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Earlier today, Anandtech announced his receipt of a tip, and confirmation that OCZ Vertex 4 and Octane contain controllers that are Marvell hardware based.
After contacting OCZ, we received confirmation of such and this was furthered by the fact that the Marvell controller runs at higher clock speeds and features Indilinx proprietary firmware.
When push comes to shove, the OCZ Everest platform is based on Marvell hardware.
Development of this platform, as the Kilimanjaro platform, is accomplished through a partnership between OCZ and Marvell that has resulted in one of the best performing SSDs we have seen yet while testing highly incompressible data such as movies, music and photographs.
I am going to throw on the old flak vest and speak my mind on this one folks. To me, I don’t personally care who creates one of the best SSDs on the market today so long as it is created. As much as there will always be ‘haters’, where would we be right now without those companies pushing the line in the sand? SSD technology would be no where near where it is now and, yes there have been a few casualties along the way. Advance is no different for any technology.
With respect to the Vertex 4, I don’t think there is anyone that knows anything about SSDs that would deny that, with a little tweaking and a firmware update, this just may be the front runner in the race by a mile. Throw in availability, value and a five year warranty and this drive will sell like hotcakes. After all, has anyone seen overall benchmark scores better than this yet?
The OCZ Octane, released a few months back, is also the Everest 1 platform which means that it is also Marvell based. It seems to have a solid reputation since release. Maybe that’s a good thing then…check back for daily SSD steals!
I agree. There seems to be some confusion though, as to what exact controller type is in the OCZ Vertex 4 drive. Is it Marvell’s new 88SS9187 controller, or the older 88SS9174 one? Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Reaching out and will be back soon.
Thanks. Just to be clear though, I believe this doesn’t change anything as far as I’m concerned. Marvell’s controller is a proven solution, it’s stable and has been tested extremely well. With OCZ’s custom firmware, it makes their SSD’s stand out from the crowd. More choices and competition for us consumers is always a good thing.
I know you! Rumors have been spreading about this on the most respected storage forum out there (XS) so for the hardcore storage nuts, this was expected.
Either way, good show from OCZ on performance 🙂
This shows that a huge part of any SSD is the firmware implementation. With the pace of advancement in SSD tech, we are discarding products before they are fully used, with Indillinx Barefoot as a key example. The very first Vertex, oh they STILL serve me well, just received a major facelift with Arowana. How many years later?
OCZ stock price has taken a hit, it has a massive short position and i still think the stock (OCZ) will outperform it’s competitors. With these types of products and at these speeds you have to wonder why the short position on this stock has not been clobbered yet, but I say they will be. OCZ has a product that is selling and I think this will continue to surprise investors long term, they are a mile ahead in my opinion.
It’s strange how Marvell seems to have the resources to create a high-end SSD controller but their mobo SATA controllers are still considered mediocre. If Marvell was smart they’d push for equal quality on their onboard SATA controller chips. That would make for a killer combination…..