Indilinx trumpets SSD controller with 230MB/sec read speed

With SSDs, there really is no "fast enough." In the never-ending quest for more speed, Indilinx has just introduced its Barefoot solid state drive controller with 90-nanometer process technology. Said device has reportedly shown the "fastest read speed (230MB/sec) of all the products currently available in the market and supports the capacity up to 512GB with multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash." Additionally, it plays nice with SATA 2.0 and flash memory from Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix and Intel / Micron. Sadly, mass production isn't scheduled until Q4 of this year, so now you can sit on that vanilla HDD even longer as you wait for the future to arrive. Ugh, what a tease.

[Dan Halen @ Aug 11th 2008 11:54AM]

"Sadly, mass production isn't scheduled until Q4 of this year..."

And even sadder, the price of this technology won't reach reasonable consumer levels until Q4 of 2010.

[LondonConsultant @ Aug 11th 2008 11:58AM]

I'll have to upgrade my Eee PC to an i8 Score to keep up with these new SSDs.

[rems @ Aug 11th 2008 12:02PM]

Well that's nearly 5 times faster than the current 400Mb r/w speed of a regular 7.5K HDD. SSDs are getting more and more interesting but what will be the price for such a performance ?

[Wwhat @ Aug 11th 2008 1:18PM]

Your 'current' HD only does 400Mbit/s? I advise your to go back to the shop and ask your money back, unless you mean over USB?

[SR @ Aug 11th 2008 2:51PM]

Well, think again genius. Take a look at the laptop drives: http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark/bench_sort.php

[mmendoza27 @ Aug 11th 2008 12:14PM]

I've really wanted to put an SSD in my 17" MacBook Pro, just can't justify it right now. I'm excited about where SSD will be next year, I'll probably do it then. Faster speeds, cheaper prices, etc.

[Flashpoint @ Aug 11th 2008 12:15PM]

Are there any reports on SSD servers in use nowadays?

I run a mac server which has been fairly reliable so I was wondering if I should upgrade the server to SSD. I have a $1.8 million tech budget and I'd need just 1TB total of SSD

[iansilv @ Aug 11th 2008 12:34PM]

yes.

[iansilv @ Aug 11th 2008 12:35PM]

Sorry- that was my knee-jerk reaction to "$1.8 million dollar tech budget" combined with a questions about upgrades :)

[Dan Halen @ Aug 11th 2008 12:50PM]

If it's been so reliable, why are you going to change it to an as-of-yet untested format for server use?

[James @ Aug 11th 2008 3:26PM]

That's kinda scary that you are in charge of a tech budget of close to 2 million dollars, yet you are on engadget comments asking for advice.

[Reader @ Aug 11th 2008 3:53PM]

Flashpoint, I thought you were just an asshole, but this kind of proves you're an idiot as well.

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 11th 2008 5:09PM]

What's a Mac server?

[Dash @ Aug 12th 2008 12:22AM]

ssd's heat up like ram, so unless you like your server room to act like a furnace id suggest reading about the technology your asking about before even thinking about using it

[kal326 @ Aug 11th 2008 12:28PM]

Well this is all well and nice that companies are building the top fuel dragsters of SSD drives each trying to out due the other in shear speed. I'll be happy when some company trumpets the Camry of SSD drives, fast enough for what you need day to day, affordable priced, and reliable. Since so far the cheap SSD drives don't have the best reliability track record and the highest speed ones have the prices to match.

[steve8 @ Aug 11th 2008 12:48PM]

advertising the highest read spead ever is sort of missing the problem with this generation's SSDs

RiDATA's ULTRA-S Plus
http://www.alternativerecursion.info/?p=276

OCZ Core SSD
http://www.alternativerecursion.info/?p=106

[sr @ Aug 11th 2008 2:53PM]

Well, I just got myself a home server for all my data and the whole point is to migrate my laptops to nice small SSDs to hold only my OS, Browser, MS Office. I don't need media on my laptop. 32GB for $199 and I'll be flying with this thing.

[Miguel @ Aug 11th 2008 2:59PM]

I may be lost somewhere, but i believe a few of Micron's RealSSDs actually have a 250MB/sec read/write. All have 250MB/sec read but either have 100 or 250MB write. I may be wrong though..?
Here are the drive specs from microns website:
http://www.micron.com/products/real_ssd/ssd/partlist.aspx

[Rob @ Aug 11th 2008 3:39PM]

We seem to be approaching the limits of SATA/300 (SATA-II) rapidly, which has a supposed real world max transfer of 300MB/s.

Time for the next generation SATA/600, which is currently in draft.

[Faar @ Aug 13th 2008 10:50AM]

Linear read/write speed is irrelevant for pretty much everything except very large amounts of big file copying or similar (video editing, etc).

How often do you juggle gigabytes upon gigabytes of data back and forth between various disks?

The vast majority of storage access patterns are relatively small transfers in a quite random fashion, where even SSD drives won't come close to maxing out SATA2. So... No need to panic. :P

[digitallysick @ Aug 11th 2008 4:23PM]

Newegg has a 64gb ocz SSD for about $230.00 which isn't that bad when compared to a 74gb 10k raptor that i bought around $170.00 not that long ago. Maybe in a few months if it breaks the 200 mark i am sold

[badhack @ Aug 11th 2008 4:32PM]

I think it should be pointed out that Indilinx does not manufacture storage, just the SATA controller. It's an ASIC, folks.

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 11th 2008 5:06PM]

Anything not-SLC, I'm skipping.