Seagate lets you guess the SSD manufacturer it wants to buy

Subject: General Tech, Storage | August 1, 2012 - 10:01 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged:

CFO of Seagate, Pat O’Malley, is looking to purchase a solid state drive manufacturer but will not confirm rumors that OCZ is who they have in mind. They then acknowledge that there is only one company who would make sense for them to acquire.

It is kind-of like you are trying to be stealthy with your interest in a girl in your classes – but it is all throughout the gossip circles. Also, you say you like tall blonde women and there is only two in your program; the other is Intel, nothing more needs to be said.

Ya CZ.

Reuters arranged a discussion with Pat O’Malley, the Chief financial officer (CFO) of Seagate. During the interview, O’Malley announced that Seagate would be interested in purchasing an SSD manufacturer with a strong presence in the enterprise market. O’Malley was further questioned about rumors of Seagate purchasing OCZ. The response was about as thinly veiled as a non-answer could be before it would be considered a confirmation.

“We look at all technology product providers but what I would say is that on the enterprise SSDs, there’s probably only one of them that really makes and significant money.”

And they certainly will make significant money now – as investors binge a little to own a few extra shares.

“We don’t do any comments on official policy on M&A ((Mergers and Acquisitions)) until it’s done.”

Directly.

Update: As commentors and coworkers have mentioned -- it would not be too far fetched for Seagate to be talking about companies such as FusionIO. Still -- OCZ feels most likely to me.

A little DIY hard drive unbricking

Subject: Storage | July 30, 2012 - 01:31 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Seagate, repair, DIY, bricked

While this trick will not work on all bricked HDDs, if you have a Seagate 7200.11 HDD that is failing because it is convinced it is always in a busy state then you should check out this story on Hack a Day.  While the initial step of detaching the circuit board and blocking some connections with piece of cardstock can be handled with easy, it will take some expertise to use an Arduino or serial-TTL converter to issue commands to the HDD controller.  It is a good thing that there is a tutorial to walk you through the steps to unbrick your HDD, besides in the worst case scenario your HDD will still be a brick so it is worth a shot.

"Hard drive firmware is about the last place you want to find a bug. But that turned out to be the problem with the Seagate HDD which he was using in a RAID array. It stopped working completely, and he later found out the firmware has a bug that makes the drive think it’s permanently in a busy state. There’s a firmware upgrade available, but you have to apply it before the problem shows its face, otherwise you’re out of luck. Some searching led him to a hardware fix for the problem."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• Western Digital VelociRaptor (WD1000DHTZ) 1 TB @ TechARP
• Hitachi Deskstar 5K4000 4TB @ Tweaktown
• HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 4TB SATA III HDD Review @ NikKTech
• Buffalo TeraStation 5200: a fast NAS with a few business features @ Hardware.info
• QNAP TurboNAS TS-119P II NAS Server Review @ NikKTech
• Intel 910 800GB PCI Express Solid State Drive Enterprise RAID @ Tweaktown
• OCZ Agility 4 256GB @ SSD Review
• OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
• Plextor M3 Pro SSD @ XSReviews
• OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G @ SSD Review
• Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 USB 3.0 @ TechARP
• Kingston 16GB DataTraveler Locker+ G2 USB Drive Review @ Legit Reviews

Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini with Thunderbolt Available for Pre-order, Final Pricing Announced

Subject: Storage | July 25, 2012 - 01:58 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: thunderbolt, redundant storage, drobo mini, drobo 5d, drobo

We covered the new Thunderbolt-equipped Drobo units last month, and they are looking like promising additions to the company’s lineup. Both Drobo units were slated for a July release, and they are right on track. You can now pre-order the Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini from a number of retailers including Amazon, NCIX, B&H Photo, and Tiger Direct among others.

For the uninitiated, the Drobo 5D is a five bay Drobo S with upgrades. It features USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces as well as an mSATA SSD to improve performance. Like the predecessor, it will accept standard 3.5-inch desktop drives. You can pre-order it now for $849.

The Drobo Mini on the other hand forgoes desktop drives to achieve a much smaller form-factor. It will accept up to four 2.5-inch laptop hard drives (or SSDs if you want crazy speeds). The Drobo Mini is further able to connect to your computer using either USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. Like the Drobo 5D, it has an integrated mSATA port (not included). You can pre-order this little redundant storage system for $649.

You can find more information about the new Drobo products on the company’s website. The full press release is available here..

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.

Super Talent's fast and inexpensive USB 3.0 flash drives

Subject: Storage | July 18, 2012 - 04:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: super talent, ST1, ST2, usb 3.0

If you need fast and portable storage then a USB 3.0 flash drive is the way to go as there is a large difference in speed when you compare it to the previous USB 2.0 standard.  Super Talent currently offers two versions the the ST1 which uses ToggleMode DDR and has and advertised speed of 90MB/s read and 16MB/s write speeds as well as the ST2 which has dual channel MLC flash and 67MB/s read and 24MB/s write speeds.  The other difference between the two models is the capacity, with the ST1 going from 8GB to 16GB and the ST2 available in sizes up to 32GB.  Check out the real world results at Legit Reviews.

"The two drives we have to review today are the Super Talent Express 3.0 ST1 4GB and the Express 3.0 ST2 8GB. These two are the smallest capacity drives of their respective lineups. The ST1 ranges from 4GB-16GB, and the ST2 ranges from 8GB-32GB. The ST1 uses Super Talent’s ToggleMode DDR (double data rate) flash which claims 90MB/s read and 16MB/s write speeds. The ST2, however, uses a dual channel MLC flash, claiming 67MB/s read and 24MB/s write speeds..."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 USB 3.0 Flash Drive @ TechARP
• Plextor M5S 256GB @ AnandTech
• Micron C400 256GB 6Gbps mSATA SSD Review - Crucial M4 mSATA SSD in Disguise @ SSD Review
• OCZ Vertex 4 SSD Review @ HardwareLOOK
• OCZ Vertex 4 256GB Review @ OCC
• Kingston HyperX 3K Series 240GB SSD @ [H]ard|OCP
• OCZ Vertex 4 SSD with 1.5 firmware @ Guru 3D
• Seagate Backup Plus @ The Inquirer
• Crucial Adrenaline Solid State Cache Review @ eTeknix
• Plextor M5S 256GB SATA 3 SSD Review - True Speed Through and Through @ SSD Review
• MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof 3 SATA III 512GB SSD Review - A Force Behind SSD Affordability @ SSD Review
• Biwin NuvoDrive NX Novachips Bugatti Preview - World Exclusive @ Tweaktown
• OCZ RevoDrive X2 SSD Review @ HardwareLOOK
• Corsair Accelerator 30GB & 60GB Review @ OCC
• CoreRise Comay Venus 3S 120GB SATA3 MLC Synchronous SSD Review @ ModSynergy
• Corsair Force 3 240GB Laptop Upgrade Kit @ Pro-Clockers
• OCZ Vertex 4 256GB @ Bjorn3D
• Patriot EP Pro 32GB UHS-I SD Card Review @Hi Tech Legion
• Satechi 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub Review @ Legit Reviews
• Western Digital My Passport 2TB: high capacity portable disk @ Hardware.info
• Kingston FCR-HS3 and FCR-MLG3 USB 3.0 Flash Card Readers Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Synology DS412+ @ techPowerUp
• Western Digital My Passport 2TB Portable Hard Drive Review @ Techgage
• QNAP TurboNAS TS-869 Pro 8-Bay NAS Review @ eTeknix
• Netgear NV+ v2 and LaCie 2big NAS: A Second Look @ AnandTech

Intel adds 240GB model to Intel SSD 330 Series and lowers prices

Subject: Storage | July 16, 2012 - 02:55 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, intel 330, Intel

Good news SSD fans Intel has not only extended their SandForce SF2281 based 330 line, they have also dropped prices across the board.  The new 240GB Intel SSD 330 should be on sale for $194, dropping comfortably below the $1/GB mark.  Intel has reduced the costs to their resellers as well, by up to 38 percent on 520 Series, 10% - 18% for the 320 Series and 27% - 34% on the 330 Series.  These price changes may not directly translate into the same savings for those purchasing from major retailers but it will certainly have some impact.  For instance, right now the Intel 330 180GB model will cost you $160 while the 120GB 320 model remains $170.  The 520 series also remains above $1/GB but with this announcement from Intel you should really keep a close eye on PC Perspective and your favourite retailers for price changes.

MSI Possibly Working on SandForce SF-2000-series SSD

Subject: Storage | July 14, 2012 - 07:43 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: storage, ssd, SF2000, sandforce, msi

The solid state market is heating up as spindle-based drives continue to sell at much higher prices than last year and NAND flash is getting cheaper. The latest entrant may be motherboard and laptop vendor MSI, if a recent addition to SandForce’s SSD partner list holds true.

Unfortunately, we do not have any further details so it’s hard to say what sort of drive this will be other than it will use solid state NAND flash. Being a 2000-series SandForce controller is promising for performance, however. Stay tuned for more details as they develop. I’m excited to see what MSI can bring to the SSD table, and here’s hoping that they break a cost/GB record (I can dream heh). For now though, we will have to suffice with the currently available SSD options, which you can check out on our SSD Decoder at pcper.com/ssd. What do you think about the prospect of an MSI SSD?