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Super Talent has become the true leader in USB 3 flash drive technology today and their display at CES 2011 focused, not only on flash drives but also, their success and innovation in the area of solid state drives and memory as well.
Their new RAIDDrive R2S was on display and would simply rock any system it got its hands on with read and write speeds of 2.4GB/s read and 2.2 GB/s write.
We are also only a few short weeks away from their first SATA 3 entry into the SSD world with the TeraDrive Sandforce Driven SSD. This SSD will be capable of pushing 500MB/s read and write performance and available in sizes ranging from 60 to 480GB.
Its processor is the much anticipated SandForce SF-2500 and the consumer seems to be confused as to why the SF-2000 consumer drives were not front and center at CES. Word on the street is simply that a last minute glitch was found which is holding this release back but we are hearing whispers of March as the release date.
We met with Peter Carcione , Super Talents Director of Marketing, and immediately noticed a red pouch that he was holding very close to his chest. Although Peter and I have known each other for quite some time, this was our first face to face meet and his enthusiasm hit me right off with the words, Les sit down. I have something you have to see.
It turns out that Peter was given the pouch just before CES and he thought The SSD Review would be the ideal place to introduce it to the world. We couldnt wait.
SandForce Comes To USB 3
Right off, Peter had to pull out and show us the worlds first SandForce driven SSD in a USB 3 Flash shell. This USB contains a complete SSD, right down to the SandForce processor and 8 channels of flash which will bring USB flash drive advance right up there with solid state drives. In short, this little baby will give you the full speed of an installed drive when plugged into a USB3 port.
There is no word on pricing or a release date just yet but it moves us leaps and bounds ahead in an area of technology that myself and Peter discuss on a regular basis which is the completely portable PC. In 2012, USB3 becomes native on motherboards which will enable one to plug this drive into the USB3 port and boot into any computer completely off the USB at the speed expected of an ssd. Presently, a smart PC enthusiast can come close but the speeds of USB 2.0 just doesnt make this a worthy effort whatsoever.
Imagine having your entire computer on a flash drive, programs, data, photos, video and all and plugging in the flash drive to boot into your own own computer environment with the same speed as you would have at home. Your complete home system is on that disk which will boot from any USB3 computer regardless of the location.
USB3 Flash Drives Get Real Small
Next up on the block was an ultra small USB flash which is roughly measured at 1 x½ x 1/8 and resembles their offering of the Pico line of USB drives. The beauty of this is that where the PICO line could only reach 30MB/s transfer speeds, these new drives will jump into the USB3 zone and easily double the performance. These drives are expected to be offered in capacities up to 32GB, however it would be no surprise to see that they could fit 64GB in there.
Storage Pod Mini Breaths Life into External Storage
The biggest problem we are seeing with many external drives is that there performance simply doesnt match that of the internal drive. Super Talents combination of the external casing, USB3 and the mini-USB3 connector overcomes that and then some with their new Storage Pod Mini. Not only will it easily break the barriers we have suffered with USB2, but also, having a SSD within brings the performance of this external drive as high as 260MB/s read and 220MB/s write. Its capacities with the solid state drive span from 60-480GB and it even has a One Tough Backup button for added suecurity.
A Look Around The SSD Booth
Lets leave you with a look around the Super Talent booth and a final picture that our Associate Editor has amusingly coined The Finest Minds in solid state and USB storage today. I am not quite sure that it is much of a reality on my part but the combination of Peter Carcione and Kent Smith, Sr. Director of product Marketing at SandForce, is a great mix. On introducing the two, I suddenly found myself on the outside looking in as the two immediately started exchanging thoughts and ideas that cant be spoken of just yet.