SSDs
SK hynix is one of the few vertically integrated manufacturers in the flash-based storage market. The company is well-established in the OEM market. A few years back, they also started exploring direct end-user products. Internal SSDs (starting with the Gold S31 and Gold P31) were the first out of the door. Late last year, the company introduced the Beetle X31 portable SSD, its first direct-attached storage product. In February, a complementary product was introduced - the Tube T31 Stick SSD. The Beetle X31 is a portable SSD with a Type-C upstream port and a separate cable. The Tube T31 is a take on the traditional thumb drive with a male Type-A interface. The size of the Beetle X31 makes the use of a bridge solution...
Corsair Releases Force Series GS SSDs
Corsair has released a new member of its Force series SSDs called the Force GS. The Force GS is based on SandForce's SF-2200 series controller (most likely SF-2281) and...
10 by Kristian Vättö on 7/9/2012Plextor M3 Pro (256GB) Review
If you are an active reader, you might remember our Plextor M3 review from a few months back. As I noted in the review, I wasn't expecting much when...
56 by Kristian Vättö on 7/1/2012Hynix Enters Consumer SSD Market with SandForce Based SSDs - 20nm NAND is Also Here UPDATE: It's actually 26nm
Hynix has been in the SSD industry for years but their SSDs have been available only to OEMs. Their NAND is used in various other brand SSDs but Hynix...
12 by Kristian Vättö on 6/25/2012OWC Releases 960GB Mercury Electra MAX 3G SSD
OWC has released a 960GB version of their Mercury Electra 3G SSD series. The drive uses two SandForce SF-2181 controllers, configured in RAID 0 using Silicon Image's RAID controller...
20 by Kristian Vättö on 6/25/2012Hynix to Acquire Link A Media Devices (LAMD)
Hynix published a press release that they have acquired Link A Media Devices (commonly referred to as simply LAMD). The cost of the acquisition has not been revealed, nor...
1 by Kristian Vättö on 6/19/2012The next-gen MacBook Pro with Retina Display: SSD Analysis
After a week in Taiwan, and a weekend in San Francisco, I'm finally back home and hard at work on the Retina Display MacBook Pro Review. One of the...
19 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/13/2012The New MacBook Air Uses Toshiba's SATA 6Gb/s SSDs UPDATE: Samsung Too
Yesterday's keynote was certainly one of the biggest events for Macs that Apple has held in years. The main focus was obviously in the new MacBook Pro with Retina...
10 by Kristian Vättö on 6/12/2012Intel Discovers SandForce SF-2281 Controller Can't Do AES-256 Encryption, Offers Return Program
Although SandForce's SF-2281 controller has been shipping for well over a year at this point, it took Intel to discover a bug in the controller that prevents it from...
45 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/11/2012SandForce Demos 19nm Toshiba & 20nm IMFT NAND Flash
SandForce's controllers have fairly broad compatibility with NAND available on the market today. It shouldn't be a surprise that the first demo we saw of Toshiba's 19nm and Intel/Micron's...
20 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/8/2012ADATA XPG SX900 (128GB) Review: Maximizing SandForce Capacity
SandForce sets aside more NAND capacity than most controllers for spare area. While Intel, Marvell, Samsung and others default to ~7% of total NAND capacity for spare area, SandForce...
58 by Kristian Vättö on 6/8/2012OCZ's Intrepid 3: Enterprise Everest 2
In addition to the Kilminjaro based platforms, OCZ showed off its Intrepid 3 SSD at Computex today. The Intrepid 3 is an enterprise version of the Indilinex Everest 2...
1 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/5/2012OCZ Demonstrates Native PCIe SSDs: Z-Drive R5 in PCIe, mini-PCIe and 2.5" Form Factors
OCZ showed us its Kilimanjaro based Z-Drive R5 (native PCIe controller jointly developed with Marvell) running a 4KB random write test at Computex today. The drive was pushing as...
14 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/5/2012Corsair Introduces Link a Media based Neutron SSDs
This one was unexpected, Corsair just introduced a brand new SSD line based on a new controller by Link a Media Devices (LAMD). The Neutron drives will be available...
16 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/4/2012Toshiba Announces THNSNF Series SSDs: 19nm NAND Is Here
Toshiba announced their THNSNF SSD series today. The announcement was long overdue as currently Toshiba's fastest SATA offering is the HG3 series, which was released in January 2010. The...
6 by Kristian Vättö on 6/4/2012OCZ Launches Agility 4 Series: Indilinx Everest 2 on a Budget
OCZ has now released their Agility 4 SSD series. Just like the move to Vertex 4 (our review) from Vertex 3, the Agility 4 uses OCZ's own Indilinx Everest...
10 by Kristian Vättö on 5/30/2012OCZ Releases Low Profile Version of Vertex 3
OCZ has added a low profile version of the Vertex 3 to their SSD portfolio. The drive has a height of 7mm, which is 2.5mm slimmer than most 2.5"...
28 by Kristian Vättö on 5/18/2012Corsair Performance Series Pro (256GB) Review
Shortly after the Plextor M3 review went live, I received numerous emails asking us to review Corsair's Performance Series Pro. Your voice was heard and we went and asked...
41 by Kristian Vättö on 5/14/2012OCZ Announces 64GB Vertex 4
OCZ announced yesterday via their Twitter profile that a 64GB version of their Vertex 4 will soon be available. Vertex 4 is based on a second generation OCZ/Indilinx controller...
27 by Kristian Vättö & Howard Johnston on 5/11/2012OWC Releases Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD
OWC has released their first PCIe SSD, the Mercury Accelsior. OWC has used SandForce controllers throughout its history in the SSD world and the Accelsior is no exception. It...
33 by Kristian Vättö on 4/18/2012Intel SSD 330 Officially Announced: Affordable SandForce
We reported on Intel's SSD 330 weeks ago, but today is the official announcement of the drive and its availability in the channel. Unlike previous 300 series drives, the...
75 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/16/2012