Attorn BV intros HyperDrive4 solid state disk

If you figured the barrage of SSD launches that we've endured over the past week was finally over, you'd be altogether incorrect, as Attorn BV is following in Super Talent, Adtron, and SanDisk's footsteps by readying a solid state disc of its very own. The HyperDrive4 doesn't seem to tout any unusual extras, as it boasts the same "no moving parts," DRAM-based, play-and-play functionality, and "super fast bootup" features as all the other guys. The drive does use registered ECC memory modules in order to provide "a higher level of data integrity," and also claims a sustained transfer rate of 125Mbps. Interestingly, the drive can purportedly be picked up in sizes as small as a single gigabyte, but we can't really imagine the majority of takers opting for such a diminutive option. Per usual, no word on pricing or availability at the moment, but it ought to hit shelves soon if it plans on stealing any marketshare from the early entrants.

[Via Gearlog]

[cmonkey @ Mar 21st 2007 12:07AM]

SATA 150 is most likely a bottleneck there. They really should have used 300.

[nuguns101 @ Mar 21st 2007 12:20AM]

so the thing on the picture is an extra addition on a regular harddrive that allows for better integration?

[jordan @ Mar 21st 2007 12:21AM]

Re: cmonkey

This was most likely done to reduce cost, if nothing else. Honestly, though, I'm not sure how I feel about this. The Gigabyte attempted the exact same product (albeit with half of the number of available slots) via PCI, and we can see how that fared.

I love the idea, but I believe the cost for the device plus ECC RAM (assuming you can buy it separate from the memory itself) begins to grow to that of soon-to-be-on-the-market SSD's for GB/$.

[dlx @ Mar 21st 2007 12:25AM]

The big difference here is that DRAM is volatile, meaning if you shutdown or lose power you lose all of your data. Hence this cannot be used as an install disk unless you've got a UPS that you've got a whole lot of faith in. Gigabyte has a product called the GC-Ramdisk which works in a similar fashion but does not make use of ECC modules, is powered by the PCI bus, and sports a 12 hour backup battery on board just in case.

[Zzephyr @ Mar 21st 2007 12:37AM]

This should be lots faster than the flash-based SSDs mentioned in the write-up. Nice thing about this item versus the i-RAM is the extra 4 memory slots to bring the capacity to 16 GB. Also interesting is that it supports IDE connector, too.

[s4057102 @ Mar 21st 2007 1:16AM]

I understand the advantages of this... i.e. faster boot time. Seems to me that its limited by capacity.
So can could you have a SSD to boot the OS and use an old school HD to store data?

[Chris @ Mar 21st 2007 1:20AM]

the i-Ram had a backup battery on board rated for like 4 hours or something.

this is not the same the laptop disk SSD's and should not have been mentioned. this is a high end workstation/server device, put your temp video files on it, put databases on it, anythign that need high io rates.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Mar 21st 2007 5:00AM]

I am familiar with the Hyper Drive Line, it predates the Gigabyte I-RAM by at least a decade. The company does sell these with a battery backup and it will automatically dump all data to a dedicated hard drive if the power is lost; something the I-RAM cannot claim. The I-RAM has a 4GB capacity limit while the Hyperdrive4 can store up to 32GB of data using DDR1. If you ignore the cost, the Hyperdrive is better product than the I-RAM.


ENGADGET, the price is: $1,940

http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/ (US & UK Distributer)

[Chris @ Mar 21st 2007 1:32AM]

oh, and even ddr266 is 2.1Gbps, so they definitely should have used sataII so that ddr400 could max it out :D then they could have the first device to sustain sataII max bandwidth, that would be a worthy claim

[Amiga Man @ Mar 21st 2007 10:44AM]

Wait, my Amiga had a RAM disk in 1985 ... is this news? Well, I guess it's dedicated RAM, at least. :-)

[anonymous @ Mar 21st 2007 11:18AM]

The Amiga had a RAM disk but that utilized part of your system RAM and was 'built' each time you powered up the computer so it was not able to retain anything. This is treated as a HDD to the system with a built in battery backup to maintain the data for a short period of time.

[Martin Yates @ Jul 18th 2007 5:18PM]

Great idea, but poor pricing. C'mon $2000 for the unit _without_ the ram? The benefits and design are great, and it's something any 'enthusiast' would love to have, but not at *THAT* cost. They need to parter with a motherboard manufacturer to lower production costs and allow them to produce in volume. If they could get the base unit down around $4-500, they could market it to the gaming community to elimiante level load times and boot times. It would take off like a rocket, and the RAM manufacturers would love it. They are thinking too small. Now if only Gigabyte would take the design and run with it.....