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SandForce is transforming data storage by pioneering the use of
commodity flash memory in
enterprise and mobile
computing applications with its innovative SSD (Solid State Drive)
Processors. By delivering unprecedented reliability, performance, and energy
efficiency, SSDs based on patent-pending SandForce DuraClass technology unleash
the full potential for mass-market adoption of SSDs based on NAND flash memory.
Founded in 2006, SandForce is funded by leading
venture capital investors
and first tier storage companies. For more information, visit SandForce at
www.sandforce.com.
see also:-
SandForce
- editor mentions on StorageSearch.com
- editor's comments:- March 2010 - SandForce has - in less than a
year - become one of the best known makers of
SSD SoCs - having
achieved high rankings in StorageSearch.com's quarterly rankings of the
top 10 SSD oems.
By talking openly about its SSD controller technology - SandForce has
garnered interest from many stakeholders outside the set of those oems who may
want to directly use its chip technology. Although not explicitly stated in this
way - the company has cleverly leveraged the concept of "SSDs with
SandForce inside". Therefore end-users who want to peek ahead at the
SSD performance market
roadmap can get a realistic idea of what may be coming - even if they aren't
in the market for SandForce based products.
SandForce was the 1st
company to offer symmetric
R/W IOPS in a 2.5" flash SSD form factor.
SandForce is also
an advocate of "skinny" flash SSDs. To see what I mean by this - and
how this approach compares to the rest of the market take a look at the
article -
RAM Cache Ratios
in flash SSDs.
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SandForce Milestones from recent
SSD Market
History
In April 2009 -
SandForce unveiled
its SF-1000 family of SSD
Processors - aimed at oems building
SATA flash SSDs. Its
2.5" SSD reference design kit is the fastest
2.5" SATA flash
SSD on the market - with 250MB/s symmetric R/W throughput and 30,000 R/W IOPS.
I
asked SandForce's President & CEO, Alex Naqvi,
for more details about the various package of technologies which are bundled
in the company's "DuraClass Technology" - which achieves impressively
high IOPS without relying on over-provisioning or large external RAM caches. In
particular I wondered what part, if any its choice of processor SoC (from
Tensilica) had to play.
Alex
Naqvi explained - DuraClass performance doesn't come from the choice of
processor - but in the way that they have integrated various design techniques
with very fast hardware (proprietary chips) which the company has designed to
accelerate the core bottleneck functions of a
flash SSD controller.
In concert with other techniques, such as the ability to reorder
data before it is written to flash (thereby attenuating
write endurance
by 2 orders of magnitude), RAID
like internal protection and very fast garbage collection SandForce's
DuraClass Technology results in small form factor enterprise class flash SSDs
which have no daily write limits for MLC flash and symmetric R/W IOPS.
In
June 2009 - SandForce's VP marketing, Thad Omura published an article
in Computer Technology Review -
Making
MLC Flash Practical for Enterprise SSDs.
In
July 2009 - SandForce
was ranked #2 in
StorageSearch.com's list of the
the Top 10 SSD OEMs
based on search volume in Q2 2009. This is the 1st time that the top 10 SSD
list has included a company whose primary business is designing
SSD controllers.
SandForce's
search volume was 72% higher than the #3 ranked company in this list
indicating high reader interest in what the company has to say about SSDs.
StorageSearch.com attributes this to 2
main factors.
1 - Users are getting much more interested in
educating themselves about what happens inside flash SSDs - to understand what
factors affect performance
and reliability -
and in the hope of avoiding choosing the
wrong suppliers.
2
- Thousands of designers in hundreds of companies worldwide are now
investigating the option of designing their own SSDs as the technological
barriers to doing this have crumbled way. (This is confirmed by pageviews for
SSD SOCs and reader emails.) It means that if big computer oems are successful
in the SSD market many will turn their attention to designing future SSDs
in-house rather than buying commercial off the shelf products.
Commenting
on the company's high ranking in these pages SandForce's VP of Marketing Thad
Omura said - "We are delighted StorageSearch.com is raising the
visibility of SandForce's innovative SSD Processors that enable the usage of
commodity NAND flash memory in enterprise and mobile computing applications."
In August 2009 -
SandForce announced
the availability of the SF-1000
family Evaluation 2.5" SSD featuring 34nm flash from
Micron.
In
September 2009 -
SMART Modular
Technologies announced it has selected the
SandForce
SF-1500
SSD processor for use in its next-generation enterprise-class
SATA SSDs sampling
later this year.
In October 2009 -
SandForce was again
ranked #2 in
StorageSearch.com's list of the
the Top 10 SSD OEMs
based on search volume in Q3 2009.
SandForce's dual
frenemmy nature may be a
factor in the high interest levels in this company. Even if you're not
planning to use their products - you can't afford to ignore them - because
their technology may pop up in another place close to your own interests.
Also
in October 2009 -
SandForce published a
new article - here on StorageSearch.com.
It's called - Data
Integrity Challenges in flash SSD Design. Written by Kent Smith
Senior Director, Product Marketing at SandForce - the article describes what's
needed inside the next generation of fast flash SSDs to ensure data integrity
and to eliminate the risk of "silent errors."
In November
2009 - SandForce
announced
that it has closed $21 million in Series C funding.
In December
2009 - A-DATA
announced it has joined the growing roster of
SSD makers using
SSD SoCs from
SandForce. Products
are now in the final testing stage and will be previewed at
CES next month. |
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| the Problem with
Write IOPS - in flash SSDs |
Repeating write
operations in some apps
and some flash SSDs can take orders of
magnitude longer than predicted
by IOPS
benchmarks and latency specs.
Time goes by - in
the "play it again Sam"
scene intrinsic to databases -
discrediting
long established performance modeling metrics. | |
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| OEMs Race
to Design Their Own SSDs.......... |
Editor:- May 29, 2009 - StorageSearch.com disclosed week
that search volume for
SSD SoCs (systems on a
chip and controllers) has overtaken
1" SSDs (includes
miniature SSD modules) this month for the first time.
Guess that
confirms my sneaking suspicion that a lot of oems want to design their own SSDs.
It used to be very difficult for manufacturers to do this, but it's gotten
a lot easier
recently.
Although SSD architecture is more complex than
RAID systems - what's
happening today in the SSD market is similar to the emergence of
RAID controller
companies in early days of the RAID market. (And that's one of the reasons I
chose the same icon for this subject BTW.)
20 companies selling SSD
controller technology and IP are listed in our directory.
In 5 years'
time - designing application specific SSDs for common applications will be as
easy as designing a NAS
box is today. |
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