Ceton Announces SandForce Based SATA III SSD Lineup
Subject: Storage | March 26, 2012 - 01:11 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: ssd, centon, sandforce, mlc, 20nm
Centon Electronics today announced an expansion of their solid state drive lineup with new SATA III offerings. The 2.5” SATA III drives utilize 20nm class MLC (multi level cell) flash memory and a SandForce 2281 SSD controller. They claim that the drives will take full advantage of the extra bandwidth provided by SATA III with read and write speeds of 400 MB per second and 300 MB per second respectively.
According to a chart on Centon’s website, the new SATA III SSDs are part of a new VVS1 series and they come in 60 GB (though this is listed as VS1 series), 120 GB, and 240 GB capacities. The drives support RAID and are rated for a mean time before failure (MTBF) of 2 million+ hours. They further carry a two year warranty. The 240 GB and 120 GB SATA III SSDs are rated at the 400 MB/s and 300 MB/s read and write speeds, but the 60 GB SATA III SSD is only rated at a max of 300 MB/s read and 200 MB/s write. More information can be found on the company's website.Currently, there is no word on pricing or availability. Also, don't forget about our SSD Decoder for all your SSD research!
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em; Intel goes Sandforce
Subject: Storage | February 6, 2012 - 01:12 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, SF-2281 controller, sandforce, Intel, 520 Cherryville, 25nm
While the Intel 320 Series did hold the top spot for quite a while it has been a while since Intel refreshed their SSD line and has fallen behind new controllers in performance. As of today that changes for the 520 Cherryville series has arrived and it is using none other than SandForce's SF-2281 controller. Using such a popular controller leaves Intel with a bit of a problem, how do they stand out in such a crowded market? One way that they have chosen is their home made 25nm synchronous NAND flash; Intel designs and fabs their own which gives them the opportunity to ensure the best flash chips make it into their drives. The other way they've chosen to differentiate themselves is with a 5-year warranty for owners of this new drive. Read how they did performance-wise at The Tech Report or else head straight to Al's review right here.
"Intel's newest solid-state drive pairs a SandForce controller with custom firmware and 25-nm NAND. We've tested the 60 and 240GB models to see how they fare against more than two dozen SSDs, hybrids, and mechanical drives."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Intel SSD 520 Series 240 GB Solid State Drive Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Intel 520 Series 240GB Review @ OCC
- Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB @ Techspot
- Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews
- Intel SSD 520 240GB @ Bjorn3D
- Intel 520 Series 240GB Solid State Drive @ Kitguru
- Intel 520 240GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD Launch Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Intel series 520 240GB @ Guru3D
- Intel 520 240GB SSD Review (Round One) - Intel Releases Amazing SATA 3 SandForce Driven SSD @ SSD Review
- Intel 520 'Cherryville' Series 240GB SSD Review in RAID 0 @ Legit Reviews
- Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 120GB SATA III SSD @ SSD Review
- Samsung's 830 Series solid-state drive @ The Tech Report
- MyDigitalSSD 'Bullet Proof' 128GB mSATA SATA 2 SSD @ SSD Review
- Corsair Performance Series Pro 128GB Solid State Drive @ Tweaktown
- SSD performance scaling across the spectrum @ The Tech Report
- Kingston SSDNow V+200 120GB Upgrade Kit Review @ Real World Labs
- Seagate Barracuda 3 TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Plextor PX-LB950UE External 12x Blu-ray Writer @ PCSTATS
- Synology DS212 2-Bay NAS @ Tweaktown
- Compact Network Attached Storage from Synology: DiskStation DS411 Slim @ X-bit Labs
- Synology DS-212 Two-Bay NAS Review @ Tweaknews
- Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 Thumb Drive @ Tweaktown
- Seagate GoFlex Turbo Review @ TechReviewSource
Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging
Introduction
Today we take a look at Intel's newest 6Gb/sec SATA SSD - the 520 Series. This is the second non-Intel controller to appear in one of their products. The first was the Marvell controller, which appeared in the 510 Series last March. This time around, Intel has gone with SandForce. This should leave at least one SATA 6Gb/sec model to be released. Taylorsville is the code name for the next SATA 6Gb/sec native-Intel controller, which has been on their roadmap since mid-2010 but has yet to actually materialize. While Taylorsville development continues, Intel has stop-gapped the 6Gb/sec slot with the 510 and now the 520 Series. Intel seemingly worked wonders with the stock Marvell firmware, and while the Marvell controller was much improved over stock, it still lagged far behind other higher performing SATA 6Gb/sec solutions. The SandForce was one of the much more capable controllers eating the 510's lunch, but how much further could Intel improve upon the SandForce firmware?
I guess a good question to answer up front is - What took them so long?!?! The answer is a bit complicated. Intel has actually been working on getting the 520 out the door for over a year now. They had to start with the same base SandForce firmware but accomplish two things for their version to be successful:
- Optimize to perform better than other equivalent SandForce models (from competitors).
- Pass Intel's stringent validation testing.
They didn't say so directly, but I can only imagine Intel's process was plagued by multiple 'back to the drawing board' moments. Trying to one-up competition like OCZ can't be easy as they've been tweaking SandForce firmware since the very beginning. There's also those nasty bugs that would cause random BSOD's or even permanently brick the drive. Such failures have no place in an Intel SSD. Intel's upper limit for each SSD line is a 0.75% annual failure rate, and we've seen SandForce SSD's failing at a higher rate than that this past year.
With each tweak made, Intel would have to once again pass their drives through another round of full validation testing. This is no small task for Intel. As an example: It took Intel just a couple of weeks to recreate and correct the long-term performance issue I discovered back in 2009, but despite mountingpressure, they could not release the updated firmware until it had successfully passed their validation a full three months later. Intel takes this testing very seriously, and that's what leads people to trust their reliability.
Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging
Introduction
A couple of days ago we looked at a pair of SSD's from Patriot. Next up is a pair of SSD's from Corsair. These are another two SandForce controlled units, but this time it's Async IMFT flash vs. Sync IMFT flash:
We'll carry the Patriot Pyro (IMFT Async) into the results for comparison, and keeping the other benchmark OCZ and Intel models in with the mix of results. The OCZ Vertex 3 and Agility 3 will again share the same SandForce controller, but OCZ has been known to add many performance tweaks to their firmware. Let's see if Corsair was able to use 'tweaked' firmware or instead went with the stock one provided by SandForce.
Specifications
The Corsair Force 3 and Force GT are both available in the following capacities:
- 60GB
- 90GB
- 120GB
- 180GB
- 240GB
- 480GB
The added capacity points are a bonus of how IMFT can stack their dies in 'odd' multiples (i.e. 3 per package, making a 24GB TSOP). Varying slightly from low to high capacities (and across the two models), specs range from 490 to 525 MB/sec writes and 550 to 555 MB/sec reads. 60GB models get 80,000 4K IOPS and the rest get a rating of 85,000 4K IOPS. Corsairs specs indicate IOMeter 2008 was used for this test, and it's important to note that 2008's writes were a repeating pattern that is easily and fully compressible by the SandForce controller, meaning those specs were derived using fully compressible data.
Podcast #187 - Our thoughts on Ultrabooks, the Radeon HD 7950, ASUS DirectCU GTX cards, and more!
Subject: Editorial, General Tech | February 2, 2012 - 03:11 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: ssd, sandforce, radeon, podcast, patriot, nvidia, Intel, gtx, arm, amd, 7950
PC Perspective Podcast #187 - 02/02/2012
Join us this week as we talk about our thoughts on Ultrabooks, the Radeon HD 7950, ASUS DirectCU GTX cards, and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
- iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
- RSS - Subscribe through your regular
RSS reader - MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file
Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom, and Allyn Malvantano
This Podcast is brought to you by
Program Schedule:
- 0:00:40 Introduction
- 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- 0:01:20 Ultrabooks: Intel Knows What's Good For You
- 0:08:30 Patriot Pyro and Wildfire SSD Review - IMFT Async vs. Toshiba Toggle-mode Flash
- 0:14:20 AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB Graphics Card Review
- 0:25:50 This Podcast is brought to you by
MSI Computer , and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
- 0:26:38 Asus DirectCU II Roundup: ENGTX560, ENGTX570, and ENGTX580 Review
- 0:40:35 Raspberry Pi Linux Computer Will Have Fast GPU For The Price
- 0:44:20 If you thought Intel did well wait until you see ARM
- 0:47:00 AMD 7700 and 7800 Release Dates Leak To Web
- 0:51:20 Live Blog: AMD Financial Analyst Day
- 0:52:20 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
- Josh: And it is on sale! $770 off!
- Allyn: Corsair Force 3 - very good pricing.
- 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- Closing
Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging
Introduction
Today we're going to take a look at a pair of SSD models from Patriot. While they both share the same SandForce controller, that's where the differences end. This won't be your typical review - because this time we're pitting an Async IMFT flash unit against a Toshiba Toggle-mode flash unit:
We're also tossing a few OCZ and Intel models into the mix. The OCZ Vertex 3 and Agility 3 will again share the same SandForce controller, but OCZ has been known to add many performance tweaks to their firmware. This will give us a chance to see the 'baseline' SandForce firmware in action.
Specifications
Patriot has their drive specs spread out over several pages. Here's a consolidated list for these two models. We will be reviewing a 120GB sample from each of the two product lines.
- Wildfire 120GB:
-Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 555MB/s read | 520MB/s Write
-Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned)
- Wildfire 240GB:
-Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 555MB/s read | 520MB/s Write
-Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned)
- Wildfire 480GB:
-Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 540MB/S Read | 450MB/S Write*
-Max Random Write IOPS: Max 4K Random IOPS: 40K*
- Pyro 60GB:
- Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 520MB/s read | 490MB/s Write.
- Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 80,000 (4K aligned).
- Pyro 120GB:
- Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 550MB/s read | 515MB/s Write.
- Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned).
- Pyro 240GB:
- Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 550MB/s read | 515MB/s Write.
- Max Random Write IOPS: Up to 85,000 (4K aligned).
I've highlighted a few outlier specs in the above list. While the Pyro sees the now expected dip in performance when transitioning from 120GB down to 60GB - due to a reduction in the communication channels to the (fewer) flash chips, the Wildfire sees a seemingly opposite and more drastic effect. This is not due to a change in the number of data paths - it's a limit inherent in the SandForce controller itself, and is not limited to Toggle-mode flash. The difference caused by the Toggle-mode flash is the missing 60GB model - caused by the intermix of capacity points and configuration needed for this different type of flash memory.
A first look at CES 2012
Subject: General Tech | January 9, 2012 - 11:31 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: CES, storage visions, Intel, sandforce, 520 Cherryville
The theme of this years Storage Visions is 'Heavy Storage for Thin Clients' but that is not the biggest bit of new that Legit Reviews gathered from their meeting with the organizers. They got confirmation that Intel will indeed be using a Sandforce based controller in an upcoming SSD, the 520 Cherryville, which will replace the 510 series. As well, Micron was showing off their 20nm NAND, Crucial has a new Adrenaline drive to test and IOSafe will provide you a fire and waterproof housing to keep it in.
Don't forget about OCZ though, the card you can see below is the newest Z-Drive and it sports 8TB of flash storage (12TB max) available in MLC, SLC and eMLC depending on your needs and budget. It is a PCIe 3.0 compliant card, one of the first available on the market. You can also read about OCZ and Micron's joint project in the full post at Legit Reviews.
"OCZ and Marvell have teamed up and are showing off the Z-Drive R5 for the very first time at Storage Visions. The OCZ Z-Drive R5 is the industries fastest PCI Express (PCIe) storage device. The reason that Z-Drive R5 features a jointly developed "Kilimanjaro" OCZ and Marvell native PCIe to NAND flash controller platform, allowing for completely scalable performance and redundancy while eliminating the need for a separate storage controller, thus reducing the cost to deploy high performance solid state storage systems in the data center. It uses a PCI-Express Gen3 x8 slot to get up to 1.6M IOPS!"
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Live from LG's CES 2011 press event @ Engadget
- Marvell’s ARMADA to power next gen Google TV @ SemiAccurate
- CES 2012 – Another Year of Innovative Tech @ Techware Labs
- CES Unveiled - A Sneak Peak At The Hot Products of CES 2012 @ Legit Reviews
- TechwareLabs Top Ten 2012 CES Predictions
- The TR Podcast 103: Down and dirty with the 7970
- Keeping Electronics Cool @ University of California
PC Perspective's CES 2012 coverage is sponsored by MSI Computer.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
SandForce jumps into bed with LSI, not OCZ
Subject: Storage | October 27, 2011 - 02:57 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: LSI, sandforce, merger, purchase
LSI, known for their high quality RAID cards here at PC Perspective have just agreed to purchase our favourite designer of SSD controllers, namely Sandforce. The deal is for $322 million in cash, with another $48 million of unvested stock options and restricted shares also being picked up. This deal makes an interesting pair of bedfellows, with Sandforce being well known by consumers but making few inroads into the server room or other corporate markets. LSI is the opposite, with very few consumers running out and picking up a $700 SAS RAID controller while in the corporate environment they are a common purchase.
The two markets are very different; consumers want both speed and affordability in a drive and are quite willing to sacrifice a little reliability to that end. Corporate usage places reliability first, there is no point having incredibly fast storage medium if it is occasionally unreachable and so are willing to pay a high price for that reliability. This purchase seems to be indicating that SandForce feels that there is a market for their controller in the corporate world, if they can overcome the reliability and MTBF of their SSD drives. LSI can provide experience with that in spades, their testing methodology is capable of detecting and pinpointing flaws that a consumer would never notice but which a heavily loaded server might. This might just see SandForce arrive as a controller in a server room near you. Keep your eyes peeled for more information from Allyn.
MILPITAS, Calif., October 26, 2011 – LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SandForce, Inc., the leading provider of flash storage processors for enterprise and client flash solutions and solid state drives (SSDs). Under the agreement, LSI will pay approximately $322 million in cash, net of cash assumed, and assume approximately $48 million of unvested stock options and restricted shares held by SandForce employees.
SandForce’s award-winning products include flash storage processors at the heart of PCIe flash adapters and SSDs. Flash storage processors provide the intelligence required to deliver the performance and low-latency benefits of flash storage in enterprise and client applications. With market-proven, differentiated DuraClass™ technology, SandForce flash storage processors improve the reliability, endurance and power efficiency of flash-based storage solutions.
The acquisition greatly enhances LSI's competitive position in the fast-growing server and storage PCIe flash adapter market, where the WarpDrive™ family of products from LSI already uses SandForce flash storage processors. The complementary combination of LSI’s custom capability and SandForce’s standard product offering propels LSI into an industry-leading position in the rapidly growing, high-volume flash storage processor market space for ultrabook, notebook and enterprise SSD and flash solutions.
“Flash-based solutions are critical for accelerating application performance in servers, storage and client devices,” said Abhi Talwalkar, LSI president and chief executive officer. “Adding SandForce’s technology to LSI’s broad storage portfolio is consistent with our mission to accelerate storage and networking. The acquisition represents a significant, rapidly growing market opportunity for LSI over the next several years.”
Michael Raam, SandForce president and CEO, said, “The combination of SandForce and LSI allows us to deliver differentiated solutions in the PCIe flash adapter segment by tightly integrating flash memory and management. In addition, leveraging our flash storage processors with LSI’s comprehensive IP portfolio and leading-edge silicon design platforms will lead to innovative solutions.”
The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2012 subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon closing, the SandForce team will become part of LSI’s newly formed Flash Components Division, with Raam as general manager.
SandForce finally patches elusive 2200 series SSD controller bug. OCZ issues firmware, others soon to follow.
Subject: Storage | October 18, 2011 - 12:25 AM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: ssd, sandforce, ocz, firmware, bug, BSOD
Over the past few months, we had noted a seemingly disproportionate surge of negative reports from users of SandForce-2200 based SSD's. These include OCZ's Vertex and Agility 3, Corsair's Force 3 and GT, Patriot's Pyro and Wildfire, along with many others. The complete list is available in our handy SSD Decoder.
The issue at hand was random BSOD's, with the possibility of an eventual complete failure of the SSD, rendering it unrecognizeable to the BIOS or Operating System. More details (and the fix) after the break:
I witnessed this personally, as the SF-2281 pictured above suffered the same fate when we attempted to use it a few weeks ago.
Today (hopefully) marks the answer to everyone's prayers. SandForce issued base firmware 3.3.2 for SF-2000 series controllers.
OCZ's Toolbox software V 2.40.02 can patch OCZ's line of SF-2200 SSD's with the new fix.
The release notes follow (and seem to lack mention of the aforementioned bugfix):
OCZ Toolbox version 2.40.02
---------------------------
- Modified Identity data display
- Fixed Smart data display for power fail backup attributes
- Added BIOS update for Hybrid driveKnown Issues:
- Update Firmware feature prohibited for primary drives with 1500 & 2000 controllers
- Intel RST Driver 10.1.0.1008 prohibits SSD detection
OCZ's press tidbit for the new firmware(s):
OCZ is pleased to announce that the cause of a BSOD issue experienced by some SF-2000-based drive owners has been identified by OCZ and SandForce. A new firmware update which directly addresses this BSOD occurrence related to SF-2000 based SSDs is available here. All newly manufactured OCZ SF-2000 based SSDs will feature the new 2.15 firmware revision (which is based on SandForce firmware version 3.3.2.) We highly recommend that any customers that have experienced the BSOD issue update their firmware to 2.15.We sincerely appreciate the support from our customers, and if any customers have any questions or require additional support please do not hesitate to contact a customer service representative and we will be happy to address any questions or concerns.
If you own any of the affected SSD's, I highly recommend updating as soon as possible. Until then, I also recommend you back up any data present on these drives, as the above statements confirm the presence of an issue that can potentially brick your SandForce SSD at any moment.
Remember, patch only applies to the 2200 Series controller (i.e. SandForce SSD's capable of SATA 6Gb/sec).
This newcomer to SSDs holds a new iteration of a familiar controller
Subject: Storage | September 19, 2011 - 05:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: sf-2200 controller, sandforce, ssd, silicon power
When you think of SSDs it is very unlikely that your first mention would be Silicon Power, nor would it even make most people's Top 10. That didn't stop them from releasing a small SSD, the Silicon Power Velox V30 60GB which features the new SandForce SF-2200 controller. Worth noting is that at no time in the review did Bjorn3D experience the bug that many people, especially Gigabyte board users, have experienced. What they did find was not unexpected, due to the small size of the drive SandForce has less channels to deal with which impacts performance significantly. Still the drive will likely beat any SATA II drive out there and at 60GB it will not put you too far into debt.
"Silicon Power Velox V30 60GB SSD is a nice budget SSD. We pit it against top performers like the OCZ Vertex 3 to see how well it does."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- AFFILIATE NEWS: Super Talent TeraDrive CT3 120GB SATA 3 SSD Review @ The SSD Review
- Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA 6Gbit/s SSD Review @ Techgage
- OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
- SSD Shootout: A group test of seven of the best SSDs @ ITShootOut
- Crucial M4 SSD Firmware Update (0009) Boosts Performance @ Legit Reviews
- Patriot Supersonic Magnum 128GB @ Legion Hardware
- Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Review @ t-break
- Western Digital Scorpio Blue (WD10JPVT) 1 TB Hard Disk Drive
- Plextor PX-LB950SA 12X Internal Blu-Ray Disc Writer Review @ Real World Labs
- Kingston Wi-Drive SSD @ The Inquirer
- Raidon iR2940-6S-S2D RAID Enclosure Review - Consumer Storage Simplified @ SSDReview
- QNAP TS-659 Pro II @ AnandTech
- Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 16GB Review @ Legit Reviews
- ioSafe Rugged Portable External Hard Drive @ Tweaktown
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