Orico Unveils HM01 SSD As CES Looms In The Distance

Orico, a China based company known for their various storage solutions, has uncovered their new HM01 line of SSDs.

The drives will be available in capacities of 64GB, 128GB and 256GB.

Based on the Marvell 88SS9174 controller, the new products will provide a read/write bandwidth of up to 500MB/s and 330MB/s for both the 64GB and 128GB models, while the 256GB model will boost write speeds up to 440MB/s.

Orico has not released pricing information and has not stated when drives will be generally available.

The delivered performance may be somewhat lower than Sandforce based drives, but will appeal to those consumers seeking variation in their selection of SSDs and, with the recent 009 firmware update seen in the Crucial M4 sporting the same processor, the sky is really the limit here. I have to say, with the seemingly never ending supply of Sandforce based drives that are available, it’s nice to see some variation when it comes to SSD controllers.

With RunCore having just announced their Falcon SSD, Orico will be the sixth company utilizing a Marvell controller on a current generation drive. With any luck, both products will maintain the standard of reliability set forth by previous Marvell based devices, giving users more solid options when it comes to purchasing an SSD.

It’s probably no coincidence that a lot of companies, many new to the SSD game, are releasing products just before CES. This activity serves to illustrate very clearly the effect CES has not only on the storage companies, but on the computer industry as a whole. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were at least a few more SSD related announcements before the event gets underway.

This is, of course, the best case scenario for consumers, having a healthy number of companies vying for their attention and hard earned cash. Whatever your new years resolutions are, making one of them to wait until after CES to buy an SSD would probably be an eminently prudent decision.