OCZ introduces next-gen Indilinx Everest SSD controller

[Julio Franco]

OCZ has introduced its next generation solid state drive memory controller today in the form of the new Indilinx Everest chip. As you may recall, OCZ went all-in with SSD products earlier this year when they announced they would acquire Indilinx, a company mostly known for producing the "Barefoot" controller used on the first generation OCZ Vertex solid state drives.

Highlights of the Everest controller include dual ARM CPU cores, sequential transfer rates of up to 500MB/s, support for MLC NAND and next generation three bit per cell NAND flash. Support for 6Gbps SATA is of course there, up to 8 channels of ONFI 2.0/Toggle 1.0 Flash at up to 200MT/s, NCQ and TRIM support. OCZ also claims to have optimized the drives for transactions of 4K and 16K compressed files and worked on boot time reductions for instant-on applications -- we hope this extends to practical reductions on wake-from-standby or hibernation modes in Windows, for example.

The company hasn't disclosed specifics on products that will be powered by the Indilinx Everest controller, though they say the platform is now ready for OEM validation, meaning they plan to open up to other SSD manufacturers to use the controller. Everest maxes out at 1TB storage capacity, though we doubt many drives will hit that ceiling considering today's steep prices for 512GB and larger drives.

"Combining a 6Gbps SATA Revision 3.0 host interface, a dual-core CPU, and support for the latest, most advanced NAND Flash memory technology available, Everest offers SSD manufacturers unparallel flexibility in optimizing their designs for both performance and cost" said Bumsoo Kim, president of Indilinx.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/44786-ocz-introduces-next-gen-indilinx-everest-ssd-controller.html

 

[Mizzou]

I'll be interested to see what kind of price tag they hang on these drives, would sure like to see the 256GB drives drop in price. I've got the original OCZ 120GB Vertex with the Indilinx controller and it just keeps plugging away without any issues.

 

[Guest]

Drives have cpu's now? Tivo through one commercial and look what you miss.

 

[Guest]

Why would anyone buy something other than a Sandforce controller?

 

[Mizzou]

Why would anyone buy something other than a Sandforce controller?

While the Sandforce is very good there are quite a few other viable options. Think the jury is out until we see some benchmarks with the new Indilinx controller.

 

[Lokalaskurar]

Guest said:
Drives have cpu's now?

Oh, they've had that for quite a while actually. Well, the equivalent anyway. Considering technologies like SCSI and SAS - you'll in fact see that implementing a controller on board has been common practice for some time!

What really surprises me is the dual core-style CPU on board... I've seldom heard of that - sounds like fun!

 

[Jibberish18]

Guest said:
Why would anyone buy something other than a Sandforce controller?

If anything, I'd keep my on this controller because OCZ previously worked with this company before they bought them and I'm sure the controller is going to be optimized and stable. Hopefully actually.

 

[Guest]

Well I will def get SSD containing this, depending on the Benchmarks, MLC nand is cheaper, 3 bit NAND is cheaper again. I, for one, am very interested in wake + resume times. If these are optimized for this, then greeeat, as Tony would say.
Sandforce are like HC porn, very degrading if used for long periods.