capacity SSDs rises within the consumer market. With their latest 665p SSD, Intel has already delivered notable performance improvements and higher endurance ratings with its QLC NAND, mitigating QLC’s major downsides. 

Intel has also combined its QLC NAND with Optane memory with its Memory H10 series SSDs. The H10 an OEM-only product which delivers QLC NAND for general storage and Optane memory for data which would benefit from shorter access times and higher read/write speeds. 

QLC’s continued development will help deliver cheaper consumer SSDs, though it is worth noting that NAND prices will always be dependent on supply and demand. Sadly, this means that cheaper NAND production doesn’t always translate to lower pricing, even so, QLC NAND will be less expensive than an equivalent TLC NAND chip. 

At this time, Intel has revealed no plans to release its Memory H10 hybrid SSD as a standalone product. When discussing the topic with Intel, we confirmed that the drive required software to operate correctly, making the drive most suitable for OEM systems. The simple fact of the matter is that the Memory H10 SSD is two storage devices in one, rather than a fully integrated storage device. Without software, the Intel Memory H10 is two storage devices. In the future, Intel may release a successor to its Memory H10 to deliver a more user-friendly, fully integrated experience.