OCZ interrupts your viewing of the legal battle to introduce a new product; the Vector
Subject: Storage | November 27, 2012 - 04:47 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: vector, ssd, sata, ocz, mlc, barefoot 3
There are three members of the OCZ Vector SSD, the 128GB and 256GB models will have 512MB cache and the 512GB model 1GB of cache, each costing a bit over $1/GB. Inside is the brand new Barefoot 3 controller which features 8 channels and both an ARM cortex processor and OCZ's secret sauce, the Aragon co-processor. On paper, the 256GB and 512GB models have the same performance specs with the 128GB model having slightly slower sequential writes and 4k reads, though still the speeds are impressive enough that you won't suffer unduly. [H]ard|OCP takes you through their torture test here and of course if you haven't seen what Allyn did to them, get reading!
"OCZ soft launches the 256GB Vector SSD with its first OCZ-proprietary controller, the Barefoot 3. Geared for steady state performance, the OCZ Vector SSD is designed with the end user in mind. Today we take a look at the Vector and the new controller architecture and see how these fare in our steady state testing."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- OCZ's Vector SSD @ The Tech Report
- OCZ Vector SSD Review - Indilinx Barefoot 3 Becomes Reality @ SSD Review
- OCZ Vector 256GB @ TechSpot
- OCZ Vector 256GB @ Kitguru
- OCZ Vector SSD Launch @ Hardwareheaven
- OCZ Vector 256GB @ Tweaktown
- OCZ Vector 256GB SSD @ Hardware.info
- OCZ Vector SSD @ Guru of 3D
- OCZ Vector 256GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
- OCZ Vector 256GB Indilinx Barefoot 3 SSD Review @ Legit Reviews
- Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD @ DVHardware
OCZ Launches Vector SSD Series and Proprietary Barefoot 3 Controller
Subject: Storage | November 27, 2012 - 03:48 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: vector, ssd, sata, ocz, mlc, barefoot 3
SAN JOSE, CA – November 27, 2012 - OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the availability of its new SATA III-based Vector SSD Series featuring the company’s next-generation Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller. OCZ’s worldwide technology hardware and firmware teams developed the new controller silicon and firmware completely in-house to enable full design control over the Vector SSD Series roadmap, while delivering exceptional I/O performance, enhanced reliability and endurance, and a host of differentiated features to empower high performance laptops, desktops, and workstations with superior storage capabilities.
OCZ Vector SSDs provide exceptional input/output operations per second (IOPS) performance and the cutting-edge Barefoot 3 controller consistently delivers superior sustained performance over time regardless of whether the data streams are in compressed or uncompressed formats. As a result, this groundbreaking SSD series provides faster file transfers and boot-ups, and a quicker, more responsive storage experience.
“The development of the Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller architecture is a crowning achievement in our company’s history, being our first controller silicon and firmware completely designed in-house from start to finish using all of the OCZ technology development teams,” said Ralph Schmitt, CEO for OCZ Technology. “These are the first SSD products delivered under the new OCZ and leverages cutting-edge controller technology to deliver a groundbreaking level of sustained performance and reliability for customers seeking a superior SSD for their high performance computing applications.”
The Vector SSD Series is available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities, and delivers read bandwidth of up to 550 MB/s, write bandwidth of up to 530 MB/s, random read performance of up to 100,000 IOPS. The Vector’s ultra-slim, 7mm sleek alloy housing supports a wide spectrum of computers including the latest thin form factor notebooks, and each Vector SSD is also bundled with a 3.5-inch desktop adapter bracket and Acronis® True Image™ cloning software to enable quick and easy data transfer from legacy hard disk drive (HDD) storage to high performance Vector SSD storage.\
Endurance was a major priority in the design of the Vector Series, and the highly intelligent Barefoot 3 controller includes an advanced suite of flash management tools that can analyze and dynamically adapt to increasing NAND vulnerabilities as flash cells wear or process geometries get smaller. In this way, the Barefoot 3 controller overcomes the shortcomings associated with MLC NAND flash memory and is specified to deliver 20GB host writes per day for 5 years. This 5-year warranty ensures that Vector SSDs can be reliably used in a wide range of high performance computing environments over an extended lifetime.
OCZ Vector SSD Spotted - Indilinx Barefoot 3 Controller
Subject: Storage | September 11, 2012 - 09:48 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: ocz, idf, idf 2012, vector, ssd, Indilinx, barefoot 3
While wandering around San Francisco today, I was stopped by a stranger on the corner of Market and 4th to show me something he found outside the convention hall. It LOOKS like an SSD PCB but what do you think?
What you have here is a the internals of a new OCZ Technology SSD brand called Vector that will sit ABOVE the Vertex 4 in the product stack. This SSD uses the as yet unreleased Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller.
The drive should be available sometime in Q4 of this year and it marks the first complete Indilinx controller design - no Marvell or other third party intellectual property to be found.
That's all we know for now but you can be sure we'll have the details as they are released!!
OCZ Announces New Indilinx Barefoot 3 Controller
Subject: Storage | July 18, 2012 - 07:19 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: ssd, aragon, Indilinx, barefoot 3, ssd controller
During a recent earnings call, OCZ CEO Ryan Petersen made an interesting announcement relating to the company’s solid state drives (SSD). Specifically, it concerns OCZ’s subsidiary company Indilinx which was purchased in 2011 for $32 million of OCZ common stock. According to a transcript provided by SeekingAlpha, OCZ is working on a new SSD based on the company’s Barefoot 3 controller. That controller is especially intriguing because it is reportedly being internally-developed and will use a new Aragon SSD processor which is a controller chip running at 400 Mhz with an optimized and custom RISC instruction set.
The Aragon core is further a 32-bit chip based on TSMC’s 65nm process node. It is using certain IP that is being licensed from an as-yet-unnamed third party. Allegedly, it is able to execute most instructions and branches in a single clock cycle. Bearing in mind that this is an announcement to shareholders, OCZ has stated the following about the new controller:
“When implemented in SSD controller, this gives the core a much higher performance than when using an off-the-shelf embedded safety field. And this design opens a world of new possibilities for game changing SSD solutions as it supports unprecedented levels of processing power.”
Beyond that we do not know what kind of performance to expect from the drives, but we should not have to wait too long to find out. OCZ should begin sampling the drives sometime between August and September of this year and are hoping to make them available for purchase by the holiday shopping season in Q4 2012.
It will be interesting to see where this new OCZ/Indilinx controller stands in relation to the other controller makers. Here’s hoping that it can give SandForce and Intel a run for their money and give us even more competition to drive down SSD prices for consumers!
You can see the full transcript over at SeekingAlpha.
PC Perspective Upcoming Events
|
