by Jarred Walton on 1/12/2012 10:04:00 PM
Posted in Trade Shows , CES , CES 2012 , Super Talent , SSDs , RAIDDrive 
It’s a bit sad, really: SATA 6Gbps ony a couple years old and already we’re seeing SSDs push the limits of the interface. While the SATA spec will eventually be updated to support even higher bandwidths, right now companies looking for higher performance need to find other solutions. Several are moving to direct interfaces via PCIe, where even an x4 configuration can offer over three times the bandwidth of SATA 6Gbps. OCZ has the RevoDrive line, and Super Talent has their RAIDDrive. Super Talent had two new models of RAIDDrive on display at CES; the basic model is the upStream 480GB with up to four SSD controllers (SandForce 2200) while the RAIDDrive II supports up to 2TB and eight SF-2200 controllers.
Besides the RAIDDrive cards, Super Talent also had a new SF-2200 SSD brand with the latest gold level firmware on display, the TeraNova. Super Talent mentioned that many SSDs are actually out of spec in their SATA and power connector areas, with the PCB being too close to the connectors and making the SSDs unable to fit properly in hotswap drive bays; the TeraNova has the PCB cut out around the connectors so this won't be an issue.
Super Talent had some benchmarks running to demonstrate the performance potential of the three SSDs, and we grabbed some pictures of their ATTO results that you can see in the gallery. The quick summary is that the single SF-2200 controller in the TeraNova 240GB is able to hit read/write speeds of up to 545/518MB/s, which is similar to what we’ve seen on other SandForce SSDs. Move to the upStream 480GB RAIDDrive and read speeds can break the 1GB/s barrier and top out at 1021MB/s while write speeds topped out at 951MB/s. Finally, the RAIDDrive II (I’m not sure of the size, but I believe it was the 1TB model) more than doubles that on the read speeds at rates of up to 2613MB/s and writes speeds of 1637MB/s. Obviously these are sequential transfer rates, but even so you’ll need to be running workloads for more intense than desktop use before you’re really going to benefit from that much I/O performance.
One of the interesting elements of the RAIDDrive II is how Super Talent adds the SSDs to the board. Each SSD module consists of two PCBs, with the SF-2200 on one board and the NAND flash on the other. The board with the controller also contains a USB to SATA bridge chip, and the cards use USB 3.0 connections and plug into the main RAIDDrive II board. Small LEDs on the surface of the board also show which SSD modules are currently active. There’s also 64MB of RAM on the main PCB and a heatsink and small fan used to cool the RAID chip—I’m not sure what chip Super Talent is using, though I’ll try to find out.
Gallery:
Print This Article 
5 Comments View All Comments Post a Comment Interesting development by ShieTar on Friday, January 13, 2012 PCIe Drives for the customer / small business market seem to be introduced by more and more companies these days. What I have not found so far and would really like to see here on AnandTech would be a direct comparison of one of these with the PCIe RAID Controller + 2/4 Drives Combination. Is there really any advantage on buying the drive package, or are you better of with the flexibility of Controller + independant SSDs?Sure, the package should have lower latencies in theory, and should have a lower cost to produce, and may not increase your boot-time as much as a dedicated controller. But is any of these really evident in reality, and how does it compare to the drawbacks, e.g. the much higher energy-density on such a card? Does that decrease lifetime and power consumption?
ShieTar Reply RE: Interesting development by AnnihilatorX on Friday, January 13, 2012 Latency of the bus wouldn't matter too much.The only 2 advantages I see with PCI-e based RAID is that the RAID is intact even moving between systems, and is not limited by the controller; and that the bandwidth is higher than motherboard based SATA controllers, which usually run only on PCIex1 interfaces.
AnnihilatorX Reply RE: Interesting development by ShieTar on Friday, January 13, 2012 I thought the modern Intel On-Board SATA controllers interface directly to the DMI link, and not use the PCH PCIe interfaces? Sandy Bridge DMI should be good for at least 3 SATA 6Gbps ports under perfect conditions.But yes, I assume using an on-board controller instead of a PCIe-Controller would significantly reduce performance of a 4-SSD-RAID based on SF-22xx.
ShieTar Reply Raiddrive when? by bmo98 on Friday, January 13, 2012 Any estimate of when this monster will hit the shelves? 
bmo98 Reply RE: Raiddrive when? by JarredWalton on Friday, January 13, 2012 I thought the Super Talent rep said March or thereabouts, but that might be off. (A lot of stuff seems to be "coming around March or early Q2" at CES.) If I can find any additional information I'll let you know. 
JarredWalton Reply Subject Comment Post Comment 
User Name Password Remember me? Login
1 View All Comments Post a Comment 
Follow AnandTech 
Latest from AnandTech Pipeline Submit News! Windows 8 Mobile Broadband Enhancements Detailed Netgear at CES 2012: Consumer Networking, Storage and Media Products Apple Announces Digital Textbook Availability, iBooks Author App Kingston's SSDNow V+200: More Affordable SandForce AT&T to Launch New Data Plans For Smartphones, Tablets Intel's Performance Tuning Protection Plan: Warranty for Overclockers MIPS Technologies Targets Mobile Push Alienware's X51 is Coming CyanogenMod Team Shows Ice Cream Sandwich Running on HP TouchPad Microsoft's ReFS Filesystem for Windows 8 Server Explained AppliedMicro Demonstrates Catalina Based Platforms Sony VAIO: Z with Dock, SE with IPS, and an Ultrabook Concept DailyTech We the People: Populist Protest Kills SOPA (Again) 1/20/2012 Daily Hardware Reviews Further Down the Food Chain, Smartphones Killing Digital Cameras FBI Lets Megaupload's U.S. Superstar Musician CEO Swiss Beatz go Free Time Warner Cable Offers TWC TV App for iPhone Verizon, AT&T to Launch Voice over LTE Service in 2013 Samsung Loses 3G Patent Case Against Apple in Germany GM CEO Called to Testify Before House Panel on Volt Fires Megaupload is Megapwned by Gov't, Anonymous Hits Back, Downs DOJ Homepage Some SOPA/PIPA Supporters Vow to Fight for Big Media to the Bitter End Microsoft Reports Better-Than-Expected Earnings, Google Can't Say the Same Lockheed F-35C Doesn't Meet Acceleration Goals Says Tester Android Phonemaker Sony Ericsson's Earnings Plunge as it Cuts its Ranks 1/19/2012 Daily Hardware Reviews Apple Reinvents Textbooks/Publishing with iBook Author, iBooks 2 U.S. to Create Outer Space Code of Conduct with Other Nations Alienware x51 Gaming Desktop is Small, Upgradable Twitter @PeacheyMcKeitch I'm ok with it for products like OCZ's Lightfoot http://t.co/CUh1nIEK but otherwise I agree, I want two ports. Awesome interview with Tim Sweeney via @deantak, seriously one of the smartest people I've ever met: http://t.co/yZ3Kp4LK @WhatTheBit thanks for reading :) @moneyman10k @euler007 I wouldn't assume that… ;) @moneyman10k thank you sir, fixed! RT @anandtech: Intel's Performance Tuning Protection Plan: Warranty for Overclockers http://t.co/9yD1lI8A @blckgrffn working through server issues, sorry for the inconvenience, made some progress yesterday - hope to make more next week @euler007 definitely delayed, more info in the near future though @jeffreyhuber drop me an email: anand AT anandtech DOT com @NOTashwin @ryanshrout @loydcase TB can technically work with a dGPU, may require something like switchable graphics or lucid's tech 
Copyright © 1997-2011 AnandTech, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms, Conditions and Privacy Information.
Click Here for Advertising Information
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment