OCZ Technology Intros More Powerful Z-Drive R2: Speeds Up To 1.4GB/s

OCZ Technology's Z-Drive was obviously a pretty big hit for the company, and understandably so. It was one of the first major PCI-Express Solid State Drive options on the market, and it broke all sorts of speed records as well. Today, the California-based company announced that they would begin mass production of the Z-Drive R2 Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, the second rendition of the original Z-Drive family.


The new R2 builds on the existing solution but provides greater performance and design flexibility due to the implementation of a series of optimized NAND modules. Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group, explained the announcement: "Our 4th generation PCIe SSD, the Z-Drive R2, tackles the performance challenges facing enterprise IT professionals head-on. The Z-Drive R2 is a total solution that delivers exceptional performance over a wide of range of applications due to its superior sequential performance, making it a winner in both high IOP and high-throughput environments. In addition, it is the only bootable and field serviceable PCIe SSD option on the market today, and due to an innovative interchangeable module design, it enables low cost field upgradability and capacity increases giving storage architects unprecedented flexibility."

According to a company press release, the new R2 SSD "maximizes bandwidth by taking the SATA bottleneck out of the equation and utilizes the speed advantages of the PCI-Express interface," and unlike other solutions, this one is fully bootable and has eight PCI-E lanes along with support for an eight-way RAID 0 configuration. Due to the interchangeable modules used in the place of permanent, surface-mounted NAND, the whole drive is field-serviceable and field-upgradeable. Speeds can hit up to 1.4GB/s, and capacities will be available from 256GB to 2TB, but official pricing remains an unknown.

OCZ Technology Launches Next Generation Z-Drive PCI-Express Solid State Drive (SSD)
Delivers Superior Performance, Reliability and Greater Flexibility for Enterprise Application Storage
 
SAN JOSE, CA—April 6, 2010—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OTCBB: OCZT), a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), announces the Company’s plan to enter mass production of the Z-Drive R2 Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, the second rendition of the original Z-Drive family. The Z-Drive R2 builds on the existing solution but provides greater performance and design flexibility due to the implementation of a series of optimized NAND modules.

“Our 4th generation PCIe SSD, the Z-Drive R2, tackles the performance challenges facing enterprise IT professionals head-on” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. “The Z-Drive R2 is a total solution that delivers exceptional performance over a wide of range of applications due to its superior sequential performance, making it a winner in both high IOP and high-throughput environments. In addition, it is the only bootable and field serviceable PCIe SSD option on the market today, and due to an innovative interchangeable module design, it enables low cost field upgradability and capacity increases giving storage architects unprecedented flexibility.”

The innovative Z-Drive R2 SSD maximizes bandwidth by taking the SATA bottleneck out of the equation and utilizes the speed advantages of the PCI-Express interface. Unlike competing solutions, the Z-Drive family is bootable and with 8 PCI-E lanes and an eight-way[1] RAID 0 configuration, the R2 delivers performance ideal for enterprise applications that are limited by HDD technology. What also makes the R2 especially exceptional is the use of interchangeable modules in the place of permanent, surface-mounted NAND; this unique feature-set is designed to make the Z-Drive field-serviceable and field-upgradeable.
Addressing the emerging performance demands of storage area networks (SANs), workstations, and servers, the Z-Drive R2 creates new possibilities in enterprise data management. The R2 delivers extremely fast transfer rates up to 1.4 GB/s, while offering enhanced reliability and durability compared to mechanical hard drives.

Promoting greater productivity for a broad range of applications spanning across virtualization, caching, and high-end storage, the Z-Drive R2 can also provide cost savings when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO) versus complex and hard to maintain HDD infrastructures. With capacities ranging from 256GB to 2TB, the R2 makes SSDs a viable alternative to large, power-consuming hard drive arrays. Furthermore, OCZ offers customization options for OEM clients that may require tailored hardware or firmware solutions for their business.