To answer the original question, no karmic doesn't have trim in effect.

However I grew a pair and tried wiper.sh (from hdparm 9.27) - it definitely works for intel drives too.

this

Code:
########################################################################
X25-M UNTRIMMED iozone
########################################################################

                                                  random  random
    KB  reclen   write rewrite    read    reread    read   write
262144       4   55854   61601    77975    77408   18740   37199
262144       8   79397   74942   107490   107615   34600   39998
262144      16   92717   81941   147162   147530   60921   45298
262144      32   98133   86319   175378   175948   98278   49321
262144      64  102575   87223   200613   201029  141870   70205
262144     128   96168  100709   224931   223912  181481   79198
262144     256   95011  103151   233538   234261  212879   73557
262144     512  110951   93840   244588   242498  233184   95013
262144    1024  112000   94834   253001   248172  245917   76849
262144    2048  112031   95471   252609   250570  209723   69661
262144    4096   98865  107274   255614   255558  213758   75851
262144    8192   97032   93397   258498   258156  238280  111814
turned into this

Code:
########################################################################
X25-M TRIMMED iozone
########################################################################

                                                  random  random
    KB  reclen   write rewrite    read    reread    read   write
262144       4   55436   65711    79852    80149   19067   53292
262144       8   77232   84058   109771   110180   34861   78440
262144      16   88799   94750   149140   147288   61525   94093
262144      32   97577  101654   174621   171067   98781  100264
262144      64  101396  106724   197531   202331  143772  106063
262144     128  107555  106179   220295   218789  180567  109024
262144     256  109005  108426   231249   226626  211819  110158
262144     512  107378  110893   233207   235219  233527  109245
262144    1024  110281  111575   241247   240927  244339  111624
262144    2048  111814  112242   242394   243583  208330  110694
262144    4096  110209  112247   248230   248664  213787  112301
262144    8192  111614  112405   250563   250567  238135  112355
You gotta love intel's capped write speed...
The process is as fast as the intel tool under windows (a couple of seconds) and I guess it could be automated with cron if one edits out the verification questions.
It doesn't work on ntfs however, it only trimmed my ext4 partitions.

It really isn't that bad considering that only win7 users get auto trim.
Under vista and xp you need to use tools exactly like this.