| 2.5"
SSD news - selected from all
SSD news......................................... |
Viking Enters 2.5"
SSD Market
Editor:- January 21, 2010 - Viking Modular Solutions
today announced
it is sampling a range of SAS
and SATA compatible
SSDs using
controllers from SandForce.
Form
factors will include:- 1.8",
2.5" and
innovative "non-HDD-like"
solutions for space constrained and/or rugged applications.
"Today's
announcement represents the results of collaboration between Viking Modular
Solutions and SandForce for current and future high performance SSD products
that target enterprise, storage and multiple other applications requiring
superior performance and security," stated Hamid Shokrgozar, President of
Viking Modular Solutions. "This joint effort clearly highlights our
commitment as an industry leader by continuing to deliver innovative products at
practical costs to our customer base."
TweakTown Tests RunCore's "SandForce inside" SSD
Editor:-
January 7, 2010 - a benchmark
review
article in TweakTown.com concludes that RunCore's upcoming Pro
V 2.5" SSD - which
uses SandForce's
SF-1500
SoC is the fastest SATA
2 SSD they have tested.
SMART Samples "SandForce inside" SSDs
Editor:-
January 5, 2010 - SMART
is sampling the
XceedIOPS
SATA - SLC and "enterprise grade" MLC flash SSDs in
1.8" and
2.5" form factors
- based on the SF-1500 processor from SandForce.
Performance
is upto 30K IOPS
random read/write. SMART uses a combination of
write attenuation
technologies to attain a 5-year projected lifetime for its 400GB MLC
XceedIOPS SATA model ($2,900 oem qty price) in an environment that demands
250MB/s sustained write and a 40% duty cycle.
"The enterprise SSD market appears to be entering a period of
impressive growth. Well-positioned to satisfy the requirements of enterprise
deployments, we expect our XceedIOPS SATA SSDs will provide low cost, superior
performance, low power, and high capacity flexibility," said Alan
Gulachenski, SMART's VP and General Manager, Enterprise Solid State Storage.
2.5" SSD Market Fights Back
Editor:- January 4,
2010 - StorageSearch.com disclosed today that the gap in search volume
between
PCIe SSDs (most
popular form factor) and 2.5"
SSDs (#2 form factor) narrowed in December 2009 - rather than widened.
The
imminent availability of consumer priced 6Gbps SATA SSDs coupled with growing
competition in the 2.5" SAS SSD market has boosted the acceleration ceiling
in traditional disk form factors. That provides more reasons for customers to
look again at the 2.5" form factor. Reader pageviews for PCIe SSDs were
nearly 4x higher than a year ago.
Solid State Drives -
market research & analysts
A-DATA Joins "SandForce Inside" SSD List
Editor:-
December 15, 2009 - A-DATA
announced today it has joined the growing roster of
SSD makers using
SSD SoCs from SandForce.
A-DATA
says products are now in the final testing stage and will be previewed at
CES next month.
Editor's comments:- I had earlier commented on A-DATA's
weaknesses in the enterprise SSD product space. This collaboration with
SandForce is intended to fill product gaps in this strategic market.
A-DATA Ships New 2.5" Gamer SSDs
Editor:-
December 9, 2009 -A-DATA
announced volume shipments of its 2.5" XPG range SATA MLC SSDs
optimized for use with Windows 7 TRIM.
Models include:-
SX95
(R/W = 230MB/s and 178MB/s) and
S592
(R/W = 230MB/s and 170MB/s).
Seagate's 1st SSD - Finally a Real Product
Editor:-
December 8, 2009 - Seagate
announced details of its
Pulsar SSD
- a 2.5"
SATA
SLC
SSD with 200GB capacity.
Sequential
R/W rate is upto 240MB/s and 220MB/s respectively, R/W IOPS are 30,000 and
25,000 respectively. Aimed at the server market the
BER is quoted as
1 sector per 10E16. Seagate says it has been sampling the new drive - its 1st
SSD - since September 2009.
Editor's comments:- the remarkable
thing about Seagate's 1st SSD is that it took the company so many years to enter
the market. Technically - it's unremarkable.
Will it succeed in the
market? In my view it would be unrealistic to assume that Seagate's long
running dominance in the hard
disk market will translate to dominance in SSDs too - because nearly all
its potential oem customers have already been evaluating or using SSDs from
other sources for
upto 4 years.
And
even if Seagate's new product succeeds in filling holes in design slots in
2010 - its oem customers can always replace this product with their own designs
leveraging the merchant market for
SSD controllers & IP.
To succeed in the SSD market - Seagate will have to demonstrateunique
mastery in some aspect of SSD technology which customers value. The most
attractive area will probably be in the area of
reliability.
In
recent quarters we've seen a spate of
flaky SSDs get to
market. This tendency will rise in 2010 as many storage oems decide that
shipping untried products is a lower risk to their businesses than losing out on
customer mind share. Each bad news story helps companies who have a clean
reputation. But as a newcomer to the SSD market Seagate may have to wait years
to establish its own reputation.
It's tempting to compare Seagate's
entry to the SSD market with
Western Digital. But
the 2 cases are completely different. When WD acquired
SiliconSystems
in March 2009 - it got a business which had started marketing SSDs in August
2004. That gives WD's product marketers 5 years of market experience they can
talk to customers about - compared to 3 months for Seagate. Nevertheless - being
late is better than never.
Micron Samples SATA 3.0 SSDs
Editor:- December 2,
2009 - Micron
announced it is sampling
6Gbps
SATA MLC SSDs in 1.8"
and 2.5" form
factors.
Micron's C300 SSD can achieve a read throughput speed of up
to 355MB/s and a write throughput up to 215MB/s.
Editor's
comments:- Long anticipated in StorageSearch.com's
flash SSD Roadmap -
it was inevitable that we would be seeing 6Gbps
SATA SSDs soon,
because several companies have already sampled 6Gbps
SAS SSDs which use the
same physical interface. It was simply a question of when vendors would judge
the market conditions right. (Or pre-announce them first.)
2.5" SSD Market Maintains Growth
Editor:-
December 2, 2009 - 2.5" SSD pageviews on StorageSearch.com increased 85%
in November compared to the year ago period.
But that wasn't enough
for this subject to regain the #1 slot for "most viewed SSD form factor"
by our readers.
The #1 subject was again -
PCIe SSDs. Proof - if
it were needed - that once SSD buyers have bought into the idea of application
acceleration - they are prepared to cast aside ties to historic interfaces and
form factors and look at the best value for money when considering new
projects.
And that leads us to a simple rule of thumb for deciding
which are the best types of SSDs to look at first.
- pre-existing application box (server or notebook) - traditional SSD form
factors (2.5",
1.8"and
3.5").
When
it comes to rackmount
SSDs - the market
trends show a much more complex picture.
OCZ Promises "SandForce inside" SAS SSDs
Editor:-
November 10, 2009 - OCZ
today
announced
it will launch a new SAS
SSD family based on SSD
SoCs from SandForce
which will probably be previewed at CES
in January 2010.
Editor's comments:- for more examples of who
else has already announced SandForce based SSDs (and in some cases is already
shipping them) see the article -
3 Easy Ways to Enter
the SSD Market.
Foremay Ships Fastest 2.5" SATA SSD
Editor:-
November 2, 2009 -
Foremay
announced it is shipping the
world's fastest 2.5"
SATA flash SSDs.
The
SC199 Cheetah Y-Series has R/W speeds up to 290/280 MB/s in
2.5" and
3.5" SATA form
factors - which approaches the theoretical speed limit of the SATA-II protocol.
It also delivers impressive R/W IOPS of up to 50,000/45,000 respectively.
"It is Avalanche technology that makes the SC199 Cheetah Y-Series
the world's fastest SSD drives with SATA interfaces," stated Jack Winters,
Foremay's Co-founder and CTO. "Avalanche is not a single technology
breakthrough; rather it is a novel technology platform that integrates various
patented and proprietary SSD technologies from hardware to firmware and design
to manufacturing process, along with engineering synergy from suppliers,
partners and customers."
Intel Offers Tool to Retro-Fix Missing Active Garbage Collection
Editor:-
October 26, 2009 - Intel
joined the growing roster of SSD
companies who have
announced
support for Trim functions.
These benefit
flash SSDs which
don't have internal fast active
garbage collection.
The company recommends users install the firmware update and toolbox, and run
the Trim function daily to ensure best performance.
pureSilicon Unveils New Military SSDs
Editor:-
October 26, 2009 - pureSilicon
says it will start shipping its Renegade R2 Series 2.5" SATA SLC flash
SSDs later this week.
Sequential R/W speeds are 255MB/s and 180MB/s
respectively. IOPS performance is:- 18,000 IOPS random read: (4K) and ; random
write: 1,200 IOPS @ 4K) and proprietary SiPher™ data security technology.
The drives are available immediately in a wide range of densities
(4GB, 8GB, 16 GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB) in a low profile (9.5mm height)
2.5" form factor
and -40°C to +85°C operating temperature.
256GB, PATA,
1.8", and encryption
versions will start shipping in Q1 2010.
"pureSilicon is dedicated to providing high-performance, rugged
storage solutions to the defense, military, industrial, and government markets,"
said Jason Breakstone, founder and CEO of pureSilicon. "While many SSD
manufacturers are focusing their efforts on the mass consumer markets,
pureSilicon is committed to designing and delivering technologies that will
provide significant benefits to our customers such as full-disk encryption and
data declassification
methods. Renegade R2 is designed to operate in the harshest conditions."
pureSilicon says the specs it publishes are "steady-state
performance" results. These are achieved by performing proper
preconditioning, which prepares the drive for real-world usage scenarios and
yields realistic performance benchmarks. Other SSD manufacturers claim 'clean'
(new) drive performance specifications on a new drive, and users should expect
to see performance
reductions in real world use as a clean drive settles into its stabilized
(steady) state — once the drive is nearing capacity and is consistently
performing garbage
collection, wear leveling, and bad-block management.
SMART SSDs Selected for Avionics Servers
Editor:-
October 20, 2009 - SMART
today announced that it has been
selected
by Harris Corp to provide SSDs for use in its Mass Storage Unit
program.
The new MSU, which is part of a larger F/A-18 program, is the
first of a new family of avionics file servers.
Harris selected SMART's
XceedSecure
2.5" SATA SLC flash SSD for the in-flight file server application.
XceedSecure high-performance SSDs range in capacity from 32GB to 256GB and
include EraSure® technology, which provides
secure erase features
that comply with current military data-elimination standards.
Foremay Ships TRIM Compliant SSDs
Editor:- October
15, 2009 -
Foremay today
announced that its PC166 Leopard W-Series SSDs - designed and tested for
compliance with Windows 7 SSD TRIM - are shipping in volume.
With the
TRIM function enabled, the SSD can significantly improve sustainable writing
speed, as well as prevent writing performance degradation when an SSD is at
greater than 50% capacity. "One of the key features of Windows 7 is its
support of the TRIM command," stated Jack Winters, Co-founder and CTO of
Foremay. "Without this support, we had to implement our proprietary active
garbage collection
algorithm in our high end solid state drives that are listed as the
Fastest SSD. Now I
am glad to see that Windows 7 supports TRIM so that we can implement more
cost-effective passive garbage collection techniques into the PC166 Leopard
WSeries and other Foremay SSDs."
Editor's comments:- all good fast enterprise flash SSDs
already had "active garbage collection" - so TRIM makes no difference
to those. But (if it works) Microsoft's TRIM - means oems can use slower and
cheaper controllers in their PC SSDs - and let the OS do the job.
Data Integrity Challenges in 2.5" flash SSD Design
Editor:-
October 12, 2009 - StorageSearch.com
today published a new article called -
Data Integrity
Challenges in flash SSD Design - written by Kent Smith Senior
Director, Product Marketing, SandForce.
A
common theme you will hear from all
fast SSD companies
is that the faster you make an SSD go - the more effort you have to put into
understanding and engineering data integrity to eliminate the risk of "silent
errors." ...read
the article
Foremay Launches SSDs Designed for Mac Market
Editor:-
October 6, 2009 -
Foremay
launched its EC188
Jaguar Series flash SSDs optimized for the Mac market.
New Edition - Top 10 SSD OEMs in Q3 2009
Editor:-
October 2, 2009 - StorageSearch.com
published the new (10th quarterly edition) of the
top 10 SSD oems
ranked by storage search volume.
It's a popular barometer of the
SSD market and includes - as usual - a commentary for each of the companies
listed. The results are widely anticipated by vendors themselves - as it gives a
comparative measure of how much attention they are getting in the minds of the
most influential segment in the SSD market - which is You - the readers
of StorageSearch.com.
It's getting harder for companies entering the
top 10 list (and even harder staying in). One reason is there are 3x as
many manufacturers of SSDs as there were just 2 years ago. And that will
accelerate in the coming year - because it's
easier now to
enter the market.
PCIe SSDs Snatch #1 Storage Search Crown
Editor:-
September 24, 2009 - StorageSearch.com
disclosed today that search volumes for
PCIe form factor SSDs
have surpassed that for
2.5" SSDs for
the 1st time.
"This is a tsunami warning event for SSD vendors
addressing the enterprise server acceleration market" said Zsolt Kerekes,
editor of StorageSearch.com.
"In the 25 years that I've been
involved in the enterprise storage - there were just 3 great waves of user
mass adoption for new disk form factors - starting with 8.5", moving
onto 5.25", then 3.5" and finally 2.5".
"In
contrast, after
3 decades of
sleepy stealth mode development the SSD market is now streaming ahead on
SSD time. Users have woken up to what the SSD market can do for their servers -
and for new systems they don't want to plow through their data fields dragged
down by the clutter and dead weight baggage of the
rotating disk peddlers.
A year ago interest in 2.5" SSDs was an order of magnitude higher than
PCIe SSDs. Both have grown in search volume - but PCIe SSDs seem to have
captured the imagination of this market to a degree which only its most
optimistic supporters would have predicted."
Intel Walks the SSD Notebook Talk
Editor:- September
14, 2009 - Intel
has published a case study about the productivity benefits of using
SSDs
instead of hard drives in business notebooks.
Following an
internal evaluation Intel says it will deploy up to 10,000
SSD notebooks
this year to its own employees.
Despite the higher cost of SSDs -
Intel concluded that the case for replacing notebook HDDs (which averaged 4.9%
annual failure rate according to its own experience) - was "compelling".
...read
the article (pdf)
Pliant Samples Fast 2.5" 3.5" SAS SSDs
Editor:-
September 14, 2009 - Pliant
Technology started sampling its
Lightning
family of 2.5"
(150GB) and 3.5"
(300GB) skinny
flash SAS SSDs.
The SLC drives deliver R/W rates upto 525/340MB/s and 160,000 IOPS
(for a 90% R, 10% W mix).
"The exceptional performance and
reliability features of Lightning Enterprise Flash Drives allow IT managers to
address the most significant challenges they're facing today, namely, keeping up
with continually increasing storage demands with fixed budgets, limited data
center floor space and the ever growing cost of power," said Amyl Ahola,
CEO of Pliant Technology.
Tom's Hardware Reviews an SSD Dozen
Editor:-
September 7, 2009 -Tom's Hardware
has published a
performance
review of a dozen disk-form-factor (1.8" &
2.5") flash SSDs.
Most exceeded 200MB/s R/W throughput. No unpleasant surprises were
reported.
The link, above, takes you to the end of the article -
which contains the useful summary. Alternatively you can
read
the article (from the beginning) | |
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SSD Bookmarks
suggested
by - Kevin T Crow, NAND Solutions Group, Intel |
Here's an article written by or
about Intel
Enterprise-wide
Deployment of Notebook PCs with Solid-State Drives
Kevin says he
chose this article because "It will give the reader an overview of the
benefits experienced by the enterprise after deploying notebooks with solid
state drives."
The article is a case study about the productivity benefits of using
SSD based notebooks instead of hard drive notebooks inside an enterprise
(Intel). Following an internal evaluation Intel found the benefits so "compelling"
that it decided to deploy up to 10,000 SSD notebooks to its own employees.
Other SSD article suggestions...
The SSD
Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD - published by
AnandTech
Kevin says "This
is the latest in a long series of
reviews
that compare solid state drives and discusses the technology behind them.
Overall the series does a very good job educating the reader on what they need
to know when making a solid state drive purchase decision."
Editor:-
thanks Kevin for sharing your SSD links.
see also:-
Intel
- editor mentions on STORAGEsearch.com | | |
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the Fastest Solid State
Disks
Speed isn't everything, and comes at a price. |
But if
you do need the speediest
SSD then wading through the web sites of over 140 current
SSD oems to find a suitable
candidate slows you down.
And the SSD search problem will get even
worse. |
 | |
| I've done the research for you
to save you time. And this page is updated daily from
storage news and direct
inputs from oems. ...read
the article, | |
| . |
Z's Laws
Predicting
Future Flash SSD Performance |
A reader asked me a
very good question.
"Is there an industry roadmap for future
flash SSD
performance?"
That prompted other questions like...
- How fast are flash SSDs going to be in 2009?, 2010? or 2012?
- What are the technology factors which relate to flash SSD throughput and
IOPS?
- How close will flash SSDs get to
RAM SSD performance?
There wasn't a simple answer I could give at the time. Clues lay
scattered all across this web site
and in my many one on one discussions with readers about the market... |
 |
But I agreed there should be
a single place on the web where these answers could be found.
Forget
Moore's
Law. That gives you the wrong answer, and this article explains why. ...read the article | | | |
