PC News Zone » SSD

Corsair’s speedy, flaming red Force GT SSD goes on sale this month for $149 and up

PC News Zone — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:59:26 +0000

Corsair's Force GT solid-state drives caught our eye earlier this year, and their fire engine-red shells were only half the reason. These bad boys also promise up to 85,000 random write IOPS and are rated for impressive read / write speeds of 550 MBps and 525 MBps -- a shade higher than the specs being bandied-about when Corsair showed it off back in March. The drive also supports SATA 3, is backward-compatible with SATA 2, and ships with a 3.5-inch adapter that'll work with both desktops and laptops. Look for it this month in two sizes: 60GB ($149) and 120GB ($279). No word, alas, on the 240GB version that was strutting its stuff on the show floor in Hanover, Germany. PR after the break.

Corsair Announces Shipment of Force Series GT Solid-State Drives
– New high-performance line takes full advantage of SATA 6Gb/s technology –

FREMONT, California - June 30th, 2011 - Corsair®, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the first shipments of the Force Series™ GT line of solid-state drives.

The new Force Series GT is designed for enthusiasts who demand the fastest performance available. It uses the new SandForce SF-2280 SSD Processor, with native support for SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3), combined with ONFI synchronous flash memory. Force Series GT SSDs deliver outstanding read/write performance and significantly faster system response, boot times, and application load times than SATA 2 solid-state drives, with out-of-box performance of up to 85K Random Write IOPS, read speeds of up to 555 MB/s, and write speeds of up to 525 MB/s. The use of synchronous flash memory makes the Force GT Series particularly adept at reading and writing non-compressible data, such as video and music files.

All Force Series GT models are also backward compatible with SATA 2, and include an easy-to-use 3.5" adapter for use in both notebook and desktop PCs.

"With the rapid adoption of systems with SATA 3 support, enthusiasts are demanding SSDs that can push the limit of SATA 3 bandwidth," said Thi La, Vice President of Memory Products at Corsair. "The new Force Series GT line delivers amazing speed under the most demanding conditions, making them ideal for high-performance systems."

Force Series GT SSDs are currently shipping to Corsair's network of authorized distributors and retailers worldwide and will be available in July at a US suggested retail price of $149 USD for the 60GB model and $279 USD for the 120GB model. Note that stated capacities are unformatted and actual capacities will vary depending on the formatting and operating system used. For more information on Force Series GT solid-state drives, please visit the Corsair web site.

New Samsung Series 9 notebooks outed: Core i3, i5 and i7 options

PC News Zone — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:36:00 +0000

Samsung has outed a new range of Series 9 notebooks, with three new 13.3-inch models and two new 11.6-inch models, priced from $1,049. The new Series 9 machines keep the styling of the models that began shipping in May, but add in new Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, up to 256GB SSDs and up to 6GB of DDR3 memory. The new 11.6-inchers are the NP900X1B-A02US, with a Core i3-2357M, 2GB of memory and a 64GB SSD, and the NP900X1B-A01US, with the same processor but twice the RAM and storage. They’ll go on sale in August, priced at $1,049 and $1,249 respectively. Samsung’s 13.3-inch versions, meanwhile, are all available from today. The NP900X3A-B01US has a COre i5-2467M processor, 4GB of memory and a 128GB SSD, and retails for $1,349, while the NP900X3A-B02US has the same CPU and RAM but doubles up the SSD for $1,649 in total. Finally, there’s the $2,049 NP900X3A-A05US with a Core i7-2617M processor, 6GB of DDR3 memory and a 256GB SSD. There’s still FastStart, which Samsung reckons will see the Series 9 boot in less than three seconds, along with a casing allegedly twice as strong as aluminum and USB 3.0 connectivity. The displays are also billed as twice as bright as rivals offer.

OCZ Technology Introduces Deneva 2 Series Of SSDs For The Enterprise

Mark — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:51:27 +0000

SAN JOSE, CAâ€”June 21, 2011â€”OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today launched the Deneva 2 SSD line for enterprise clients. Taking full advantage of the cutting-edge SATA 6Gb/s interface, Deneva 2 SSDs are designed for a wide range of enterprise applications including servers, cloud computing, and data centers. The Deneva 2 series delivers maximum performance while meeting the stringent reliability, security, performance and economical needs of enterprise storage environments.

“Data centers are one application where the speed benefits of a fast SSD visibly fall straight to a company’s bottom line,” said SSD analyst Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. “This has driven the enterprise to be the fastest-growing market for SSDs – Objective Analysis forecasts for enterprise SSD unit shipments to grow at an average annual rate of 83 percent, nearly doubling every year.”

As the demand for increased storage efficiency, maximized data throughput, and a smaller operating footprint broadens across various industries, more and more companies are turning to the benefits of SSDs to significantly optimize their storage infrastructures. With these requirements in mind, OCZ has been a pioneer in the design and development of SSDs for the enterprise environment, pushing the envelope to develop solutions that combine industry-leading performance with a robust feature-set. Deneva 2, the companyâ€™s latest offering, features several enterprise-critical options not available in OCZ’s consumer product lines, including power loss data protection, best-in-class endurance (e.g., minimal write amplification, intelligent block management and wear-leveling), and advanced encryption and ECC.

â€œProcessing data is critical to any business looking to compete in a rapidly changing, global marketplace. However, many enterprise organizations are limited by outdated storage solutions, which limits their ability to process the necessary data they require to operate their businesses,â€ said Ryan Petersen, CEO at OCZ Technology Group. â€œDeneva 2 SSDs are optimized for high-volume storage applications, offer industry-leading reliability, and leverage the latest NAND and controller technology to deliver superior performance. This combination means that enterprises can overcome previous roadblocks, and use their data in real-time.â€

Based on SandForceÂ® SF-2000 SSD processors, the Deneva 2 series delivers up to 80,000 4KB random write IOPS and 550MB/s of potential bandwidth. Along with world-renowned performance, Deneva 2 SSDs are specifically designed to deliver superior reliability and are manufactured with the latest flash components specific to the customerâ€™s needs. In addition, the series includes enterprise-grade multi-level cell (eMLC) NAND flash technology, which offers improved endurance for write-intensive applications. Deneva 2 SSDs can also be customized, come in a wide variety of interface options including PCIe, and are available in 2.5, 3.5, and 1.8 inch form factors for use in very high density computing environments, including blade servers.

OCZ Deneva 2 solutions overcome the performance, durability, and maintenance obstacles inherent to mechanical HDD storage. OCZ’s ability to provide a tailored solution ensures ultimate compatibility, reliability, and cost-savings, resulting in products that are optimized to specifically address the unique needs of enterprise clients.

PR: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSDs

pcnz_admin — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 06:11:36 +0000

OTHER WORLD COMPUTING EXPANDS BUILT IN USA 6Gb/s SOLID STATE DRIVE LINE WITH NEW MERCURY ELECTRA 6G SSD

Consumer/Prosumer SSD Available in Capacities up to 480GB Starting at $229.99 Provide Incredible Performance at an Exceptional Price — Unmatched Data Reliability & Longevity

Highest Quality Components Including Tier 1/Grade A NAND Makes any Mac or PC “Faster in a Flash” with Sustained Data Rates over 500MB/s

June 15, 2011 Woodstock, IL — Other World Computing (OWCÂ®) http://www.macsales.com, a leading zero emissions MacÂ® and PC technology company, today announced the OWC Mercury Electraâ„¢ 6G SSD, a new consumer/prosumer targeted SandForce Drivenâ„¢ SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s Solid State Drive. Designed and built in the USA utilizing the highest quality components available, including Tier 1/Grade A NAND, the OWC Mercury Electra delivers 556MB/s read and 523MB/s write sustained data rates for over 7X faster performance than a standard factory hard drive found in Mac and PC computers.

Three Consumer/Prosumer Models Offered Starting At $229.99

Offering the SATA Revision 3.0 performance of a 6G SSD, but aggressively priced like a SATA Revision 2.0 3G SSD, the OWC Mercury Electra 6G is ideal for high speed personal computing, home office environments, gaming, and production workstations, can be incorporated into a RAID 1 or SPAN configuration, and is available for immediate ordering in three capacity sizes:

120GB OWC Mercury Electra 6G with Tier 1/Grade A NAND $229.99 MSRP
240GB OWC Mercury Electra 6G with Tier 1/Grade A NAND $479.99 MSRP
480GB OWC Mercury Electra 6G with Tier 1/Grade A NAND $929.99 MSRP

For more information on the OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD, including reseller inquiries, visit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Electra_6G/

For more information on the complete OWC Mercury SSD line, including expert reviews and user comments, visit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/

Maximizes Any Computer’s 3G And 6G Data Bus

Whether a consumer has a Mac or PC with the SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gb/s) data bus or computer with the latest SATA Revision 3.0 (6Gb/s) interface, the OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD is able to deliver near bus saturating speed when installed in either interface. OWC benchmark testing confirms the Mercury Electra 6G SSD delivers up to 284MB/s sustained reads and 268MB/s writes in the “3G’s” 300MB/s max speed bus. Taking advantage of “6G’s” interface’s maximum bandwidth of 600MB/s, the Mercury Electra 6G SSD provides up to 556MB/s sustained reads and 523MB/s writes.

Doesn’t Slow Down With Use Like Ordinary SSDs

Ordinary SSDs offer fast read/write performance during first initial uses, but can then experience significant write speed degradation over repeated, long-term usage. Independent simulation tests by leading drive performance experts confirm OWC Mercury SSDs’ ultra-efficient block management, wear leveling technologies, and real-time data redundancies enable incredibly high performance and extreme reliability, both of which are maintained over long-term intensive use.

Up To 100X Greater Data Protection

Speed doesn’t matter if it can compromise data integrity. Thanks to SandForceÂ® DuraClassâ„¢ technology, the OWC Mercury Electra 6G is able to provide up to 100X higher data protection than provided by ordinary SSDs as well as leading enterprise class hard disk drives. By combining the highest level of Error Correction Code (ECC) and SandForce RAISEâ„¢ (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology along with 7% over provisioning reserve/overhead flash allocation, the OWC Mercury Electra 6G provides RAID like data protection and reliability in a single drive application.

Risk-Free 30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee

To ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction and confidence, OWC is extending its renowned 30-Day Money Back Guarantee on its SSD line to include the new Mercury Electra 6G SSD. If a consumer is not completely satisfied with an OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD for any reason, they simply need to contact OWC’s award-winning Customer Service department â€“ which offers 24/7 Live Chat support – to request a full, hassle-free refund.

“We’re very excited to continue the evolution of our solid state drive line with this new Electra model,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. “We’re being very aggressive in pricing this model to appeal to consumers and prosumers who have yet to make the SSD switch. With over 500MB/s of highly reliable performance, the OWC Mercury Electra 6G helps Mac and PC owners make their machines quickly and easily ‘faster in a flash’”.

“The new SandForce Driven 6Gb/s Mercury Electra line, using our latest SF-2000 SSD Processors, is well suited for further expanding the deployment of SSDs into both the Mac and PC environments,” said Kent Smith, Sr. Director of Product Marketing for SandForce. “SandForce is already in volume production with these latest award-winning SSD Processors and fully prepared to support this new OWC product line expansion.”

Expands Most Comprehensive SSD Line For Macs And PCs
The new Mercury Electra 6G SSD joins OWC’s existing line of performance leading, world speed record breaking Mercury Pro SSDs for nearly every Mac and PC produced over the past decade available in capacities from 40GB to 480GB starting from $99.97:

OWC Mercury Auraâ„¢ Pro
First and only high performance SandForce processor based SSD for 2008-2010 Apple MacBookÂ® Air models for up to 4X the maximum factory available SSD capacity; as well as a SandForce processor based model specifically for use with netbook/subnotebook computers that use an internal 1.8″ sized SATA drive.

OWC Mercury Legacyâ„¢ Pro
First and only SandForce processor based IDE/ATA SSDs available for pre-Intel PowerPC based Mac and PC notebook/laptop and desktop/tower computers.

OWC Mercury EXTREMEâ„¢ Pro 3G SSD
High performance 2.5″ SATA Revision 2.0 SSD with up to 285MB/s sustained reads and 275MB/s writes for demanding portable and desktop tower use.

OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 3G RE SSD
RAID-Ready Enhanced performance with 28% over-provisioning for data centers, network operation centers, and dedicated RAID installations. Used to set overclocking world record: http://eshop.macsales.com/NewsRoom/Framework.cfm?page=PR/ssdre_032411.html

OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSD
Ultra high performance 2.5″ SATA Revision 3.0 SSD with over 500MB/s sustained data rates and up to 479MB/s incompressible data rates for nearly SATA 3.0 bus saturating speed for prosumers and A/V, photography, and graphic production professionals.

About Other World Computing (OWC)

Other World Computing (OWC) has been providing quality hardware products and support to the computer industry since 1988 and features one of the largest online catalogs of computer, iPodÂ®, iPhoneÂ®, and iPadÂ® enhancement products through its e-commerce portal www.macsales.com. As a member of the AppleÂ® Developer Program, OWC also provides extensive US based technical support for Macintosh users around the world as well as Internet access via www.fastermac.net and www.owc.net

OWC’s industry awards and recognition include: Crain’s Chicago Business 2009 and 2011 “Fast 50″ List of 50 Fastest Growing Companies in the Chicago Area; Inc. 5,000 “Fastest Growing Privately Owned Companies in America” honoree 2007-2010; Reseller Ratings Elite Member 2009 & 2010; Better Business Bureau Top Rating of A+ 2010-2011; Reflex Packaging Commitment to Excellence Recycling Award 2009; Computerworld Magazine Top Green-IT Companies for 2008; and McHenry County Economic Development Corporation 2008 Business Champion Award.

In March 2010, OWC’s corporate campus was designated as LEEDÂ® Platinum by the Green Building Certification Institute (http://eshop.macsales.com/green/index.html). Platinum is the highest achievable LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Program level, which began in 1998. Out of more than 14,000 LEED projects engaged worldwide since the program’s inception, OWC is one of less than three hundred to achieve the Platinum standard. In September 2010, OWC’s headquarters earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STARÂ® rating for building operations that perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency.

###

OWC is a registered trademark; and Mercury Aura, Mercury Legacy, Mercury EXTREME, and Mercury Electra are trademarks of New Concepts Development Corporation.

SandForce is a registered trademark and DuraClass, RAISE, and SandForce Driven are trademarks of SandForce, Inc.

Apple, Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad are the trademarks of Apple, Inc.

All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respectful owners.

PR: Panasonic Toughbook 19 Receives Mega Update!

pcnz_admin — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 05:48:11 +0000

Rugged, Lightweight, Convertible Notebook Offers Enhanced Functionality and Outdoor Viewability

Secaucus, NJ, June 9, 2011 â€“ Panasonic Solutions Company, provider of collaboration, information-sharing and decision-support solutions for government and commercial enterprises, today announced a series of upgrades to its ToughbookÂ® 19 fully-rugged convertible tablet. The updated device features a standard voltage processor, increased RAM and hard drive capacity as well as speed, a brighter sunlight-viewable screen and more. With these enhancements, the reliable Toughbook 19 continues to be the ideal PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK 19 RECEIVES SYSTEM PERFORMANCE, DISPLAY AND STORAGE UPGRADES — device for utilities, first responders, maintenance and field service workers.

Powered by the second generation IntelÂ® Coreâ„¢ i5-2520M (2.5GHz) standard voltage processor with IntelÂ® HD 3000 graphics, the Toughbook 19′s start-up time is more than 20 percent faster and overall CPU and graphics performance have also been improved compared to the previous model. This is also the first time a standard voltage CPU and Intel HD 3000 graphics have been included in the Toughbook 19. The device still does not require a fan, ensuring reliability in a challenging environment remains a priority. The new device also comes standard with 4GB RAM, expandable to 8GB, and runs a 32 bit or 64 bit Windows 7 professional operating system. A 320GB 7200rpm hard drive is standard, with an optional 128 or 256GB solid state drive available.

“The rugged Toughbook 19 convertible tablet has been on the market for five years, providing reliable connectivity to users in some of the most demanding environments including emergency services and utilities,” said Kyp Walls, director of product management, Panasonic Solutions Company. “With the new Intel processor and enhanced functionality, our users will benefit from improved performance and outdoor screen visibility without sacrificing battery life.”

Improved Functionality

The 10.1-inch XGA touchscreen on the Toughbook 19 now features a TransflectivePlus display, which, in addition to an adjustable LED backlight, harnesses the rays of the sun by using an internal reflecting layer to illuminate the screen and can generate up to 6000 nit of transflective brightness equivalent under 200K lx environment. This exclusive technology comes standard with anti-reflective and anti-glare screen treatments plus a circular polarizing filter for an unparalleled outdoor viewing experience. The LED backlight can deliver as little as 1 nit, useful in dimly lit areas or for concealed nighttime use, which is critical to the safety of military and public sector users.

The Toughbook 19 also includes a new dashboard designed to conveniently customize each Toughbook to the user’s preferred settings, providing a user-friendly quick launch interface for common functionalities such as brightness, volume, and tablet button backlighting. The dashboard also allows easy management of the device using helpful tools, such as the popular Panasonic Power Plan extension utility and PC information viewer utility.

To ease customer usability in the field, the Toughbook 19′s display rotation mechanism has been redesigned so mobile workers can convert from traditional laptop to tablet mode with just one hand.

Embedded Wireless Connectivity

The Toughbook 19 offers a variety of embedded wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, BluetoothÂ® 2.1, optional GPS receiver and optional Gobi2000â„¢ 3G mobile broadband technology from Qualcomm. The device is certified on the AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless 3G networks, allowing workers to stay connected virtually all of the time. With certifications coming later this year, the Toughbook 19 will also offer embedded support for 4G networks.

Platform Compatibility

The upgraded Toughbook 19 maintains the same platform footprint as previous generation devices. This ensures existing customers can continue to use peripheral equipment, including vehicle docking stations, which significantly lowers the total cost of ownership.

Panasonic Toughbook 19: Key Upgraded Features

Â· IntelÂ® Coreâ„¢ i5-2520M (2.5GHz) standard voltage processor with IntelÂ® HD 3000 graphics

o Intel Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz

Â· Genuine Windows 7Â® Professional (32-bit or 64-bit)

Â· Screen Brightness: Up to 6000 cd/m2 (nit) in direct sunlight (under 200K lx environment)

o TransflectivePlus

Â· RAM

o 4-8GB DDR3 (1333 MHz)

Â· Storage

o 320GB 7200rpm shock-mounted HDD

o Optional 128GB or 256GB SSD

Â· Embedded Connectivity

o Optional embedded 4G LTE (available later this year)

o Wi-Fi

Â§ Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 802.11a/b/g/n

Â· Interfaces

o SDXC

For a full list of Toughbook 19 specifications, go to the Toughbook website.

Pricing and Availability

The upgraded Panasonic Toughbook 19 will be available worldwide starting September 2011. In the United States, the Toughbook 19 is expected to be available starting at an estimated street price of $3,349 from authorized Panasonic resellers.

The Toughbook 19 includes a full three-year limited warranty, parts and labor, providing coverage wherever the unit may be deployed.

Follow the Toughbook Brand

The Panasonic Toughbook brand can be followed on various social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Toughbloggers.com.

About Panasonic Solutions Company

Panasonic Solutions Company empowers people whose jobs depend on reliable technology. The company delivers collaboration, information-sharing and decision-support solutions for customers in government, healthcare, education and a wide variety of commercial enterprises. Products and services within the company’s portfolio include Panasonic Toughbook mobile computing solutions, projectors, professional displays (including both plasma and LCD), and HD and 3D video acquisition and production solutions. As a result of its commitment to R&D, manufacturing and quality control, Panasonic is known for the reliability and longevity of its products. Panasonic Solutions Company is a Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, which is the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation (NYSE: PC).

All brand and company/product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies. All specifications are subject to change without notice. Information on Panasonic Solutions Company’s full line of products can be obtained by calling 877-803-8492 or at www.panasonic.com/business-solutions.

Corsair recalls its 120GB Force 3 SSD due to ‘stability issues’

pcnz_admin — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:10:42 +0000

Living amongst us right now, on our street, metro carriage, or section of highway, there are people who have recently bought a Corsair 120GB Force Series 3 with product code CSSD-F120GB3-BK. If you’re one of them you need to know that this particular drive is subject to a recall due to “stability issues”. Sweclockers has reported rumors that other SSDs might also be affected, but the manufacturers in question have swiftly denied it — so it is only this very specific Corsair drive that is being recalled. Backup your data and hit the source link for further instructions. Don’t get mad, get a replacement.

Check out Corsair forum for the SSD issue.

OWC Extends Warranty on Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD to Five Years

pcnz_admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:47:36 +0000

Last month, Intel increased the warranty period on solid-state drives in its SSD 320 range from the original three years to five years, making them the first consumer SSDs to have such a long warranty period. Now, Woodstock, Illinois-based Other World Computing (OWC) has taken a leaf out of Intelâ€™s book and extended the warranty on its Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD line to five years. According to OWC, this move has made it â€œthe industryâ€™s first SandForce processor-based 6Gb/s SATA Revision 3.0 SSD offering an enterprise-class level 5 year warranty.â€

Those who bought the Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD prior to this announcement need not worry, as â€œOWC is also retroactively extending two additional years of warranty coverage to owners of the Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G who purchased their drive beginning mid April 2011 when it was offered with a three year warranty.â€

The SSD, which promises up to 559MB/s sustained reads and 527MB/s writes, is available in 120GB SSD, 240GB and 480GB capacities priced at $297.99, $569.99 and $1279.99, respectively.

“We’re very pleased to offer the industry’s longest warranty coverage on the latest and fastest SSD data interface and make it retroactive on all purchases of our Extreme Pro 6G SSD,” said Larry O’Connor, founder and CEO, OWC. “By building OWC Mercury SSDs with the best components and engineering processes available, we can offer consumers the best pre and post purchase assurances for the ultimate in SSD ownership confidence.”

LG Hitachi to bring Hybrid Drive and 30mm Slot in DVD Player this summer

pcnz_admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:07:36 +0000

LG Hitachiâ€™s Hybrid drive is not something really new, but thatâ€™s cool here is that the company will finally release to the public this summer their H:D ODD or Hybrid Drive Blu-Ray Drive. Available for both Notebook and Desktops, these Hybrid ODDs comes with the usual Blu-Ray/DVD Reader/Burner function as well as 8GB of internal Storage (SSD) SATA III compatible.

Made in order to give the possibility to any own to boost their PC performances by moving your OS SWAP on 8GB of SSD, these solutions however could be in the future capable to feature much more storage space and even the possibility to manufacturer to built-up ultra slim notebook where all your storage capacity will be located in your Hybrid Drive. To the question why only 8GB of SSD, LG Hitachi answered us that this was manly done to keep the over all price of such solution as competitive as possible, but offering a 512GB version of these HD ODD is something technically possible right now.

Finally along side these HD ODDS, LG Hitachi also introduces their first 30mm Slot-In DVD player that has be mainly designed for Slim Sot-up Box and other tailored made PCs.

Micron’s P320h: A Custom Controller Native PCIe SSD in 350/700GB Capacities

pcnz_admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 06:54:52 +0000

SSDs are beginning to challenge conventional drive form factors in a major way. On the consumer side we’re seeing more systems use new form factors for SSDs, enabled by mSATA. The gumstick form factor used in the MacBook Air and ASUS UX Series comes to mind. SSDs can offer performance in a smaller package, thus helping scale down the size of notebooks.

The 11-inch MacBook Air SSD, courtesy of iFixit

The enterprise market has seen a form factor transition of its own. While 2.5″ SSDs are still immensely common, there’s a lot of interest in PCIe solutions.

The quick and easy way to get a PCIe SSD is to take a bunch of SSDs and RAID them together on a single PCIe card. You don’t really get a performance benefit, but it does help you get a lot of performance without being drive-bay limited. This is what we typically see from companies like OCZ.

The other alternative is a native PCIe solution. In the aforementioned example, you typically have a couple of SATA SSD controllers paired with a SATA to PCIe RAID controller. With a native solution you’d skip the RAID controller entirely and just have a custom SSD controller that interfaces directly to PCIe. A native PCIe SSD is just an SSD that avoids SATA entirely, thus avoiding any potential bottlenecks. Today Micron is announcing its first native PCIe SSD: the P320h.

The P320h is Micron’s first PCIe SSD as well as its first in-house controller design. You’ll remember from our C300/C400/m4 reviews that Micron typically buys its controllers from Marvell and simply does firmware development in house. The P320h changes that. While it’s too early to assume that we’ll see Micron designed controllers for consumer drives as well, clearly that’s a step the company is willing to take.

The P320h’s controller is a beast. With 32 parallel channels and a PCIe gen 2 x8 interface, the P320h is built for bandwidth. Micron’s peak performance specs speak for themselves:

Sequential read/write performance is up to 3GB/s and 2GB/s respectively. Random 4KB read performance is up at a staggering 750,000 IOPS, while random write speed peaks at 341,000 IOPS. The former is unmatched by anything I’ve seen on a single card, while the latter is a number that OCZ’s recently announced Z-Drive R4 88 is promising as well. Note that these aren’t steady state numbers nor are the details of the testing methodology known so believe accordingly.

There is of course support for NAND redundancy, which Micron calls RAIN (Redundant Array of Independent NAND). Micron calls RAIN very similar to RAID-7 with 1 parity channel, however it didn’t release information as to what sorts of failures are recoverable as a result. RAIN in addition to typical enterprise level write amplification concerns result in a some pretty heavy overprovisioning on the drive as you’ll see below.

Micron will offer the P320h in two capacities: 350GB and 700GB. The drives use 16Gbit 34nm SLC NAND (ONFI 2.1). The 700GB drive features 64 package placements with 8 die per package – that works out to be 16GB per die, or 1TB of NAND on the card.

The 350GB version has the same number of package placements (64) but it only has 4 die per package, which works out to be 512GB of NAND on board. Obviously with twice as many die per package there are some interleaving benefits which result in better 4KB random write performance.

Pricing is unknown at this point, although Micron pointed out that it is expecting cost to be somewhere south of $16 per GB (at $16/GB that would be $5600 for the 350GB board and $11,200 for the 700GB board).

SANDISK Launches Two New SSD for Tables and Ultra-Thin Notebooks

pcnz_admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:13:33 +0000

New SSDs combine fast SATA III performance with power consumption as low as 10mW1-enable feature-rich computing platforms with longer battery life
SanDiskÂ® SSD series’ U100 drive for ultra-thin notebooks offers SATA III performance and customized form factors
SanDiskÂ® iSSDâ„¢ integrated storage device series’ i100 drive is the world’s smallest, fastest 128 gigabyte (GB)2 (SATA III) BGA-based SSD-ideal for slim, high-performance tablets and ultra-thin notebooks
Sampling now with volume production scheduled for Q3 2011

Computex, Taiwan, May 31, 2011- SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today introduced two new solid state drives (SSDs) for the mobile computing market. The U100 drive, successor to the popular SanDiskÂ® P4 modular SSD series, delivers a flexible, cost-effective solution for ultra-thin notebooks. The SanDiskÂ® iSSDâ„¢ integrated storage device series’ i100 drive is the world’s smallest, fastest 128 gigabyte (GB)2 (SATA III) BGA (ball grid array) SSD and an ideal storage solution for slim, powerful tablets and ultra-thin notebooks.

The new SSDs utilize the high-performance SATA III interface to improve application loading times, web-browsing speeds, multimedia synchronization, file-transfer rates and overall system responsiveness. The drives employ a low-power architecture that reduces power consumption to as low as 10mW1. This combination of high performance and low power allows OEMs to develop feature-rich products with longer battery life.

“Our deep involvement with key ecosystem stakeholders allows us to align our products with fast-moving market requirements,” said Rizwan Ahmed, director, SSD product marketing, SanDisk. “We develop low-power, high-performance SATA SSDs that optimally fit into a growing number of thin client devices.”

SanDiskÂ® SSD Series’ U100 Drive for Ultra-Thin Notebooks
The U100 drive builds upon the successful SanDisk P4 modular SSD series, which enjoyed widespread adoption among ultra-thin notebooks and other mobile computing platforms. U100 supports an array of design needs and is available in a variety of form factors, including Half-Slim SATA SSD, mSATA, mSATA mini, 2.5″ cased, as well as customized modules.

The U100 drive delivers fast SATA III performance with up to 450 megabyte per second (MB/sec)3 sequential read and up to 340MB/sec sequential write speeds3. The drive’s low-power architecture allows OEMs to extend their products’ battery life while maintaining high performance. The drive is available in 8GB to 256GB capacities, and OEMs, attracted to the outstanding price/performance value proposition, are already successfully integrating the new SSD into their next-generation platforms.

SanDiskÂ® iSSDâ„¢ for Tablets
The i100 drive is the smallest, fastest 128GB (SATA III) BGA-based SSD on the market and the newest product in the SanDisk iSSD integrated storage device series. The drive is available in 8GB to 128GB capacities, offering OEMs a flexible range of storage options. Measuring only 16mm x 20mm x 1.4mm (for up to 64GB) and 16mm x 20mm x 1.85mm (for 128GB), the drive allows OEMs to design sleek, high-performance tablets and ultra-thin notebooks.

The drive’s SATA performance achieves up to 450MB/sec3 sequential read and up to 160MB/sec sequential write speeds3. The i100 drive can improve sideloading rates, multitasking capabilities, real-time gaming experience and multimedia synchronization-all while extending battery life via its low-power architecture.

New SSDs Offer Additional Benefits

Drives support Power Classes for flexible performance and power-budget control capabilities
nCacheâ„¢ Acceleration Technology provides fast random burst write performance for improved system responsiveness and multitasking functionality
Based on a JEDEC-standard package for industry compliance

The i100 and U100 drives are sampling now with volume production scheduled for Q3 2011.

1 With Slumber (SATA PHY state) Power mode with DIPM enabled. Lower Power modes can be achieved by implementing advanced low power management techniques. Technical specifications are preliminary and subject to change.

2 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. Some capacity not available for data storage.

3 Based on SanDisk internal testing; performance may be lower depending upon host configuration. 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes. Technical Specification are preliminary and subject to change.

SanDisk’s product and executive images can be downloaded from

http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/media.asp

SanDisk’s web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com

Â© 2011 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder (s).

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including expectations for new product introductions, applications, features, markets, and customers that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: the market demand for our products may grow more slowly than our expectations or our products may not be available in the capacities that we anticipate, our products may not perform as expected and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and annual report on Form 10-K. We do not intend to update the information contained in this press release.