Marvell With 6Gb SATA Controllers for SSD/HDD

Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. launched the 88SE9130 6Gb/s SATA controller powered by HyperDuo embedded processor technology. The solution enables solid state drive (SSD) benefits to consumer desktop motherboards and an array of consumer electronics (CE) products. Powered by HyperDuo technology, the 88SE9130 controller enables SSD-like performance while allowing all data to be stored on a traditional SATA hard disk drive (HDD).

Configured with one hard disk drive and one SSD drive, the 88SE9130 uses algorithms to automatically pin hot data files and directories to a SATA SSD while enabling all data to be safely stored on a larger capacity SATA HDD. Using industry-standard benchmarks, such as PCMark, on consumer desktop machines, Marvell has demonstrated the 88SE9130 HyperDuo solution can achieve 80 percent of the performance of a SATA SSD while storing all data on a traditional large capacity SATA HDD.

"Our leadership in SATA technology products is reaffirmed with milestones like today’s launch of the 88SE9130 SATA controller powered by HyperDuo. Through close integration with our partners, the 88SE9130 enables industry-leading performance levels at ultra-low product and energy costs," said Alan Armstrong, Vice President of Marketing for the Storage Business Group at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "Consumer technologies like those shown at CES 2011 desperately need innovations like HyperDuo 6Gb/s SATA controllers to continue meeting and exceeding customer demand, and Marvell is thrilled to be leading the industry with our SSD acceleration technology."

The 88SE9130 furthers these capabilities with two product modes: Safe Mode and Capacity Mode. Safe Mode provides optimal data protection by mirroring data on SSD to the hard disk for maximum resiliency, while Capacity Mode combines SSD and HDD capacity together for the most cost-effective configuration. In both modes, consumers see the same single drive volume (Local Disk (C:)) as they do today for simplicity and zero change to their daily computing habits.

The 88SE9130 brings automated and integrated SSD acceleration technology to the consumer technology market, especially with high-end desktops and laptops, home NAS and set-top boxes and host bus adapters. These capabilities are being maximized through the support of technology providers across all elements of SATA technology, including Western Digital for hard disk drives (HDD); ASRock, Asus, GIGABYTE  and Microstar for motherboards; Micron for SSDs and more.

"ASUS was the first motherboard to natively support 6Gbps data transfer bandwidth, and we’re thrilled to see the innovation at Marvell continue with HyperDuo," said CheWei Lin, Vice President of ASUSTek. "HyperDuo expands even greater performance potential with the latest hard disk drives, and enables ASUS to continue bringing the best experiences to our consumers."

"GIGABYTE brought product innovations to both Intel and AMD based motherboards using Marvell’s 6Gb/s SATA controller, and HyperDuo is a great milestone in our ongoing partnership," commented Henry Kao, Vice President of the Motherboard Business Unit at GIGABYTE. "We’re very proud of GIGABYTE’s complete range of top-to-bottom solutions, and HyperDuo expands that range even further."

"Micron and Marvell have once again collaborated to develop industry-leading performance by optimizing the storage system. The combination of our leading-edge NAND, exclusive firmware and the finely tuned controller we collaborated on with Marvell makes a winning SSD," said Justin Sykes, Director of Client SSD Products at Micron. "Marvell’s HyperDuo controller technology leverages our RealSSD design, enabling Micron and Marvell to deliver best-in-class storage products in 2011."

"MSI is proud to implement the revolutionary HyperDuo technology from Marvell on our high-end models for the Sandy Bridge motherboard series," said Charles Chiang, MSI’s GM of DPS BU. "We are excited to partner with Marvell to advance the data transfer standard and undoubtedly our customers will all be satisfied with the outstanding performance brought by MSI products with the innovative HyperDuo."

The Marvell 88SE9130 HyperDuo-enabled 6Gb/s SATA Controller is available starting Q1 2011.