indilinx
Latest
OCZ Vector SSD review roundup: consistently fast
When OCZ gave us a peek at its Vector SSD, we were curious as to how the drive would fare with a Barefoot 3 controller built through the team from its Indilinx buyout. Would it be the validation of a new strategy, or produce classic rookie mistakes? As long as you're fine with the OCZ badge, it's mostly the former. Reviews don't have the Vector winning outright in every benchmark, but it's one of the more reliably quick drives on the market; multiple sites point out that Barefoot 3's balanced approach to techniques like garbage collection (freeing up data blocks for future use) keeps the overall speed high. Write performance is the strong suit, staying closer to the ideal where others sometimes trail off quickly. Drawbacks most center around the less predictable factors -- Barefoot 3 doesn't have an established track record for reliability, and the pricing isn't always favorable against high-end peers like Samsung's SSD 840 Pro. That OCZ managed to do so well with its first in-house controller is still a positive sign, and those willing to give the Vector a shot may find it worth the initial uncertainty. Read - HardOCP Read - HotHardware Read - Legit Reviews Read - Storage Review Read - The Tech Report Read - TechSpot Read - Tom's Hardware
OCZ's new Vector SSD breaks cover at IDF, packs in-house developed Indilinx controller
As we were wandering the floor today at IDF 2012, we happened upon an OCZ rep who pulled the company's new 2.5-inch SATA 3 SSD out of his pocket and let us get our mitts on it. Called the Vector, it will replace the well-received Vertex 4 at the top of OCZ's lineup. Like its predecessor, the Vector packs an Indilinx controller, but this time it's the Barefoot 3, which was developed totally in-house without any assistance from Marvell designs. You can expect to see 256GB and 512GB versions of the drive hit the market in Q4, with other sizes possibly showing up after. Of course, IOPS, read/write speeds and pricing remain a mystery, but at least we can share the gallery of shots below.%Gallery-164998% Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
Falling SSD prices might give you a swift boot (up) sooner than you think
Solid state drives are the one piece of gear that can turn a dog computer into a cheetah, and it looks like you may not have to scrape much longer to get one. Floods in Thailand made prices for their spinning-plattered brethren climb, but many SSD models like those from Crucial, OCZ and Intel have fallen up to 65 percent in the last year. Lower NAND prices, along with cheaper and better controllers from Sandforce and Indilinx have no doubt contributed to the boon for performance-hungry consumers. All of that means that a 256 GB drive which cost $500+ in June 2011, now runs less than $200 -- and at $.82 / GB, it turns from a near-luxury good to at least a thinkable proposition for many.
OCZ says its Indilinx controller is actually built by Marvell, but has custom firmware
OCZ received stacks of praise following its brave switch to in-house Indilinx-branded controllers, which have delivered solid performance in both the Octane and Vertex 4 SSDs. However, the company has now confirmed to AnandTech that its Indilinx Everest 1 and 2 controllers are actually still based on Marvell products, with a little overclocking on the side, and it hasn't yet implemented its own hardware. That would explain why the latest SSDs are so closely on a par with other Marvell-powered drives, like the Crucial's m4 and Intel's 520. But if it sounds like the brightest kid in the class just admitted to copying some other student's homework, then we should probably all chill out: after all, OCZ never made any precise claims about Everest's provenance in the first place. Besides, one of the most important aspects of a solid state drive is its firmware and OCZ insists that's totally home-cooked. The news here is that we still haven't seen what OCZ is fully capable of following its Indilinx acquisition.
OCZ Octane SSD benchmarked, new Indilinx controller holds its ground
Maybe it's just interference from our seasonal goggles, but isn't there something quite cheery about SSD reviews? In the case of OCZ's Octane drive, our good spirits derive from the sturdy performance of its freshly-conceived Indilinx Everest controller, which ought to keep big players like SandForce and Samsung on their toes. HotHardware just reviewed the $369 $879 512GB variant and found that it delivered fast boot-up times, strong read speeds and writes that were just shy of enthusiast-class drives. Follow the source link for the full and possibly festive benchmarks. Update: Sorry about the optimistic price error. Guess we got carried away with all the holiday discounts. As many of y'all spotted, it's the 256GB version that goes for $369. Update: We just added links to reviews from AnandTech and Storage Review, which both arrived at similarly positive conclusions.
OCZ buys Indilinx, probably has designs on building its own SSD controllers
Indilinx, the company responsible for designing the Barefoot SSD controller, has today agreed to hand its future over to the capable lads and ladies of OCZ Technology in exchange for $32 million in common OCZ stock. The companies have announced a definitive agreement for the chipmaker's acquisition, which OCZ is performing in order to gobble up a set of 20 yummy patents and patent applications while also expanding its presence in embedded, hybrid storage and industrial markets. Indilinx will continue its current operations, including providing controllers and firmware to other OEMs, and OCZ too will continue to use others' wares, namedropping its long-term partner SandForce as among the outside companies that will be supplying it with SSD goodies. So it's business as usual unless and until this partnership spawns some lightning-fast combination of software and hardware that forces us to hear that cursed "exclusive" word again. Ah well, best of luck of luck to them.
OCZ's Agility 2 SSD reviewed: despite limits, SandForce SF-1200 drive performs well
Contrary to popular belief, one solid state drive isn't the same as another solid state drive necessarily. OCZ's new Agility 2 is proof of that, boasting the final (v3.0.5) version of SandForce's SF-1200 firmware. The issue here is that Corsair's recently released Force series of SSDs are shipping (and continue to ship) with v3.0.1 installed, which -- according to SandForce -- will never be viewed as the final version ready for mass consumption. As the story goes, v3.0.1 may experience a reliability issue with a power management state, but v3.0.5 caps small file random write performance as to better separate the SF-1200 drives from the pricier SF-1500 drives. Our compadres over at AnandTech were able to put the (factory limited) Agility 2 SSD through its paces, and for the most part, it came out looking pretty decent. Critics found 5- to 10-percent performance gains when compared to Intel / Indilinx offerings, but unless you have to have the absolute best, paying extra for that bump may not be the most intelligent move. The other point here is that while the Agility 2 may be capped with the v3.0.5 firmware, at least its upgrade path is a lot clearer than the aforementioned Force; if you ever take v3.0.1 away from that unit, you can kiss that extra performance goodbye. Hit the source link for the full, drama-filled look.
OCZ's Colossus desktop SSD gets reviewed: oh yeah, it's fast
It's been a long time coming, hasn't it? OCZ Technology's Colossus is the outfit's first in the desktop SSD space, and with capacities scaling as high at 1TB, it's certainly tempting for performance junkies who just can't pry themselves away from their tower. The benchmark-minded kids over at PC Perspective were able to get a drive in with final firmware a few weeks back, and they've pushed out a full review just prior to these things hitting retail en masse. Needless to say, all the numbers in the world won't make this any cheaper, but for those willing to spend at least $3.24 per gigabyte on internal storage, there's hardly a better option out right now. Reviewers found that read and write speeds seriously pushed the SATA 3Gb/sec limit, and the latter were "faster than on any SATA device tested to date." Sadly, the lack of TRIM support and the inability for end-users to upgrade the firmware put somewhat of a damper on things, but if neither one of those tidbits bother you, pulling the trigger just might be the right thing to do.
OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro takes longer to say than to boot
One of these days, SSDs will hit a price point that doesn't require a second mortgage to buy one. Until then, we can just gawk at things like OWC's latest, which is a portable version of Crucial's still relatively new line of affordable SSDs, built around the familiar Indilinx controller and Samsung NAND flash. Coming in sizes from 64GB ($280) to 256GB ($730), the new Pro devices can transfer data and get their power from either a Firewire or USB port. Alas, that means you'll be limited to 100MBps read rates -- as opposed to the 250MBps you could get from an eSATA connection -- but that's a small sacrifice to make if you care about losing the moving parts in your portable storage. [Via Electronista]
OCZ's Indilinx-based Solid 2 SSDs bring MLC NAND to the masses
Indilinx controllers are widely viewed as some of the best in the industry, and while most SSD manufacturers don't have any issues charging a few arms and a leg for the privilege of ownership, OCZ Technology is hoping to bring the charm and pizazz of said controller to the general populace. The firm's newest SSD range, the Solid 2 crew, is comprised of just two models to start: the 60 (64GB) and the 120 (128GB). Designed to fit into 2.5-inch laptop spaces, these "mainstream" SSDs offer up 125MBps read rates and 100MBps write rates, not to mention 64MB of onboard cache and "unique performance optimizations to keep the drives at peak performance." We're guessing that it's referring to that oh-so-endearing garbage cleanup system we heard about earlier in the week, but don't say you heard from us. Oh, and if you're curious about whether or not these are actually priced for Joe Six Pack, it looks like you'll have to ping your favorite flash dealer to find out.
Indilinx firmware cleans dirty SSDs, restores performance while idle
You know those quirky, not-at-all convenient issues that can cause certain solid state drives to lag with extensive use? Yeah -- not cool. Thankfully, the engineers at OCZ Technology and Indilinx are fed up, and rather than sitting around doing nothing, they've both collaborated on a breakthrough firmware that can actually clean and restore one's "dirtied" SSD while the drive sits idle. In short, the firmware instructs the SSD to perform a "garbage collection" process in order to mitigate the unwanted block re-writing quandary, where the drive actively seeks and removes garbage that hinders read / write performance when handling small chunks of data. The crew over at HotHardware managed to run a few speed tests with said firmware firmly implemented, and the results are downright shocking: after just five minutes of idle time, the SSD was restored to near new, with an hour of downtime being enough to "totally restore" performance. Don't believe us? Give that read link a tap, bub.
Corsair cranks with Extreme Series X32, X64 and X128 SSDs
Corsair's no stranger to the wild, nimble and reliable world of solid state storage, but its latest line of 2.5-inch SSDs takes that whole "speed" thing to another level. The aptly-titled Extreme Series is comprised of the X32, X64 and X128, which pack 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of capacity, predictably and respectively. Built using Samsung MLC NAND flash memory and an Indilinx Barefoot controller, these drives have been tested to reach read rates of up to 240MBps and write rates of 170MBps. Corsair even notes that these are upgradable via future firmware updates, meaning that the upcoming TRIM command for Windows 7 will be but a download away. Per usual, the company's mum on pricing and release details, but unless something has changed since last week yesterday, the whole lot will be a bit too rich for our blood.
Indilinx and Mosaid aim to squeeze 600MB/s out of SSDs
Indilinx just recently caught eyes with its Barefoot solid state drive controller, which has reportedly shown a read speed of 230MB/sec. Merely days later, it's already talking about the next best thing. Said firm, along with Mosaid, is preparing for a third-generation of the controller for the SATA 3 interface, which will provide a mind-boggling 600MB/sec. Unfortunately, no other details were provided, but just in case you were terrified that the internal drive you purchase in 2013 wouldn't transfer files any faster than the one you're using now, at least you've one less worry on your mind.[Thanks, Johnny]
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.
