SSDs
When Western Digital introduced its Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs earlier this year, the company did not disclose which controller it used for these drives, which made many observers presume that WD was using an in-house controller. But a recent teardown of the drive shows that is not the case; instead, the company is using a controller from Fadu, a South Korean company founded in 2015 that specializes on enterprise-grade turnkey SSD solutions. The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD is aimed at performance-hungry hyperscale datacenters and enterprise customers which are adopting PCIe Gen5 storage devices these days. And, as uncovered in photos from a recent Storage Review article, the drive is based on Fadu's FC5161 NVMe 2.0-compliant controller. The FC5161 utilizes 16 NAND channels supporting...
Intel 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 6/11/2012
SandForce 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 6/8/2012
ADATA 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 6/8/2012
OCZ'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 6/5/2012
OCZ 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 6/5/2012
Corsair 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 6/4/2012
Toshiba 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 6/4/2012
OCZ 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 5/30/2012
OCZ 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 5/18/2012
Corsair 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 5/14/2012
OCZ 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 5/11/2012
OWC 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 4/18/2012
Intel 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
Crucial Releases Firmware Update for m4 SSD
Crucial has released a firmware update for its popular m4 SSD series. The update carries a version code of 000F. The update is said to improve compatibility with certain...
40 by Kristian Vättö on 4/12/2012
Intel's SSD 910: Finally a PCIe SSD from Intel
Solid state storage has quickly been able to saturate the SATA interface just as quickly as new standards are introduced. The first generation of well-built MLC SSDs quickly bumped...
71 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/12/2012
OCZ Confirms Octane and Vertex 4 use Marvell based Silicon
I received a tip yesterday with proof that OCZ's Everest controller was actually a Marvell 88SS9174 controller (the same controller used in Crucial's m4, Intel's SSD 510, etc...) with...
53 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/11/2012
Micron C400 mSATA (128GB) SSD Review
The arrival of affordable, high-performance client SSDs gave us two (closely related) things: 1) a high-speed primary storage option that could work in both a notebook or a desktop...
47 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/10/2012
Kingston HyperX 3K (240GB) SSD Review
With OCZ intent on moving as much volume to its in-house Indilinx controllers as possible, SandForce (now LSI) needed to expand to additional partners. OCZ has strong control over...
44 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/10/2012
The Plextor M3 (256GB) Review
Plextor as a brand is probably a new acquaintance for most people and I have to admit that I had not heard of Plextor until a couple of months...
114 by Kristian Vättö on 4/5/2012
OCZ Vertex 4 Review (256GB, 512GB)
Thirteen months ago OCZ announced its intention to acquire Indilinx, the SSD controller maker that gave Intel its first taste of competition in the consumer market in 2009. Eight...
127 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/4/2012
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