14 DAY TRIAL // Mushkin already turned a series of heads at CeBIT 2010 in Hanover, Germany, with its Ridgeback (or was it Copperhead?) DDR3 memory kits, but, of course, a few memory modules were not the only things on display at the company's stand. In addition to random access memory, the company has also been working on a series of solid state drives based on the SandForce SF-1200 controller. Known as Calypso, the SSD family is slower than drives based on the SF-1500, in return, has a more accessible price.
SandForce controllers have been getting rather popular lately, having been adopted by a significant number of storage solutions developers. Among the companies that have released or previewed SSDs based on them are Corsair, Team Group, G.Skill, OWC, OCZ and Mach Xtreme. With such a large crowd already attending the SandForce party, it is no surprise to see Mushkin coming along.
According to Fudzilla, the Calypso series drives reach maximum speeds of around 260MB/s. Unfortunately, exact data rates are not known yet, but the SF-1200 controller has maximum IOPS of roughly 10,000 with 4k blocks.
No doubt most manufacturers are adopting SandForce controllers because, while providing more than decent speeds, it has a lower price than competing products on the market. The report states that Mushkin even assured end-users that its Calypso Series would be cheaper than solid state drives based on the Indilinx controller. No doubt this is the main reason why so many companies are employing SandForce.
The Calypso SSD lineup will include models of not just 64GB and 128GB, but also of 256GB. They should enter availability later this month or at the start of April. As for faster devices based on the SF-1500, Mushkin will likely make some, although when and where this will happen is still a mystery.