DDRdrive Redefines Solid-State Storage

When a traditional hard drive doesn’t offer enough bandwidth to meet your needs, many users turn to solid state disks, or SSDs. These storage devices are built using memory chips. The downside is that these disks are typically very expensive.  SSDs are available with flash memory that can retain content when power is lost, but the drives often use volatile DRAM memory to achieve the best possible performance. DDRdrive’s latest offering provides users with the benefits of both types of memory.

DDRdrive recently introduced the new DDRdrive X1 that incorporates both DRAM and NAND. Each DDRdrive X1 offers 4GB of storage capacity with 4GB DRAM and 4GB of NAND. Both solid-state technologies work together to combine the speed, reliability, and longevity of DRAM with the non-volatility of NAND. 

Instead of using a STAT or an UltraATA/100 interface like some competing solutions use, the DDRdrive X1 is based on PCI Express. DDRdrive's Christopher George says this will enable the DDRdrive X1 to achieve higher bandwidth than its competitors.

The designer of this card had IOPS performance in mind. DDRdrive boasts that the DDRdrive X1 is the “drive for speed.” For excellent end-to-end IOPS optimization, the IOPS Engine is controlled by a highly tuned device driver. In order to achieve excellent IOPS performance, all IO operating are directed to the DRAM. The NAND performs an entire drive backup or restore in as little as 60 seconds.

The DDRdrive X1 doesn’t use an integrated battery. Instead DDRdrive’s solution offers a power adapter at the back of the board that allows the user to connect the card directly to a power supply or a high-capacity external battery. Using Microsoft Windows built-in RAID support, the DDRdrive X1 can be spanned (for capacity), striped (for performance), mirrored (for redundancy), and RAID-5 configured.

The DDRdrive X1 supports Windows 2000 Client/Server, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 Beta, and Windows Server 2003/2008/2008 R2 Beta. Linux support is expected at a future date. The DDRdrive X1 uses a PCI Express X1 full-height half-length form factor. As we suggested earlier, SSDs and this type of performance come at a steep price. The DDRdrive X1 4GB/4GB with an AC adapter and transport case costs $1,495 and comes with a five year limited warranty.