ADATA First To Release New Higher Capacity ‘SandForce Driven’ SSD Line

ADATA, Taiwanese purveyor of SSDs and memory products, today announced a new range of SandForce powered offerings. Consisting of three new lines, the XPG SX900, the Premier Pro SP900, and the Premier SP800, each is powered by the SandForce-2281 controller.

The XPG SX900 is designed for higher performance, boasting typical SF-2281 speeds of 550MB/s reads and 530MB/s writes. The XPG moniker refers to “Xtreme Performance Gear”. The slightly more sedate Premier Pro SP900 touts similar performance at a more attractive price point, though both XPG and Premier Pro are said to be capable of 85,000 4K write IOPS.

The SX900 and SP900 are available in 64, 128, and 256 GB varieties with the SX 900 also including a top-of-the-range 512GB capacity.  Filling in the gaps is the Premier SP800 which is only available in 32GB and 64GB and capable of SATA 2 speeds of 280MB/s read and 260MB/s write with up to 44,000 4K write IOPS.

SANDFORCE DRIVEN WITH HIGHER CAPACITY

ADATA is emphasizing the new lines’ expanded capacity advantage. Each drive will be available in binary capacity points, in contrast to every SF-2281 before it. Traditionally, 60GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB SF-2281 drives have been available, whereas now, consumers will get about 7% more space than before. For example, a 128GB Premier Pro will have 8GB more space available to the user than the ADATA S510 it replaces.  ADATA credits new optimized firmware for the capacity bump.

The XPG SX900 512GB will possess 32GB more of usable space than similar 480GB SF-2281 drives, perhaps giving an edge in the ever important price-per-usable-GB metric. This could be the first wave of more such announcements, and more SandForce partners could follow suit in days to come with similar announcements.

No mention of flash make or type was mentioned in the announcement. The performance-oriented XPG most likely uses faster synchronous NAND, while the two Premier drives may utilize more price-conscious asynchronous flash memory at the cost of reduced performance. Drive pricing was not disclosed.

The ADATA press release can be read here.

See ADATA XPG Prices at Amazon.com.