SSD AES-256 hardware encryption - how to configure?
In the best case, which is probable for the Plextor M5 Pro, because they advertise it as such, the AES keys are encrypted by your ATA (HDD) password. Also see the security graphic under "AES Data Encryption" on the M5 Pro website: http://www.plextor-digital.com/index.php/en/M5-Pro/m5-pro.html -- it looks like they're implying that the ATA password is somehow linked to the AES key. It would be nice to get some official confirmation though.
You can see here for example that the Intel 320 SSD follows the correct strategy (ATA password stored hashed, and used to encrypt AES key): http://communities.intel.com/message/120689#120689
I also have reason to believe that the Intel 520, the Samsung 540 Pro and the Kingston 200V+ do it the right way too, but I'm desperately trying to find more confirmation.
Here you can see that OCZ has NOT encrypted the AES key with the ATA password, even going so far as to say that there is no relation between the two: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?71788-SandForce-encryption-info&p=507570&viewfull=1#post507570
I've put together a blog post to collect information about the hardware encryption on an number of current SSDs: http://vxlabs.com/2012/12/22/ssds-with-usable-built-in-hardware-based-full-disk-encryption/