Tag Archives: AS SSD

Perhaps one of the best mindsets I have seen in my six years in the SSD industry is the ambition to not only improve SSD technology, but to also take them to the next level.  Selling a consumer SSD as an enterprise one will always be a shot in the dark, but the appetite of SSD manufacturers to push their …

The importance of Toshiba in the flash industry cannot be overstated.  Toshiba is not only one of the world’s largest flash suppliers, but also, they are often recognized as the prime choice when SSD manufacturers are making quality SSDs.  Some SSD manufacturers refuse to use anything nut Toshiba NAND flash memory in their SSDs. So where has Toshiba been as …

The importance of SSD controllers often gets overlooked in the world of SSDs.  Memory itself is front and center in the minds of most, simply because it is the most prominent component in any SSD.  Most recently, we are even seeing Apple using the term ‘flash’ in its product literature , rather than ‘SSD’.  Not only is the controller capable …

M.2 PCIe SSDs Reviews Sometimes we get fortunate enough to have just the right hardware at just the right time. Such was the case when Sony sent us their new VAIO Pro 13 Ultrabook with a Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD for review.  That SSD provided performance speeds over 1GB/s and enabled our statement of the VAIO Pro 13 as …

UNDERSTANDING SATA M.2 AND NATIVE M.2 PCIE SSDS By now, many are aware that there is a new SSD standard known as NGFF or M.2.  NGFF is actually a slang term that started the process rolling and means ‘next generation form factor’.  If you have been following our reviews as of late, you would have also learned that, within the …

Perhaps the two most notable recent trends in SSDs have been the inevitable introduction of M.2 SSDs and the unexpected announcements of ‘driverless’ PCIe SSDs, that require no more than inserting the device into an available PCIe slot and rebooting the PC system. Very close and long-standing industry relations placed us in a position to provide exclusive analysis and report …

When it comes to SSD controllers, up until recent times LSI/SandForce and Marvell have pretty much “ruled the roost”.    Other than a few instances of utilizing proprietary controllers (such as Samsung does in most of their SSDs), and a smaller player in Indilinx (acquired by OCZ),  there were no other options for manufacturers to engineer a new SSD with.  That has …

Our attendance at the Samsung Global SSD Summit in South Korea brought us a first glimpse of a new standard in ultrabook storage performance.  At the Summit, the Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD was displayed reaching 1GB/s transfer speeds and Apple has since released their 2013 MacBook Air which has a customized variation of the XP941; this attaining native performance of …

Our SSD analysis today is perhaps the most detailed typical SSD report we have published to date, and so it should be.  Actually, the word ‘typical’ doesn’t quite fit as the Samsung 840 EVO SSD, that I am now using as my mainstream system drive, is pushing over 1GB/s sequential speeds and an unbelievable 685MB/s low 4K random write performance.  …

A few weeks ago we posted a review on the SanDisk Extreme II 240GB capacity SSD and it turned out to be one of the stronger contenders we have seen to date, and most definitely the strongest using a Marvell controller. We wanted to today follow that up with an analysis of that same drive, this time in the 480GB …