Not wanting to be left behind in the race for the largest Solid State Drive, STEC announced that it’s shipping samples of a new ZeusIOPS drive using Multi-Level Cell flash memory. Most STEC drives are based on the faster, more reliable SLC technology, but since MLC enables higher storage densities it was only a matter of time before they added a product like this to their mix.
The new models will have capacities of up to 800 GB, in both 2.5 and 3.5″ form factors. The company claims to have special management algorithms build into the drive’s controllers that minimize the effects of MLC’s slower writes and faster degradation, but we’ll have to wait a bit to see actual benchmarks; STEC expects the new drives to ship in volume in the first quarter of 2010. It’s clear from their press release that they are targeting the more cost-conscious customers:
“While we believe our core customers will continue to rely on and demand our industry‐leading SLC‐based SSDs, it is apparent that several of our price‐sensitive OEM customers are now looking for SSD alternatives which only a true MLC‐based SSD can deliver,” said Manouch Moshayedi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of STEC. “STEC continues to lead the way in developing innovative SSD solutions for today’s Enterprise markets. Our introduction of MLC‐based SSDs is an important next step in the enablement of even wider spread adoption of SSDs and will open doors to new and exciting markets for us.”
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