| Top 10
SSD OEMs - based on reader search volume in 1st Quarter 2010 - ©
STORAGEsearch.com |
| rank |
manufacturer |
SSD technology |
notes re this
quarter.................................................... |
| 1 |
Fusion-io |
PCIe SSDs |
This was Fusion-io's 5th appearance in the
#1 slot.
Being the best recognized brand in the #1 most popular
form factor related to SSD searches once again secured the top slot for
Fusion-io.
Fusion-io's search volume was 17% higher than the #2
company in this list and 4x higher than the #10 ranked company.
If
you want to see just one of the many exciting trends which is driving
Fusion-io's business take a look at my article
SSD videos.
In
March 2010 - Fusion-io disclosed it
had experienced more than 80% quarter-over-quarter sales growth and
more than 300% sales growth year-over-year.
...Later:- in April 2010 - Fusion-io announced
another $45 million in series C
funding led by new
investor, Meritech Capital Partners.
|
| 2 |
Foremay |
1.8" SSDs
2.5" SSDs
3.5" SSDs
military SSDs
PCIe SSDs |
Same as before.
In February
2010 -
Foremay started
sampling
its EC188 D-series 2nd generation
fast
PCIe SSDs with
capacity upto 4TB (MLC)
and 1TB (SLC). The new SSDs deliver sequential speeds up to 1.6 GB/s for
reading and 1.5 GB/s for writing, and R/W IOPS up to 200K/180K.
Foremay's new PCIe SSDs aim at the same kind of customers who currently buy
from
Fusion-io and
Texas Memory Systems
both of whom have been shipping this type of product for over a year
already.
On the strength of its PCIe SSD product line alone Foremay
wouldn't have reached the #2 slot in this list - but (unlike Fusion-io and TMS)
Foremay also markets 2.5" SSDs which have creditable claims to high
performance and it's this additional factor which boosted overall search
volume.
...Later:- in April 2010 -
Foremay started
sampling SAS SSDs in
its
EC188
product line. The new models (available in
2.5" or
3.5" form factors,
and available in commercial and industrial temperature grades) have R/W speeds
of 250MB/s and 200MB/s respectively, random read/write
IOPS up to
30,000/25,000 and upto 400GB capacity. That brings the number of
SAS SSD companies
listed on StorageSearch.com to 13. |
| 3 |
STEC |
SAS SSDs
military SSDs |
Same as before.
STEC has been in the flash
SSD market since the dawn of that market - and long before
2005 when
Samsung declared SSDs
to be a strategic market. STEC has a reputation (earned through its military
roots) for shipping dependable, fast products. It has also made serious
inroads into the server acceleration market via
partners who oem
its small form factor SSD modules in their rackmount arrays. Despite fierce
and growing competition STEC remains defiantly entrenched near the top of any
short list of potential SSD suppliers in these core market segments -
military and server.
In February 2010 - STEC reported that its
revenue
for full-year 2009 grew 55% to $354 million.
In March
2010 - STEC
started sampling a new family of
SlimSATA and SATA-CF
32GB/64GB flash SSDs for use in embedded markets. Performance is 15,000
/ 6,000
R/W IOPS
and R/W transfer rates are up to 135MB/s and 130MB/s respectively. |
| 4 |
WD Solid State Storage |
1.8"
SSDs
2.5" SLC
SSDs |
Same as before.
I've been
speaking to the people in WD's SSD business since 2004 - and if you ask me
what's so different about this company's approach to designing SSDs compared to
all the other 80+ makers of
2.5" SSDs I know - I would say an obsession with
reliability - which
starts from analyzing what happens when power is switched on and frets about and
tracks and controls every part of that SSD data integrity experience
microsecond by microsecond through thousands of power cycles and doesn't stop
worrying about what may happen - even years after the power has been switched
off.
This cautious approach meant that for many years their SSDs were
by no means the fastest or highest capacity in their class - but they made
economic sense in some embedded products which had lifecycles several times
that of the hard drives traditionally installed in them. That's why I felt
confident ascribing to the company a cameo role in a
futurological article I
wrote in March 2010 - SSDs
- reaching for the Petabyte.
In March 2010 -
WD Solid State
Storage began shipping a new range of
2.5" 128GB
SATA
SLC
SSDs - for
high reliability
24/7 embedded markets - called the
WD
SiliconDrive N1x. R/W speeds are upto 240MB/s and 140MB/s respectively.
Write endurance
is quoted as 701GB/Day - compatible with 5 year limited warranty. And
data integrity
(non-recoverable error rate) is better than 1 in 10exp15 bits read. WD also
announced
its entry into the
SSD notebook
market. WD's SiliconEdge
Blue 2.5" MLC SSDs offer capacity upto 256GB (MSRP $999), R/W speeds
of 250MB/s and 170MB/s. |
| 5 |
SandForce |
flash SSD Controllers |
Same as before.
SandForce has - in less
than a year - become one of the best known makers of
SSD controller chips.
Most
people don't buy SSD chips - they buy complete SSDs - which have controller
chips embedded inside. But end-users who want to peek ahead at the
SSD performance market
roadmap can get a realistic idea of what may be coming - by reading about
SandForce's technology - even if they aren't in the market themselves for
SandForce based products.
Many (but by no means all) high performance
2.5" SSDs now
shipping - incorporate SandForce's controller. |
| 6 |
Texas Memory Systems |
Rackmount SSDs
PCIe SSDs |
Same as before.
Texas Memory Systems, has
been operating continuously in the SSD market longer than any other company.
Despite that the company has often surprised me with its technical and marketing
innovations. TMS was the first oem to deliver an SSD product line which spanned
both
RAM SSDs and
flash SSDs - when
in 2007 it
added rackmount flash SSDs to its pre-existing RamSan product line.
Texas
Memory Systems is often listed in -
the Top 10 SSD Companies
and the Fastest SSDs.
InJanuary
2010 -
Texas Memory
Systems announced
it is delivering open source drivers on
Linux and
Solaris for its
RamSan-20
PCIe SSD accelerator.
In April 2010 -
Texas Memory Systems
announced the
availability of the RamSan-630
an FC /
InfiniBand
compatible 3U
SLC SSD with 4 to 10TB capacity, 500,000
IOPS,
8GB/s bandwidth, and R/W latency of 250 / 80 microseconds in a 450W power
budget. |
| 7 |
RunCore |
1.8"
SSDs
2.5" SSDs
3.5" SSDs
PCIe SSDs |
Up 2 places since the last quarter.
RunCore entered the
international SSD market (in August 2008). Its roots lie in developing SSDs for
defense applications in China. It developed a 400MB/s SSD for defense
applications in 2006.
RunCore's 1st listing (of many) in these top 10
SSDs lists was a year ago in
2009 Q1.
In
January 2010 -
RunCore started
shipments of the 1st SSDs aimed at the
PXI Express market (a standard
which brings PCIe performance and functionality into the robust modular form
factor popular in automated instrumentation
test systems). RunCore's
3U
CPCIe\PXIe SSD card provides upto 768GB
MLC or 384GB SLC
capacity and has sustained R/W speeds upto 400MB/s. Available with industrial
operating temperature range and MIL-STD-810F processing, the module provides a
fast purge rate of
5GB/s.
Also in January 2010 - a benchmark
review
article in TweakTown.com concluded 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.
In March 2010 -
RunCore showed an
Express Card
flash SSD designed for
notebooks
this month at CeBIT 2010. As
well as providing upto 64GB capacity (R/W speeds 120MB/s and 90MB/s) - the
Express 34 module also provides 2x
USB 3.0 ports with
connectors for linking the notebook to external devices.
...Later:-
in May 2010 - RunCore
started sampling i 2.5"
and 3.5"
SAS flash SSDs for the
enterprise server market. The Kylin II product line, available with
MLC, EMLC or SLC
flash, has R/W speeds upto 270MB/s and 260MB/s respectively, R/W
IOPS of
30,000 and 25,000, upto 400GB capacity and 3 years warranty. |
| 8 |
Intel |
2.5" SSDs |
Up 2 places since the last quarter.
Intel is one of the
world's best known
brands. So the company doesn't need an introduction from me. But what about
its role within the SSD market?
It's a complicated story with some twists and turns as you'd expect with such a
long established large company. You can see a fuller description by clicking
and reading their company profile.
In
February 2010 - Intel
and Micron
announced they were sampling the
world's
1st 25nm NAND flash memory. This gives 8GB MLC (classic 2 bit)
flash memory in a
stackable TSOP. The new chips will enable higher density
SSDs to ship in volume in
Q2. |
| 9 |
Micron Technology |
2.5" SSDs
flash memory |
1st appearance in the top 10 SSD oems
list.
For such a large a semiconductor company
Micron was a late
entrant to the SSD market - having announced its intentions to do so only in
November 2007.
Since then the company has kept the RSS SSD news feeds
well fed with a mixture of vaporware, market positioning pre-announcements
(related to the PCIe SSD
market in particular) and some actual real
fast 2.5"
products and flash memory technologies. |
| 10 |
PhotoFast |
1" SSDs
1.8" SSDs
PCIe SSDs |
1st appearance in the top 10 SSD oems list and up 1 place from the
previous quarter.
A company spokesperson told me that in this quarter
PhotoFast became
the first SSD manufacturer to market SSDs using
SandForce controllers
to end users. Previous
SandForce
inside SSDs from other companies were aimed at the server and industrial
markets.
PhotoFast didn't make any significant product announcements
in English language publications - but they got some mentions in Japanese
language websites in
January
and February. |
| Waiting in the wings - just below the top 10 in this period
were:- SanDisk (down 3
places at 11),
Seagate (best ever
result at 12) and Pliant
Technology (still waiting to get into the top 10 list at 13),
Samsung (down 7 places
at 14). |
