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Next up at Storage Visions 2015 is a visit with LiteOn Technology Corporation, who is both an OEM supplier and also offers products under its own brand. They have been much more aggressive in the last couple of years in developing and marketing SSDs under the LiteOn label. Our meeting today was with Darlo Perez, managing director at LiteOn, and several key members of the LiteOn management team. Also present were Christine Hsing, global marketing manager; Tony Kao, associate vice president of Enterprise SSDs; Jeffery Chang, technical product manager; and Chris Chang, senior technical product manager of Enterprise SSDs.
LiteOn’s focus for 2015 is on their latest solid-state storage offerings for both the enterprise and client markets. On the enterprise side, the LiteOn EP1 is their newest offering. The EP1 is an M.2 form factor drive that will be offered in both 480GB and 960GB capacities. The EP1 480GB is on the M.2 2280 (80mm length) form factor, while the EP1 960GB is on the M.2 22110 (110mm length) form factor. The EP1 features Toshiba A19 MLC NAND, with eMLC versions planned. The controller being utilized is a Marvell 88SS9293.
The LiteOn EP1 480GB version is rated for sequential read speeds of (up to) 1000 MB/s, and sequential write speeds of (up to) 950 MB/s. Random 4K read speeds are stated as (up to) 110,00 IOPS, with random 4K write speeds of (up to) 30,000 IOPS. The 960GB version increases sequential read and write speeds to (up to) 1100MB/s and 1000MB/s, respectively. Random 4K read speeds increase to (up to) 120,ooo IOPS, with random 4k write speeds of (up to) 40,000 IOPS.
Looking at the EP1, we can see the capacitors present for power loss protection. Endurance-wise, the EP1 is rated for up to 1 drive write per day (DWPD). The EP1 also features end-to-end data protection, and is rated for Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of 2,000,ooo hours. LiteOn is backing the EP1 to the tune of a three-year warranty. These drives are anticipated to begin shipping in Q1 of 2015.
On the client side of things, LiteOn is currently developing the CV2 solid state drive. This will be a 2.5″ form factor SSD that pairs a Marvell 88SS1074 controller with Toshiba A19 TLC NAND. It is to be offered in capacities of 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. All three capacities are rated for sequential read speeds of (up to) 500MB/s, with sequential writes of (up to) 440MB/s for the 128GB, and (up to) 480MB/s for the 256GB and 512GB versions. Random 4K read speeds are stated as (up to) 85,000 IOPS for the 128GB, and (up to) 100,000 IOPS for the 256GB and 512GB. Random 4K write speeds come in at (up to) 80,000 IOPS for the 128GB, with the 256GB and 512GB at (up to) 83,000 IOPS. The CV2 is also one of the first client SSDs to offer LDPC (low density parity check) error correction. This drive will also carry a three-year warranty. LiteOn anticipates availability for this SSD to be May or June of 2015.
LiteOn also has on display many of their current SSD offerings, including this mSATA drive. An interesting factoid came out at our meeting related to LiteOn’s optical drive business: They are the premier (and almost last remaining) producer of optical disk drives, and we were advised that the last 80 million (plus) XBox1’s contain a LiteOn optical drive — how’s that for exclusive usage?!
Stay tuned for further developments at Storage Visions 2015 and CES2015 as they occur. You can view LiteOn’s product page for the EP1 enterprise M.2 SSD here.