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Via Technologies has announced their entrance into the emerging solid state drive market with plans to produce their own branded controllers. The company, known for providing various controllers to motherboard manufacturers as well as their low power x86 offerings, will utilize Tensilica’s Xtensa dataplane processors (DPUs) to create a system-on-chip design for SSDs.
Via determined that Tensilica’s DPUs were capable of providing four times the performance of competing processors on key algorithms used to benchmark other alternatives. As outlined in a press release from Tensilica, conventional processors increase the clock speed as a common way to ramp up performance. Consequently, this results in increased heat and die size which ultimately leads designers to implement complex multi-core solutions.
Tensilica’s DPU is said to allow designers to customize the IP core, mix control and signal processing and add high-bandwidth connectivity to increase overall performance without having to raise clock speeds.
"In the SSD market, every competitive advantage we can get is very important," stated Jiin Lai, VIA's CTO. "We have a significant advantage using Tensilica DPUs to lower the power and increase the throughput of our products."
The SSD market is gaining traction faster than ever. The flooding in Thailand and subsequent spinning hard drive shortage has no doubt led some users to experiment with flash storage. SSD speeds continue to soar while pricing is becoming more reasonable with each passing day.
If Via can deliver a product that is indeed four times faster than what’s currently available within a decent time frame, they are sure to shake up an industry dominated by the likes of Sandforce and Marvell.
User Comments: 6
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VIA makes it sound like Tensilica is a company only they know of, well, this PDF tells otherwise: [link]
"Over 30 SSD manufacturers are using Tensilica-based Controllers today"
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I'd much rather buy a $200 amazing chassis and a regularl hdd, than a $250 128 GB ssd that launch my apps slightly faster on their initial run. Prices need to come down asap.
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Guest, you say that because you've never went from a hdd to an ssd on one system...the entire system is not just "slightly faster" it's MUCH faster.
Hopefully with another competitor entering the play field, we'll see lower prices soon.
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Guest said:
I'd much rather buy a $200 amazing chassis and a regularl hdd, than a $250 128 GB ssd that launch my apps slightly faster on their initial run. Prices need to come down asap.
I went from a Phenom II to a Core i7 2600K
I went from an Nvidia GTX260 to an Nvidia GTX570
None of them had as a bigger impact as an SSD which I went from a WD Black 640GB to a OCZ 120GB Vertex III.
It really is worth it, BF3 loads with 5 seconds once connected, I installed the Mass Effect 3 Demo on there and literally didn't encounter a single loading screen, Windows boots within a few seconds and everything installed on the SSD is simply breathtakingly fast, everything opens within a second, even big programs and games.
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The news is present by Tensilcia not by VIA.
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when i bought SSD for first time somewhere last year, SSD are still expensive locally and I have spent great deal of thoughts about it (120GB Agility 3 almost as expensive as GTX560Ti). upon installation, i know i make the best decision. it's the one component I would really recommend everyone. everything is just much faster on SSD.
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