OCZ Announces Enterprise-Grade 960GB Solid-State Drive.

OCZ Technology Group, a leading provider of solid-state drives, has announced its new enterprise-grade solid-state drive (SSD) with Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface along with proprietary controller architecture. The new Talos drives combine high reliability with high capacity (from 200GB to 960GB) and maximized input/output performance.

Talos SSDs are available in 3.5" form factors (2.5" to follow) and range from 200GB to 960GB. Talos SAS SSDs deliver speed with up to 64 000 4K random IOPS [input/output operations per second] and are specifically optimized for enterprise storage applications, providing clients who require substantial transactional processing with superior performance and cost-savings. Additionally, the Talos SAS interface offers the benefits of interoperability and integration with existing devices, flexibility for traditional storage environments, and the ability to scale greater amounts of drives, providing larger aggregate pools of storage. The drives also deliver reliability features including superior power loss protection, endurance, encryption, and ECC protection.

 

Read More - http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/display/20110515093655_OCZ_Announces_Enterprise_Grade_960GB_Solid_State_Drive.html

OCZ Technology Reveals Mainstream SSDs with Serial ATA-600 Interface.

OCZ Technology Group this week released two new families of solid-state drives with Serial ATA-600 interface and relatively low price. The new Agility 3 and Solid 3 drives feature SandForce SF-2200-series controller and provide maximum read speed of around 500MB/s, which is tremendous speed for mainstream solid-state drives.

Both OCZ Agility 3 and OCZ Solid 3 are based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory made using 20nm-class process technology, are powered by SandForce SF-2281 controller, support TRIM technology, use Serial ATA-600 interface. The drives have similar 2.5" form-factors, weights, operating temperatures, power consumption, shock resistance and so on. Both drives feature ECC capability with up to 55 bits correctable per 512-byte sector. The main difference between the two drives is much higher IOPS [input/output operations per second] performance of Agility 3 compared to Solid 3, which may be conditioned by firmware.

“With increased availability of SATA III platforms, the demand for the latest generation SSDs has grown rapidly. We are addressing this demand with new products that offer both the best performance and value for consumers. The new Agility 3 and Solid 3 SSDs make it easier than ever for consumers take advantage of the new SATA III interface. When coupled with the speed and reliability benefits that our SSDs offer over traditional hard drives, it makes the two new series the ideal choices for mobile and desktop applications," said Ryan Petersen, chief executive officer of OCZ technology Group.

 

Read More -  http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/display/20110512122541_OCZ_Technology_Reveals_Mainstream_SSDs_with_Serial_ATA_600_Interface.html

Intel Debuts New Enthusiast-Class Core-Logic Set with SSD-Based Caching Technology.

Intel Corp. this week released a new enthusiast-class platform for its latest Core i-series "Sandy Bridge" microprocessors. The platform is powered by the new Z68 core-logic set along with 311-series "Larsen Creek" solid-state drive (SSD) that speeds up typical workloads by working in companion with a hard disk drive (HDD).

"The Z68 chipset offers new overclocking and caching features for PC enthusiasts who want more control over their [...] desktops. The 20GB Intel SSD 311 is optimized for the new Intel Smart Response Technology caching feature in Z68 which helps speed boot times, application loads, and many other PC uses," said Daniel Snyder, a spokesman for Intel.

 

Read More -  http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboards/display/20110513122307_Intel_Debuts_New_Enthusiast_Class_Core_Logic_Set_with_SSD_Based_Caching_Technology.html

Z68 SSD Caching with Corsair's F40 SandForce SSD

I have to admit that Intel's Z68 launch was somewhat anti-climactic for me. It was the chipset we all wanted when Sandy Bridge first arrived, but now four months after Sandy Bridge showed up there isn't all that much to be excited about - save for one feature of course: Smart Response Technology (aka SSD caching). The premise is borrowed from how SSDs are sometimes used in the enterprise space: put a small, fast SSD in front of a large array of storage and use it to cache both reads and writes. This is ultimately how the memory hierarchy works - hide the latency of larger, cheaper storage by caching frequently used data in much faster, but more expensive storage.
I believe there's a real future with SSD caching, however the technology needs to go mainstream. It needs to be available on all chipsets, something we won't see until next year with Ivy Bridge. Even then, there's another hurdle: the price of the SSD cache.

For $110 today you can either get a 20GB Larson Creek drive from Intel, or a 40GB SF-1200 based SSD from Corsair. Given how well SandForce's SSDs perform on their own, I wondered how one would stack up as a SSD cache

Read More - http://www.anandtech.com/show/4337/z68-ssd-caching-with-corsairs-f40-sandforce-ssd