While other memory manufacturers have been big players in the SSD race, Crucial has remained largely absent until this week’s introduction of the modestly-named M225 SSD series.

Crucial has been a long-time player in the memory market. Through flash cards, memory modules and flash drives, the consumer arm of Micron Technology has cemented a reputation for quality in solid state media. It is for this reason that many have been perplexed by Crucial’s lack of activity in the SSD space beyond a selection of sluggish parts in the RealSSD line.

But it seems that Crucial’s time in the slow lane is coming to an end. The recent acquisition of Lexar Media’s generous solid state portfolio (not to mention its manufacturing tech) appears to have primed Crucial’s ambitions in the budding performance SSD space.

The new Crucial M225 products are priced for immediate sales and can be yours in one of three flavors:

• 64GB (CT64M225): 200MBps read/150MBps write
• 128GB (CT128M225): 250MBps read/190MBps write
• 256GB (CT256M225): 250MBps read/200MBps write

The M225 line uses MLC NAND cells which we reckon are sourced from Micron (surprise), while the sustained I/O numbers point to an Indilinx controller.