CeBIT overnight testing - OCZ Vertex 2 Pro SSD - Sandforce, pt.1
Author: Vedran Dakic
Date: 04 Mar 2010

Let's talk about Sandforce first. Maybe you haven't really heard about this company at all, but you probably will in the future. Although this might be a bit confusing, they don't do SSD's, they make SSD controllers. Particularly, SF-1500 (enterprise level), SF-1200 (something they call client-level) and SF-1000 (evaluation/reference level). SF-1200 controller has - for example - 128-bit AES encryption support, which is kind of cool if somebody tries to steal your SSD (or a device with it) with the intention being - stealing your data. Also, the DuraWrite(tm) and RAISE(tm) technologies should help with long-term longevity of your SSD drive. It also supports up to 512GB of capacity, NCQ (32 commands at most) and other small things like MLC-support, ECC, read/write transfer up to 260MB/s at 128K blocks and MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) of 2M hours. On the other hand, SF-1500 supports SLC and MLC, while having MTTF of 10M hours. These controllers are single-chip solutions that don't use external DRAM cache so - they occupy less space on the SSD drive as well. List of partners include OCZ, A-DATA, Unigen but - there will probably be more of them in the future.

Let's take a look at product brief PDF's and take some excerpts from there.

"DuraWrite™ technology optimizes writes to the Flash memory over conventional controllers increasing the overall endurance and reliability of the SSD. Highly intelligent block management and wear leveling also extends the overall endurance. With this technology, SSD manufacturers can offer their high volume, mobile customers enterprise-class reliability and at least 5-year lifecycles."

"DuraClass technology enables the processor to maximize both the endurance and write performance for the life of the SSD fulfilling the promise of high speed flash memory. In extremely low-power environments, the SF-1200 can tune total SSD power consumption vs. performance by limiting the number of simultaneously active flash devices. It also supports an ultra-low power mode to maximize battery life."