Comment by hex4def6

3 months ago

> Intel didn't. Solidigm did. If the author was buying the Intel drive, it was at least 4 years old since they spun SSDs out in 2021.

Firstly, the time between the SK Hynix acquisition (Dec 30 21) and the date of this article is 3 years 4 months, not "at least 4 years".

Secondly, of whether the facility was owned by Intel or Solidigm at the time the drive was manufactured, the Intel PCN states last buy dates of Dec 30 2022 here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/content-details/8055...

  The *Intel* SKUs listed in the products affected table will End of life ... Please determine your remaining demand for the products listed in the "Products Affected/Intel Ordering Codes" ... While *Intel* will make commercially reasonable efforts to support last time order quantities ...

It's entirely possible they did a large last-time factory build of drives in anticipation of people wanting to purchase them.

Or, as Solidigm state on their FAQ:(https://www.solidigm.com/support-page/faqs.html):

  Why do some Solidigm products have *Intel labels*, order forms, and branding?
  Certain business elements that were already in place or in development prior to the creation of Solidigm will continue to bear Intel labels and branding for some time. 

It's probably that the drives would have been branded "Intel" significantly beyond the Intel / Solidigm acquisition date (Probably until their EOL which was a year later -- it would make no sense to rebrand them). And it seems entirely unreasonable to assume that even a fairly tuned in customer would be digging to that level of scrutiny ("Wait a second! This is still Intel branded! Solidigm rebranded this line in XX of '22, X months before they discontinued them. These must be used drives!")