Indilinx, the company responsible for designing the Barefoot SSD controller, has today agreed to hand its future over to the capable lads and ladies of OCZ Technology in exchange for million in common OCZ stock. The companies have announced a definitive agreement for the chipmaker’s acquisition, which OCZ performed in order to gobble up a set of 20 yummy patents and patent applications while also expanding its presence in embedded, hybrid storage and industrial markets. Indilinx will continue its current operations, including providing controllers and firmware to other OEMs, and OCZ too will continue to use others’ wares, namedropping its long-term partner SandForce as among the outside companies that will continue to supply it with SSD wares. So it’s business as usual unless and until this partnership spawns some lightning-fast combination of software and hardware that forces us to hear that cursed “exclusive” word again. Ah well, best of luck of luck to them.

Continue reading OCZ buys Indilinx, probably has designs on building its own SSD controllers

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The world of memory timings, latency, and voltage is a strange one, but usually you can count on the fact that more RAM is better. OCZ, purveyor of fine system components (and super cheap ones), wants you to know that you can have as much DDR3 as you like — no more stacking up DIMMs up in your measly four slots for a paltry total of 8GB. No, they have doubled the capacity to 4GB/DIMM, although I seriously doubt the average system builder will find it that liberating.

Generally the rule is to have several smaller DIMMs rather than one or two big ones. High density modules have a higher risk of errors and are slower in general, having longer latencies and forcing more data through the same interface. Big DIMMs are the leading cause of RAM bottlenecks. Or not, I don’t know. The new modules are 1333Hz but also have 9-9-9-20 timings, which is a bit slow.

If you’re a RAM freak, these 4GB modules will be available soon, although no pricing information is available right now. As Tech Report points out, 2×2GB kits cost a little under $120 right now, so you’ll probably see it debut at somewhat more than that, though probably below $150.

OCZ introduces Colossus LT Series 3.5-inch solid state hard drives.

OCZ just rolled out the deets about its latest PCI-Express-powered SSD and man is it impressive. Forgot about that WD Velociraptor SATA 3.0 drive announced a few minutes ago, the new Z-Drive RS leaves that one back in the Jurassic Period.

Just like the previous three generations, the Z-Drive R2 is designed for high-speed enterprise usage and not for your average enthusiast – that’s why the Velocripator exists. But think about how fast you’ll be able to move you 8.5GB MKVs with the Z-Drive RS p88 1 or 2TB drive that features 1400MB/s read and write speeds. The smaller Z-Drive RS p84 still zips right along at 850MB/s read and 800MB/s write speeds.

These speeds are achievable with 8 PCI-E lanes along with an eight-way RAID 0 configuration. The drives are bootable and even feature interchangeable memory modules making the drive truely field-serviceable and upgradeable.

The word is mum on pricing just yet but seeing as the older and smaller 256MB PCI-E drive commands $1,335 from Newegg right now, chances are these drives are probably going to cost more than a used Honda.

By Evan Ackerman

Less than $100 probably means $99.99, but that doesn’t change the fact that the 2.5″ Onyx SSD from OCZ is actually in the realm of casually affordable, a first for SSDs. We’re used to seeing SSD drives that offer incredible performance, but at a price point that makes most of us just sigh sadly. The OCZ Onyx, while offering only modest speeds (125 MB/s read and 70 MB/s write) relative to other SSDs, is still fast enough that you’d notice a significant difference in load times if you stick your operating system on it. Unsurprisingly, the drive only has a capacity of 32 gigs, so your operating system may be the only thing you can stick on it, but that’s okay.

Even if the speed and size aren’t that impressive, don’t forget about the other benefits of SSDs: they’re light, shockproof, durable, and use up a heck of a lot less power than conventional drives since they don’t have anything inside them that needs to be kept spinning at several thousand RPM all the time.

$100 is not going to get you some kind of incredibly awesome SSD drive. But it will get you this SSD drive, which, for the cost, is way better than no SSD drive at all.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ HotHardware ]

I got up this morning and started thinking about the next thing I wanted to add to my PC. Like many of you, I’m into upgrading when I see fit to increase performance, and I think that putting Windows 7 on an SSD might be the way to go. So, like many of you, I decided to look at some of the most recent reviews and see what looked interesting from the price/performance standpoint.

So there’s a problem in general with buying an SSD, like any other component. You order it, the big brown truck arrives, you open the box and BAM! Press release announcing a newer, better, version of the drive you just bought. Not shocking, I know, but it makes doing this round-up thing a bit difficult.

Let’s take a look at the drives that got my attention:

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Name: WD Silicon Edge Blue
Capacity: 256GB
Cost: $999 (Cost per GB: $3.90)
What looks good: I liked the fact that it was was made by Western Digital, I liked the large capacity, and the reasonable performance. It was incredibly expensive though, and the cost per GB was a bit out of line compared to other products.

Name: OCZ Vertex, with the SandForce
Capacity: 100GB
Cost: $438 (Cost per GB: $4.38)
What looks good: OCZ has been pushing these things out at an incredible pace. The Vertex is the latest, and the fact that they claim to have a maintenance algorithm and increased durability really appeals to me. One of the concerns I have about an SSD product is the reliability, so this helps. It’s also, like most high capacity SSD drives, very expensive. This is the review I looked at when I was researching this unit.

Name: Micron RealSSD C300
Capacity: 256GB
Cost: $799 (Cost per GB: $3.12)
What looks good: Crucial knows memory, no doubt there, and the review that I read on this product was very positive. It’s a good all around performer, supports SATA III, and has great performance. Unfortunately it’s still silly expensive and it’s not out yet.

Name: OCZ Agility
Capacity: 60GB
Cost: $199, (Cost per GB: $3.31 after rebates)
What looks good: The price made me really have to think about this drive. For my project, I don’t need a ridiculously large drive, I’m just going to put the OS on there to try and squeeze out a little more performance. The OCZ has adequate speed, adequate transfer rates, and some more of the lovely algorithm that’s supposed to keep the drive running smoothly. The reviewer liked it too, and described it as a great drive for exactly what I have in mind.

Name: Kingston SSDNow V
Capacity: 40GB
Cost: $159 (Cost per GB: $3.97)
What looks good: Reasonable size, decent performance, lower price. The SSDNow V seems to have it all. There’s a reason for that though, it’s actually a relabeled Intel X25-M. That’s actually a good thing, as Intel’s controller chipset does provide a serious performance boost.

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So which one would I buy? Well, I’ve decided to go with the Kingston. I don’t have $500 to spend on a drive so it’s within reach, and the reviews were good. Now I just have to reorganize my system so I’m ready to upgrade when the drive gets here.