OCZ Introduces 6Gb SATA MLC SSD: Vertex 4 …

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. introduced the Vertex 4 SATA III SSD series featuring the company’s Indilinx Everest 2 controller platform.

The Vertex 4 delivers high IOPS performance for SATA-based drives across a variety of application workloads making this fourth generation product line suited for demanding computing and workstation environments. It consistently accomplishes performance over the long term regardless of whether the data streams are in compressed or uncompressed formats.

The Vertex 4 features sequential bandwidth up to 535 MB/s, maximum random performance up to 120,000 IOPS, and with hard to manage incompressible data, delivers 95,000 4K random read IOPS and 85,000 random write IOPS. In comparison to OCZ’s previous generation Vertex 3 SSD, rated at 60,000 sustained 4K random write IOPS, the Vertex 4 doubles typical transactional performance. The Vertex 4 also generates latency as low as 0.04ms for read operations and 0.02ms for write operations, delivering an improvement of approximately 80 percent over the Vertex 3. In typical use case scenarios, the Vertex 4 outperforms the Vertex 3 by as much as 400 percent.

Powered by its Indilinx Everest 2 controller platform, featuring a dual core architecture and 400MHz clock speeds, the Vertex 4 eliminates the need for internal data compression, further enhancing drive reliability. This advanced controller architecture also includes features such as an error correction code (ECC) engine, dynamic wear-leveling, auto encryption, and Indilinx’s next generation Ndurance 2.0 NAND flash management technology, enabling OCZ to support the Vertex 4 SSD line with a 5-year warranty.

Ndurance 2.0, embedded within the Everest 2 platform, overcomes NAND flash memory shortcomings to extend NAND flash life well beyond the manufacturer rated program and erase cycle specifications. It ensures that the Vertex 4 can be reliably used in a range of computing environments over an extended lifetime. This NAND flash management suite not only radically extends NAND flash memory life, but provides enterprise-class endurance even when commodity-grade NAND flash is used.

"The Vertex 4 represents an evolution in SSD technology and is a milestone product, delivering maximum performance and the highest NAND flash durability to date while eliminating the tradeoffs typically associated with on-the-fly data compression in MLC-based SSDs," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. "We have raised the bar with an SSD product that delivers the ultimate in performance, regardless of data type, and for the first time ever, provides high read and write IOPS performance all on the same SSD platform."

The Vertex 4 SSD will be available this month through OCZ’s global channel in 128GB to 512GB capacities.