OCZ Unleashes the Indilinx Everest SSD Controller

OCZ Technology has just announced the launch of its first SSD controller developed in-house, the Indilinx Everest, which brings support for quite a few interesting technologies, including triple-level cell (TLC) NAND Flash memory.

Compared to the usual MLC memory that is used for most other solid state drives, TLC NAND can provide up to 50% more storage capacity, while using the same number of NAND Flash chips.

At the heart of the controller stands a dual-core ARM chip that supports the SATA 6Gbps interface and can be paired with up to 512MB of DDR3-400 cache memory.

This configuration allows for an impressive performance to be reached, and OCZ claims that the Indilinx Everest is the only SSD processor on the market to support 200 mega transfers per second (MT/s), while its competitors only deliver 166 MT/s.

For sequential data transfers this should be enough to provide up to 500 MB/s, but the controller's strength actually lies in random read and write performance as it was optimized for handling 4K to 16K compressed files.

The Indilinx Everest can support storage capacities up to 1TB and uses an eight channel link (which supports 16-way interleaving) to connect to the ONFI 2.0/Toggle 1.0 Flash installed.

"The new Indilinx Everest platform is a complete customizable solution that delivers superior storage performance, features, and capabilities designed to exceed the needs of the most demanding SSD applications," said Bumsoo Kim, President of Indilinx.

"Combining a 6Gbps SATA Revision 3.0 host interface, a dual-core CPU, and support for the latest, most advanced NAND Flash memory technology available, Everest offers SSD manufacturers unparallel flexibility in optimizing their designs for both performance and cost," concluded the company's rep.

Right now it's still unclear when the first solid state drive based on the OCZ/Indilinx Everest controller will arrive to market, but OCZ has already sent it to OEMs for validation.