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Intel 710 SSD Prices Leaked

Subject: Storage | August 8, 2011 - 02:34 PM |
Tagged: ssd, nand, mlc, Intel, 710

According to VR-Zone, Intel's newest enterprise series 710 Lyndonville solid state drives (SSD) will be launching soon in a mid-august time frame, and will be carrying a price-per-gigabyte metric that only a corporate expense account could love.

IntelSSD.png

The Intel 311.  The 710 series will have the same 2.5" form factor.

The new drives will come in 100GB, 200GB, and 300GB capacities and will be priced at approximately $650, $1250, and $1900 USD respectively.  Featuring 25mm eMLC HET, the drives feature 64MB of cache, user-controllable over-provisioning up to 20% (which helps drive longevity by reserving more of the drive for replacement of worn out cells), and a SATA II 3.0Gbps connection.  The SATA 3Gbps connection is not likely to bottleneck the drive as it will only feature 270MB/s read and 210MB/s write speeds.

The eMLC HET flash chips are higher quality MLC chips that Intel hopes will provide enterprise level SLC enduring without the higher cost of the SLC chips.  Interestingly, the drives only carry a 3 year warranty that is then further impacted by the state of the E9 wear level indicator so that the warranty expires once the three years are up or the E9 indicator reaches 1, whichever comes first.  The consumer grade Intel 320 drives on the other hand carry a longer 5 year warranty.

My aging X-25 drive remembers the days when Intel pushed for driving down the cost of SSDs; however, does Intel still remember that goal?

Source: VR-Zone

For a few dollars more; synchronized SSD shooters draw first

Subject: Storage | August 8, 2011 - 02:10 PM |
Tagged: ssd, sata 6Gps, asynchronous flash, synchronous flash, SF-2281 controller

With the latest SSD controller from SandForce, the SF-2281 SATA III, we have been seeing two different types of flash memory used as the storage medium depending on which vendor or product line you look at.  Asynchronous flash and synchronous flash differ in their timing when sending read and write commands, [H]ard|OCP's analogy of synchronous flash working like DDR is perfect as the new variety can send a command on both the rise and the fall of a clock cycle.

The reason this now matters is SATA III, which allows enough bandwidth for synchronous flash to show off its higher speeds; with the previous SATA standard it simply had no impact.  That speed impact on the new standard becomes obvious in [H]'s testing, especially when they fill both drives half way and conduct some real world tests.  Now that some of both types of drives are on the market, they also look at the price difference between the two types of flash,; a comparison in which the old asynchronous flash does not look good coming out of.

H_flashtypes.png

"News flash! All flash NAND is not created equal! Sure, you know about multi-level and single-level NAND when it comes to speed, but what about synchronous and asynchronous NAND inside your shiny new SSD? We have answers and tell you where your money is best spent for real data speed."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: [H]ard|OCP

Patriot tries out the SandForce 2281 controller in the newest Wildfire SSD

Subject: Storage | August 1, 2011 - 03:51 PM |
Tagged: ssd, patriot, wildfire 120GB, sandforce, SF-2281 controller

120GB is a nice spot for SSDs, enough space for an OS and limited programs but without forcing you to spend $500+.  The Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD SATA 6GB/s drive is $300, not the least expensive but certainly competitive with other similar drives, in price.  As for performance, with the new SATA standard and a SandForce controller it seemed best matched against the OCZ Vertex III Max IOPS.  Hi Tech Legion's testing showed the two to be running neck and neck in both performance and price.  Competition that close will hopefully bring sales and discounts making both drives even more attractive.

HTL_wildfire.jpg

"The Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD claims to deliver enterprise-class performance on a home PC. The Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD is equipped with the SandForce SF-2281 controller paired with 16 8GB Toshiba 32nm toggle mode NAND chips. Much like other next generation SandForce based SSDs, the Patriot Wildfire 120GB has DuraWrite technology, Windows 7 TRIM support and is 256-bit AES encryption capable. With a sequential read speed of 555MB/s and write speed of 520MB/s, as well as a max random write IOPS of 85,000, the Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD is aimed squarely at enthusiasts who want raw speed and uncompromised performance."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: Hi Tech Legion

Podcast #164 - Intel and AMD Earnings, Intel MLAA, 28 nanometer GPUs, Viewer Questions and more!

Subject: General Tech | July 28, 2011 - 05:16 PM |
Tagged: ssd, podcast, ocz, Intel, amd

PC Perspective Podcast #164 - 7/28/2011

This week we talk about Intel and AMD Earnings, Intel MLAA, 28 nanometer GPUs, Viewer Questions and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

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, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath and Allyn Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!

Program length: 1:26:36

Program Schedule:

  1. 0:00:43 Introduction
  2. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  3. http://pcper.com/podcast
  4. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  5. 0:02:13 Intel and AMD Provide Positive Earnings
  6. 0:13:35 Bulldozer will be on time, missing CEO or not
  7. 0:14:45 Intel MLAA: Matrox had the right idea, wrong everything else
  8. 0:23:00 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
  9. 0:24:04 Intel reproduces '8MB bug', fix coming soon.
  10. 0:32:20 Video Perspective: AMD Steady Video Technology on AMD A-Series APUs
  11. 0:35:28 Phone in your overclocking, MSI Afterburner App for Android
  12. 0:37:00 OCZ wraps both its ARMs around a new SSD controller and gives it a little TLC
  13. 0:40:55 AMD CFO States They Will Have 28 Nano-meter GPUs Out This Year
    1. more info on low power HKMG aka HPL
  14. 0:45:45 Apple is da bomb! Vulnerability found in battery circuitry
  15. 0:54:05 Email from Tom about Eyefinity
  16. 0:59:06 Email from Greg about Eyefinity again
  17. 1:05:05 Email from Luke about SSDs
  18. 1:10:08 Email from Jesse about SRT notebooks
  19. 1:14:05 Quakecon Reminder - http://www.quakecon.org/
    1. Tshirts, prizes, stuff!
    2. Win a truck: http://www.pcper.com/news/Shows-and-Expos/QuakeCon-2011-Arrive-clunker%E2%80%A6-leave-beast
  20. 1:16:32 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: Evernote
    2. Jeremy: isostick ... 1/2 way through the kickstart process even
    3. Josh: dirt cheap USB 3.0 16GB
    4. Allyn: Sony DSC-HX100V
  21. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  22. http://pcper.com/podcast   
  23. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  24. 1:25:46 Closing

Source:

SanDisk joins the hard drive haters with the release of their Ultra SSDs

Subject: General Tech | July 28, 2011 - 12:40 PM |
Tagged: ssd, sandisk, sandisk ultra

SanDisk is releasing a line of SSDs, called the Ultra series.  They are not aimed at the high end market, they use the older SATA 2 interface and claim sequential transfer speeds of 280MB/s read and 270MB/s write.  The prices should range from $130 for the 60GB product to $450 for the 240GB model, which puts them about middle of the road for pricing.  They also list expected lifetime in terms of the amount of data written to them; 40TB of data written for the 60GB up to 120TB of total data written to the 240GB.  The Register covered the release here.

Elreg_sandisk_ultra_ssd.jpg

"SanDisk has a new Ultra line, a cruise flash missile aimed at taking out PC and notebook hard drives and replacing them with much faster SanDisk SSDs.

These are 2.5-inch format, 2-bit multi-level cell flash drives, coming in 60, 120 and 240GB capacity points. The Ultra brand is used by SanDisk for consumer flash products such as SDHC cards, and now a trio of SSDs will be sold under the Ultra name."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: The Register

OCZ wraps both its ARMs around a new SSD controller and gives it a little TLC

Subject: General Tech | July 26, 2011 - 12:03 PM |
Tagged: ssd, ocz, arm, tlc, sata 6Gps, Indilinx Everest

OCZ is never satisfied with the performance of their SSDs in general and their controllers specifically.  After purchasing Indilinx to ensure that their controllers would be of high quality and designed to OCZ's specific needs, they've now been pushing Indilinx to improve on their controllers.  That has lead to Everest, which has a dual core ARM processor and 400MHz DDR3 cache that can support up to 512MB.  The controller is optimized for 8K writes which is perfect for the current flash utilized in SSDs.  OCZ has also optimized the flash memory, developing Triple Level Cell (TLC) which has three layers as opposed to MLC which sports two.  The controller will be backwards compatible, which is a good idea if OCZ wants to license the controller to other manufacturers, which makes sense as Everest should hit 200MT/s as compared to SandForce's current 166MT/s.  There is more that this controller can do, click on over to The Register to read about it.

Holysh.jpg

"OCZ is sampling a new flash controller that gives a picture of future solid state drives.

The company bought Indilinx for its solid state drive (SSD) controller technology in March this year and has now unveiled the Indilinx Everest controller platform.

It has a 6Gbit/s SATA III interface, a dual-core ARM processor and a number of enticing features, such as 3-bit multi-level cell (MLC) support. This is going to be called TLC, for triple-level cell, to distinguish it from today's MLC, which is 2-bit MLC."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: The Register

Corsair Forces synchronicity into their latest SSD

Subject: Storage | July 25, 2011 - 05:15 PM |
Tagged: ssd, corsair, corsair force gt 120GB, sata 6Gps

The new Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD goes a different way from the crowd with their use of synchronous MLC flash memory, the SF-2000 controller is very familiar though.  Synchronous flash is more expensive than asynchronous and in theory should provide better speeds with large uncompressed files, though not a huge boost. That theory bore out Neoseeker's testing with better results across the board when compared to the Patriot Wildfire SSD.  If you are willing to invest the money to get that little bit more out of your machine, the Corsair Force is worth considering.

NS_Force GT 4.jpg

"In an SSD market where 500MB/s data read/write speeds are becoming the norm across manufacturers, Corsair's Force GT differentiates itself from the pack by using 25nm ONFI synchronous NAND flash memory, versus standard 25nm asynchronous NAND. This allows the drive to excel at reading and writing compressed data, which is supposed to translate into faster real-world performance with files like video, music and graphics. Hit our latest SSD review to see just how real this real-world performance ends up looking."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: Neoseeker

Intel reproduces '8MB bug', fix coming soon.

Subject: Storage | July 24, 2011 - 09:22 PM |
Tagged: ssd, Intel, firmware, 320

We've seen some recent mumblings about a corner case where inadvertent or improper power loss to an Intel 320 Series SSD would result in the drive getting stuch in an inaccessible mode where it appears as an 8MB drive. From what I've gathered, the issue seems rare and may be tied to some specific hardware configurations.

external.jpg

The SSD 320 we tested back in March (we couldn't get it to 'stick' in 8MB mode).

More after the break...

Source: PC Perspective

OCZ Technology Unveils Indilinx Everest Series Solid State Drive Controller

Subject: Storage | July 20, 2011 - 02:43 PM |
Tagged: ocz, Indilinx, Indilinx Everest, sata 6Gps, ssd

SAN JOSE, CA - July 20, 2011 - OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today unveiled the Indilinx Everest SATA 3.0 SSD platform. The Everest platform features support of 6Gbps interface speeds, high transactional performance that is optimized for compressed files, and maximum capacities up to 1TB.

"The new Indilinx Everest platform is a complete customizable solution that delivers superior storage performance, features, and capabilities designed to exceed the needs of the most demanding SSD applications," said Bumsoo Kim, President of Indilinx. "Combining a 6Gbps SATA Revision 3.0 host interface, a dual-core CPU, and support for the latest, most advanced NAND Flash memory technology available, Everest offers SSD manufacturers unparallel flexibility in optimizing their designs for both performance and cost."

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As a true next generation solution the new Indilinx Everest platform includes a complete spectrum of enhanced capabilities including:

Supports Next Generation Flash Technologies
The Everest Platform supports state-of-the-art, Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND components and next generation three bit per cell NAND Flash. The ability to leverage Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND Flash with proprietary Everest and Indilinx Ndurance Technology provides customers with significant cost reductions associated with moving to the new process.

Advanced Architecture Optimized for High Speed and Density
The Everest Platform features the only controller to support 200 mega transfers per second (MT/s) synchronous-mode flash, up over the 166 MT/s supported by other NAND Flash controllers. Everest supports 1TB capacities in a single controller SSD design with current generation Flash components. Its innovative eight channel design with up to 16-way interleaving for maximum performance, supports full data path and power fail protection to deliver best-in-class data integrity and reliability for enterprise applications.

Performance Optimization
Everest's leading-edge design delivers high sequential speeds up to 500MB/s and is optimized for small file writes at the 8K file size with next generation page mapping technology, which increases transactional performance optimized for 4K to 16K compressed files , by matching file sizes to the 8K page size typical in newer generation NAND Flash.

Enhanced Boot Time
Indilinx's new boot time reduction algorithms can be configured to decrease system boot time by up to 50% over existing SSD controller architectures for customers that require faster boot times and an instant-on experience in their applications. This provides the real world benefits users seek from their storage solutions and enables quicker access and greater responsiveness, allowing clients to take full advantage of solid state storage as a boot device.

Indilinx Everest Platform Complete Feature-Set:

  • SATA Revision 3.0 - Supports 6Gbps, 3Gbps, and 1.5Gbps interface speeds
  • Dual Core ARM CPU
  • 1TB Maximum Capacity
  • High Sequential Speeds
  • High Transactional Performance - Optimized for 4K to 16K Compressed Files
  • Up to 8 Channels of ONFI 2.0/Toggle 1.0 Flash at up to 200MT/s with up to 16-way Interleaving
  • Advanced BCH ECC engine - over 70 bits per defined sector
  • 400MHz DDR3 DRAM Cache Interface with Support for up to 512MB
  • Proprietary Ndurance Technology
  • Enhanced Power Fail Protection
  • Supports up to 1xnm Node NAND Flash with 1, 2, or 3 bits per cell
  • Efficient NAND Flash Management - Dynamic and Static Wear-Leveling, and Background Garbage Collection
  • Boot Time Reduction Optimizations - Collaborative Platform Development
  • NCQ Support up to 32 Queue Depth
  • End-to-End Data Protection
  • TRIM Support
  • Numerous Over-Provisioning Options
  • Industry Standard SMART Reporting
Source: OCZ Technology

Patriot's new SSD is on fire

Subject: Storage | July 14, 2011 - 12:56 PM |
Tagged: patriot, 32nm NAND, Sandforce SF2281, sata 6Gps, ssd

Patriot's original foray into the SSD market was overshadowed by many other manufacturers releasing SSDs and did not get much stage time compared to Intel or OCZ for instance.   This may change now that the community has realized it is the controller that makes the SSD, not the manufacturer.  Their new 120GB Wildfire is a true SATA 6Gps drive and it features the high performing Sandforce SF-2281 controller.  That isn't the only trick they have up their sleeves, though it means the drive costs more, they chose 32nm NAND over 25nm NAND which results in faster performance and possibly longer life which is in line with the three year warranty Patriot offers.  Check out the actual performance over at Neoseeker.

NS_Wildfire 1.jpg

"The Patriot WildFire is a 120GB SSD using the latest Sandforce SF-2281 controller, and 32nm MLC NAND memory. Together these components promise enterprise-level performance in a package priced for hardware enthusiasts. Hit our review to see if the WildFire can live up to its name, or if it ends up burning out prematurely."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: Neoseeker

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