OCZ Agility Series SSD

[Sylvanas]

Press release

Offering your system the incredible performance of flash-based storage, the OCZ Agility Series delivers the performance and reliability of SSDs at less price per gigabyte than other high speed offerings currently on the market. The OCZ Agility Series is the result of all the latest breakthroughs in SSD technology, including new architecture and controller design, blazing read/write speeds, and 64MB of onboard cache.

Perfect for notebooks and desktops alike, the Agility Series is ideal for energy-efficient mobile computing to extend battery life, increase the speed of access time, and provide a durable alternative to conventional hard disc drives with superior shock resistance. High capacities and low power consuming NAND flash technology provide the necessary performance and battery life boosts generated by the proliferation of mobile gaming and new ultra-thin laptops.

The OCZ Agility drives feature a durable yet lightweight alloy housing, and because OCZ SSDs have no moving parts, the drives are more rugged than traditional hard drives. Designed for ultimate reliability, Agility Series SSDs have an excellent 1.5 million hour mean time before failure (MTBF) ensuring peace of mind over the long term. All Agility Series SSD drives come backed a two year warranty and OCZ?s legendary service and support.

120GB Max Performance**
Read: Up to 230 MB/s
Write: Up to 135 MB/s
Sustained Write: Up to 80 MB/S
64MB Onboard Cache
Seek Time: <.1ms

 

[ochadd]

If they can get the 60GB units under $150 they should move quite a few. Very tempting RAID setup.

 

[vhx]

Can't wait for comparisons. I wonder how the performance will be compared to the Vertex series.

 

[magreen]

Anyone know what controller these use?

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: magreen
Anyone know what controller these use?

indilinx

 

[LittleNemoNES]

what is the difference between these and the vertex drives? look the same to me...

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: vhx
Can't wait for comparisons. I wonder how the performance will be compared to the Vertex series.

Roughly same controller but using slower memory ICs. Initial pricing information puts it at about 5-10% or so less than the Vertex. If that is indeed the case, I personally would rather get the Vertex for the higher writes and higher sustained.

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: gersson
what is the difference between these and the vertex drives? look the same to me...

One uses 2bit mlc and the other uses 3 or 4bit mlc. Agility will have a bit slower performance and won't last as long.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

lol but costs the same?

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Hacp

Originally posted by: gersson
what is the difference between these and the vertex drives? look the same to me...

One uses 2bit mlc and the other uses 3 or 4bit mlc. Agility will have a bit slower performance and won't last as long.

There is no way Agility uses 3x or 4x MLC flash. First off the chips aren't in mass production yet, and second they are 10x slower and have 1/10 the write-lifetime compared to existing 2X MLC flash.

3X and 4X MLC will never be used in SSD applications unless the lifetime is addressed, regardless their bandwidth performance. They die after just 1,000 writes.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...304124&highlight_key=y

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: Hacp

Originally posted by: gersson
what is the difference between these and the vertex drives? look the same to me...

One uses 2bit mlc and the other uses 3 or 4bit mlc. Agility will have a bit slower performance and won't last as long.

There is no way Agility uses 3x or 4x MLC flash. First off the chips aren't in mass production yet, and second they are 10x slower and have 1/10 the write-lifetime compared to existing 2X MLC flash.

3X and 4X MLC will never be used in SSD applications unless the lifetime is addressed, regardless their bandwidth performance. They die after just 1,000 writes.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...304124&highlight_key=y

With so few writes before failing, what use would they have? Digital cameras would be written often, I guess MP3 players aren't written on too often and might be somewhat useful there.

Or do you see room for dramatic improvement in the lifetime with further engineering?

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: geoffry
With so few writes before failing, what use would they have? Digital cameras would be written often, I guess MP3 players aren't written on too often and might be somewhat useful there.

According to this Samsung slide the expectation is that X3 MLC's will serve a useful product market when it comes to digital content distribution.

(see lower-left corner of the graph)

Think about digital media which are cost sensitive but also not problematic if they are read-only...your CD/DVD/HD content.

To compete with the electronic distribution channels (internet streaming) the form factor (dimensions and weight) of the physically distributed media needs to shrink dramatically in addition to retaining the currently accepted low-cost of the media itself. (stamped DVD's are <$1 for instance)

Originally posted by: geoffry
Or do you see room for dramatic improvement in the lifetime with further engineering?

The engineering solutions for lifetime/endurance all involve increasing the effective bit-area...in effect making the diesize (and processing costs) larger. This runs counter to the very purpose of making a multi-celled flash IC in the first place.

If you increase the bit-size of an X3 chip as needed to boost endurance to be comparable to that of X2 MLCs then you will find yourself with a chip that costs just as much to produce (on a bit-normalized basis) as the X2 MLC it was intended to replace.

The same is true of X2 MLC's, the difference is the lifetime endurance of SLC's is just so much higher than needed for consumer devices (with appropriate wear-leveling algorithms implemented of course) that the 10x reduction in endurance incurred in going SLC -> X2 MLC did not cross an absolute endurance threshold for the X2 MLC's of any practical consequence to the consumer.

But you knock that lifetime down by yet another order of magnitude and it doesn't matter how much of a reduction in price your X3 MLC enabled, if it lasts just 6 months (versus 5 yrs for X2 MLC) then it is useless from a practical standpoint at the market perception level.

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: geoffry
With so few writes before failing, what use would they have? Digital cameras would be written often, I guess MP3 players aren't written on too often and might be somewhat useful there.

According to this Samsung slide the expectation is that X3 MLC's will serve a useful product market when it comes to digital content distribution.

(see lower-left corner of the graph)

Think about digital media which are cost sensitive but also not problematic if they are read-only...your CD/DVD/HD content.

To compete with the electronic distribution channels (internet streaming) the form factor (dimensions and weight) of the physically distributed media needs to shrink dramatically in addition to retaining the currently accepted low-cost of the media itself. (stamped DVD's are <$1 for instance)

Originally posted by: geoffry
Or do you see room for dramatic improvement in the lifetime with further engineering?

The engineering solutions for lifetime/endurance all involve increasing the effective bit-area...in effect making the diesize (and processing costs) larger. This runs counter to the very purpose of making a multi-celled flash IC in the first place.

If you increase the bit-size of an X3 chip as needed to boost endurance to be comparable to that of X2 MLCs then you will find yourself with a chip that costs just as much to produce (on a bit-normalized basis) as the X2 MLC it was intended to replace.

The same is true of X2 MLC's, the difference is the lifetime endurance of SLC's is just so much higher than needed for consumer devices (with appropriate wear-leveling algorithms implemented of course) that the 10x reduction in endurance incurred in going SLC -> X2 MLC did not cross an absolute endurance threshold for the X2 MLC's of any practical consequence to the consumer.

But you knock that lifetime down by yet another order of magnitude and it doesn't matter how much of a reduction in price your X3 MLC enabled, if it lasts just 6 months (versus 5 yrs for X2 MLC) then it is useless from a practical standpoint at the market perception level.

Thanks a bunch.