Computex 2011: OCZ Z-Drive R4 88, Eight SF-2281 Controllers in RAID-0

OCZ's consumer accessible PCIe SSD line is the RevoDrive, but if you're an enterprise customer and want a custom configuration OCZ will build you a Z-Drive. To show you how far OCZ is willing to go, it announced a brand new Z-Drive at Computex: the R4 88.

Take eight SF-2281 controllers, put them all in a RAID-0 on a PCIe x8 card with an as-of-yet unknown controller and you've got the Z-Drive R4 88:

OCZ will be offering two types: the C Series and the R Series. The C Series has less over provisioning and lacks any polymer capacitors for power loss protection, while the R Series has more NAND set aside as spare area and comes equipped with some form of protection against sudden power loss.

OCZ had a 3U Colfax server with multiple Z-Drive R4 88s running an Iometer 4KB random read test, the end result was a single server that delivered more than 1 million IOPS. The drive is spec'd for up to 2.9GB/s reads and 2.7GB/s writes. Obviously as an 8-way RAID-0 there are reliability concerns and I'm not exactly sure the type of enterprise customer that would deploy such a thing, but it's a neat drive to look at nonetheless.

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The New Indilinx Everest SSD

OCZ acquired Indilinx not too long ago and today we're seeing the first new controller from the company since 2009. OCZ calls it the Everest Platform, and it's an SSD targeted at the enterprise - at least for now.

It's Indilinx's first 6Gbps controller, good for up to 520MB/s reads and 410MB/s writes (but "only" 20K 4KB random write IOPS). The reference drive features two supercaps as its power loss protection circuitry. Everest will start at 64GB and be available in configurations of up to 1TB at customer request.

Given that OCZ owns Indilinx, I'm expecting some pretty aggressive pricing from these controllers. Still no word on a new consumer based Indilinx drive. OCZ did have a Vertex Plus on display, which is the old Barefoot controller but with new firmware that allegedly improves performance up to 500%. I have yet to test the aforementioned firmware so I'm not really sure how accurate the claims are.

It's clear that Indilinx based drives aren't going to be outperforming SandForce anytime soon, but the question is whether or not they'll get good enough to be a value alternative.

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A Quick Look at a 22nm Ivy Bridge Wafer

Just before a couple of key Ivy Bridge disclosures, Mooly Eden held up a wafer of 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs. Presumably these are quad-core versions with 16 EUs, the largest version Intel will make at least at launch. Mooly mentioned that Ivy Bridge will have more than a billion transistors (obviously, SNB was 995M), but he wouldn't reveal the actual count. 

Knowing that these wafers are 300mm in diameter, you should be able to get a decent idea of Ivy Bridge die size based on the photo below.

I seem to count approximately 37 die up and 15 die across, which would put a single Ivy Bridge die at 8.1mm x 20mm or around 162mm^2. A 32nm quad-core Sandy Bridge die is 216mm^2 by comparison.

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Computex 2011: Diskeeper ExpressCache Provides an Alternative to SSD Caching for OEMs

As we found out in our Z68 review, Intel's SRT (SSD Caching) is basically a software tool baked into Intel's RST driver - there's no real hardware requirement in the chipset, just an artificial one. Diskeeper provides OEMs with software that's designed to do the same thing, it's called ExpressCache.

The driver loads at boot and can apparently speed up boot time. Like Intel's SRT it will filter out some operations to avoid polluting the cache (e.g. sequential accesses). Unlike SRT you can manually pin applications to the cache. Ultimately how well it performs will be up to the algorithms Diskeeper implemented.

The company was present at SanDisk's booth showing a quick boot time demo with an 8GB SanDisk SSD used as an ExpressCache vs. a standard 5400 RPM HDD. Obviously the SSD enabled solution was faster. OEMs are expected to start shipping SanDisk + ExpressCache systems this year.]]>

Computex 2011: MSI's Brazos, Cedar Trail and Tegra 2 Tablets

I met with MSI yesterday, a company that has been going through a bit of an  identity crisis as of late. ASUS is the only motherboard manufacturer that really made the transition from a component vendor to something more than that. MSI is trying its best to go back to its roots and develop a strategy that will work for it in the long run.

Tablets are of course a big deal these days and MSI had a number of tablets in its Windpad line on display.

 First off we have the Windpad 120W, a Cedar Trail based tablet (32nm Atom). Unfortunately, although Intel promised fanless designs for Cedar Trail it looks like the Windpad 120W will use a small, slow spinning fan to help keep it cool. The 10-inch tablet will have WiDi support for wireless video streaming similar to what you can get on an Arrandale or Sandy Bridge notebook today. It's unclear what formats or resolutions will be supported. Presumably Cedar Trail isn't going to have the transcoding performance of a Sandy Bridge so you should lower your expectations for WiDi on Atom accordingly. Pricing and availability are TBD on the 120W.

 Next up is a Brazos version of the 120W, the Windpad 110W. We get a similar chassis but a C-series APU inside. Pricing will be around $599 for the Windows 7 equipped tablet. Finally, MSI also has its Windpad 100A, a Tegra 2 based tablet running Android. Currently the tablet is running 2.3.3, however MSI's goal is to release it either with Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich late this year. The industrial design on the Windpad will change by then, hopefully to a thinner form factor. 

 We'll see a sooner release from MSI running Gingerbread, in a chassis that likely looks very similar to what you see here. {gallery 1106}]]>

Computex 2011: MSI's X79 and Llano Motherboards

By now you know that Ivy Bridge (due out in March - April of 2012) will be backwards compatible with some 6-series motherboards. The CPU itself has a PCIe 3.0 controller on-die, however MSI tells us that without modifications to existing motherboard designs you won't be able to properly support the 3.0 spec. 

MSI's Z68A-GD80 (G3) features new circuitry and switches between the CPU socket and the x16 slots that will apparently allow the motherboard to operate at PCIe Gen 3 speeds. The problem seems confined to the switches that motherboard makers use to automatically divide the 16 PCIe lanes coming from the CPU into 1 x16 or 2 x8. MSI claims that when Ivy Bridge comes out, the Z68A-GD80 (G3) will be fully PCIe Gen 3 compliant.

Of course MSI had a Socket-2011 X79 motherboard on display in addition to a pair of Socket-FM1 Llano boards. I'm hearing late summer for the desktop Llano launch at this point.

Those of you waiting for Bulldozer performance results from Computex, I'm afraid we're not going to see anything representative of final hardware. I did hear that the upcoming B2 stepping would restore performance to Bulldozer's original targets, however it's unclear how those compare to Sandy Bridge. The other thing I did hear at the show floor regarding Bulldozer was about its clock speed. Current B1 stepping parts are easily hitting 3.8GHz which is what the high end SKU may actually ship at (with turbo support up to 4.2GHz). I'm waiting for more confirmation but it sounds like Bulldozer will at least clock very high.

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Antec HCG 520W: A Good PSU for Bargain Hunters

We interrupt the Computex 2011 coverage for a full review....

In early April, we tested one of Antec's larger HCG power supplies. Today we're looking at a smaller version with 520W unit. There are some differences between the 750W model besides the rated power output, so while we like the overall value the HCG-750 provides the HCG-520 needs its own review.

Previously, Antec has had other mainstream series before creating the HCG line, but this is the first time they've tried to jump on the "Gamer" bandwagon. Mostly, the name appears to be in reference to the aesthetics of the PSUs, as the other features are common in competing products. Highlights include the 80Plus Bronze certification, non-modular connection system, and Japanese capacitors. But let's not get bogged down in the details just yet; is the HCG-520 a good product or could it use some improvements?

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