News SandForce unveils SF-2000 SSD controller

SandForce has revealed details of its next-generation SF-2000 SSD controller.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/10/08/sandford-sf-2000-ssd-controller/1

 

Looks good as a commercially aimed product but I have to say that after seeing some of the other PCIE X16 SSD cards up and coming, it looks a little slow. One I have seen in the RTM stage is writing at over 1000MB/s. *DROOL*

 

When I actually see a real product review of the consumer version than I can pass judgement.

There are known issues with the performance of these drivers once there is data they cannot compress and i'm not one to wet my pants over marketing!

 

So, the speed difference between the Intel X25 SSD on 3GB/s SATA and then on 6GB/s SATA will make interesting reading ... or not?

 

*Ahem*

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=195822

 

If you are asking if there will be a performance boost that is a yes, however intel won't be releasing their own chipsets with a native 6GB's SATA yet, so the only current choice are boards with the marvel external controllers which have shown to be lacking in performance as intel current 3GB's SATA connection will often equal it or beat it in real world work loads. Yes the marvel will look good in benchmarks but unless all you do is run sisoft all day that doesn't really hold any water.

Intel G3 drives are said to be 3GB SATA only and the reason I think they choose this is because the market needs Larger and cheapers SSD's not more performance right now.

Most consumers will not be able to tell the difference between an SSD that does 250/200 read and writes over one that does 500/500 and i'm referring to desktop work loads not a server which will have different requirements and demands.

 

It'll all come down to money... again. If they can perform like they're claiming they do AND they're considerably cheaper than PCI-E SSD cards they'll be in for a winner. If not... nobody knows.

 

Well, they're bringing SATA 6Gbps support with Sandy Bridge, so it shouldn't be a problem when the new SF-2000 drives come out.

Damn, my Indilinx-based Crucial SSD is getting a bit long in the tooth now. Still very happy with it though.

 

Cor, the Storage Networking World Exhibition sounds like a real swell day out!

 

and a great place to pick up hot girls who just want to party.

 

It hasn't taken Sandforce long to produce another controller, so why are Indilinx taking so long to get a new controller on the market. It seems like ages since their last effort. Since that's all they do, they really need to catch up or they won't survive for long.

 

Hm, might be moving the SSD in this rig to the lan rig, then putting one of these bad boys in the main rig.

 

It's nice to see the numbers, but what I really want is any decent SSD that offers 256GB of storage for a dirt cheap price.

Still stuck with my hard drive at the mo and not a lot of spare cash.

I am sure a lot of people are in the same boat, and for me dropping prices is more exciting than top level performance.

 

Nothing which can't be achieved with a couple of vertex 2's in RAID.

 

Sure, but what if this thing is cheaper than two Vertex 2?

 

And what if you like TRIM?

 

sf-1200 works quite well with out TRIM it seems{RAID for e.g.} (the GC works very well page 7 below), you asked me if you should RAID'ed an bit ago i would of sayed your flat stupid as you would end up with the speed of less then 1 ssd or worse in some cases (ok not in that way but norm RAID makes Write latency's go up when cells need to be erased but the GC on the sf-1200 seems to work very well) but again real would use you not notice the difference unless you was using server loads, as to i still stick to buy one SSD the size you need (256GB should do + an 1-2TB hdd)

http://www.anandtech.com/print/3949 (drives uses RAID setup on each half of the card like raid 0+0)

sf-2000 should be no different if not better

 

They have inbuilt routines which perform maintenance when the PC is idle so TRIM is not actually essential. I don't actually write a great deal to my SSDs either as my desktop, documents and non essential apps and games are all on a hard disk.

 

does depend on the SSD some do it better then others with GC (samsung been the worst maybe JMicron as well)