Hasta La Gadget!

With SSD prices still well above the point of affordability, we’re thrilled to see more entrants joining the burgeoning market. Big players like Western Digital and Corsair are being greeted by small timers such as PhotoFast, Fusion-io and SandForce, the latter of which has just escaped “stealth mode” in order to launch its first solid state drive processor family. The chips utilize DuraClass technology and promise to address “key NAND flash issues allowing MLC flash technologies to be reliably used in broad based, mission critical storage environments.” More germane to our discussion is the nice boost in transfer rates and lower cost of production; we’re told that the SF-1000 crew sports a standard 3 gigabit-per-second SATA host interface connecting up to 512 gigabytes of commodity NAND flash memory, and that it delivers 30,000 IOPS and 250MB/s performance (sequential 128KB read or write transfers) with 100 micro-second latency. If all goes well, select OEMs will be launching SSDs based on this processor later this year, so we’ll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled.

[Via GadgetMix, thanks Kamal]

Filed under: Storage

SandForce breaks into SSD market with speedy SF-1000 processors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My, how fast the cutting edge becomes dull. Nary four months ago, we were introduced to Corsair‘s first SSD: a 2.5-inch 128GB slab of MLC NAND goodness that promised 90MB/sec read and 70MB/sec write speeds. Needless to say, those numbers weren’t about to shatter any records, so the company went out and produced something that just might. The benchmarking fiends over at HotHardware managed to scoop up a 256GB S256 from the company and put it through the first of many tests. As for results? Early reports show average read speeds nailing the 200MB/sec mark, while average write rates hovered just under 170MB/sec. The only issue is the breathtaking $749 price tag (expected, anyway), but at least you’ve apparently got a few months to save up.

Filed under: Storage

Corsair’s ultra speedy 256GB SSD sneaks out, hits the bench originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Considering just how cheap Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 gets on occasion, there’s practically no doubt that the SSD portion of this mod will run you more than the computer itself. For those wild and wacky DIYers who couldn’t honestly care less, jkkmobile has put together a video (along with a gallery of images) showing exactly how the process works. For what it’s worth, we’re told that the whole ordeal was a simple matter, but you can judge for yourself after jumping past the break and mashing play.

Continue reading Video: 128GB SSD slotted into Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9

Filed under: Laptops

Video: 128GB SSD slotted into Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a solid tick since Motion Computing overhauled its F5 Slate PC, but all that’s changing (seriously) today. As you can tell, the device now sports a freshened look with a black exterior to “better withstand dirty and dusty mobile work environments.” Additionally, the C5 tablet is joining in for the rest of the upgrades, which include inbuilt support for Verizon Wireless’ EV-DO network, Intel’s WiFi Link 5300 series 802.11a/g/n, Core 2 Duo CPU options, improved battery life, a 64GB SSD option and an external battery charger for hardcore field users. The Motion F5 gets going at $2,699, while the C5 starts up at $500 less; both machines are shipping now to the company’s network of resellers and distributors, and the release can be peeked in full just after the break.

Continue reading Motion brings Verizon WWAN, SSD, other upgrades to C5 and F5 tablet PCs

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Motion brings Verizon WWAN, SSD, other upgrades to C5 and F5 tablet PCs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re interested in SSD, chances are you’ve been paying attention to the allegations of performance degradation in Intel’s X25-M drives. AnandTech dives into the issue (and many, many more topics) in 31 page exploration of the state of solid state. It’s a spine-tingling read, in part explaining how write-speed degradation is largely thanks to partially used pages containing portions of deleted files. We all know deleted files typically aren’t really gone until they’re overwritten, a problem in SSDs because to clear a section of a page the entire page needs to be cleared. That entails moving anything you want to keep to the cache, wiping the whole page, then re-writing that good data from cache. The hope is that a new delete command dubbed TRIM (set to find support in Windows 7) will speed up writes by forcing the system to perform this work during deletes, but ahead of that the article still recommends Intel’s drives; even at their worst they’re still generally faster than the comparably priced competition when it comes to average use — not to mention faster than your platters.

Filed under: Storage

AnandTech explores the virtues and woes of today’s SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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