Items tagged with PCI Express
In recent months we've covered PCI Express-based SSDs from virtually all the major players, from Fusion-io to, OCZ and LSI. The last time we took a look at OCZ's offering, the RevoDrive X2 took to the test bench for us and with its MLC-based design, offered much of the performance of significantly more expensive SLC-based PCI Express...
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If we consider companies like LSI and their competitors, like Adaptec and AMCC (3Ware), you'll note that they're in a unique position in this storage technology migration, in that they can almost take an agnostic stance, in terms of which media type and market opportunity they decide to resource development efforts in. For players like...
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When we sit back and look at the evolving storage market and SSD technologies, there are a couple of competitive camps that are trying to gain traction, in what is without question one of the largest growth areas in storage. The major players in solid state storage solutions have emerged from old-line, incumbents in hard disk media...
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We're sure you realize we have an affinity for all things SSD around these parts. And you have to admit, any self-respecting computer geek can appreciate the blazing fast response times of the latest generation of SATA-based Solid State Drives. However, as we've said before, we think SATA some day will be a Dinosaur of sorts that we...
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Let's go ahead and deal with the 900-pound gorilla in the room. LSI's new WarpDrive SLP-300 acceleration card is freaking expensive, as in the thing costs $11,500. Yeah, it's like that. But it's also intended for a different kind of audience than your typical home enthusiast. This low-profile solid state storage card is aimed at companies...
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When we looked at the first gen RevoDrive back in August, the thin slab of Flash NAND memory and dual SandForce SSD controllers impressed us and served up performance well ahead of traditional SATA SSDs with a price premium in the 30% range (about $3.07 per GB) versus SATA SSDs. With the RevoDrive X2, OCZ is...
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What's this, yet another SSD product tap-dancing its way through the HotHardware lab? It's hard to believe that a product category has so much R&D being poured into it, spurring new releases at such a fevered pitch. The investment in the relatively fledgling storage technology makes perfect sense to us, but the average...
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When the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled their investigation of Intel, one of the stipulations of the agreement was that Intel would continue to support the PCI Express standard for the next six years. Intel agreed to all the FTC's demands (without actually admitting that it did anything wrong), but Intel's upcoming Oak Trail Atom platform...
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SSD manufacturers have been energetically rolling out new high-end, high-capacity products based around updated Indilinx, SandForce, or Marvell controllers, while simultaneously also introducing smaller SSDs with better performance and lower prices than we saw with first-generation products. As SSDs become more popular and economical, we're...
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It's hard to remember that before the advent of SSDs, storage performance was a rather tepid topic. Save for the introduction of occasional new features like NCQ, hard drives continued along a mostly predictable path of rising capacities and (slightly) higher performance. If you wanted top-end performance, you bought a WD VelociRaptor or constructed...
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OCZ Technology Unveils the RevoDrive with up to 80,000 IOPS, the World’s Fastest Consumer Solid State Drive OCZ Increases Performance but not the Price of High-End PCIe Solid State Storage SAN JOSE, CA - June 29, 2010 - OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and...
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If rumors floating around the 'Net are true, Intel is set to drop support for the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus when it launches its next-generation 6-series of chipsets with support for Sandy Bridge-based LGA1155 processors. In case you're wondering, no, neither Sandy Bridge derived processors or their accompanying motherboards...
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Consumer-grade SSDs are fast, without a doubt, but those who demand extreme performance at any cost, or perhaps for enterprise applications, the fastest SSDs on the market are PCI Express-based, like the ioDrive and ioXtreme from Fusion-io, for example. OCZ also offers their Z-Drive with similar performance, though...
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This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a little dry in spots, partly because so many companies decided to pre-announce there latest and greatest products weeks before the show. That said, there are a select few manufacturers that like to keep some of the good stuff bottled up until showtime, so...
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AMD's "Sweet Spot" GPU strategy over the last few years has been fairly predictable. Instead of producing the biggest, most powerful GPU possible--yields be damned--the company sets out to produce a relatively high-end GPU, using a cutting edge fabrication process, that hits a proverbial sweet spot between cost and performance. Then derivatives,...
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AMD's "Sweet Spot" GPU strategy over the last few years has been fairly predictable. Instead of producing the biggest, most powerful GPU possible--yields be damned--the company sets out to produce a relatively high-end GPU, using a cutting edge fabrication process, that hits a proverbial sweet spot between cost and performance. Then derivatives,...
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The first time we looked at Fusion-io's ioDrive product, we offered the notion that it was a "disruptive technology", something that had the potential to set the industry on its ear. Of course the ioDrive is an enterprise-class product that showed the significant potential of PCI Express direct-attached SSD storage but its cost structure...
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It's rare we get genuinely excited around here about a product. To be honest, likely we're spoiled by all the bleeding-edge technology we have the great opportunity to look at week in and week out. Or perhaps it's just that we're jaded a bit and have heard one too many marketing pitches, but truth be told it takes a lot...
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If you've been watching our previous coverage of Fusion-io's almost too good be true PCI Express SSD products, you'll know that while the company makes no bones about the fact that their enterprise class cards are ridiculously expensive, they are also planning on delivering an "enthusiast" class card that will align better price-wise with...
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An interesting thing about NAND Flash SSD (Solid State Drive) technologies, beyond the fact that the market is flush with competitive product offerings, is that the technology itself is very flexible and adaptable to a number of different design approaches, other just the straight-forward SATA-based SSDs. Take for example the RAID 4-pack configuration...
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An interesting thing about NAND Flash SSD (Solid State Drive) technologies, beyond the fact that the market is flush with competitive product offerings, is that the technology itself is very flexible and adaptable to a number of different design approaches, other just the straight-forward SATA-based SSDs. Take for example the...
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Exactly one week ago today, AMD unleashed the ultra powerful, DirectX 11-ready ATI Radeon HD 5870 upon the PC gaming world and staked a claim as the undisputed 3D performance leader. Having evaluated the features, performance, and image quality of AMD's latest and greatest flagship we were left thoroughly impressed, not only with the new Radeon's...
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