14 DAY TRIAL // Announced for the first time all the way back in July of 2010, SandForce's second generation consumer SSD controllers have finally become available, promising sustained sequential read/write performance of up to 500MB/s.
Compared to the previous generation SandFoce solid state disk processors, the new SF-2000 family features improved transfer rates, enhanced encryption support as well as compatibility with virtually any NAND flash cells (SLC or MLC) available out there.
In addition, the controllers also include an advanced ECC engine, which can correct up to 55 bits per 512-byte sector, as well as various power optimizations which should make them more energy efficient than first-gen SSD processors.
The controller is available in two different versions, dubbed the SF-2200 and SF-2100, the first featuring native SATA 6Gbps support and sequential read/write performance of up to 500MB/s while the latter has a 3Gbps SATA host interface and read/write performance up to 250 MB/s.
“As with our first-generation product, the new SF-2200 and SF-2100 Client SSD Processors break new ground in terms of reliability, performance, and affordability by optimizing access to the most advanced NAND flash technologies,” said Michael Raam, president and CEO for SandForce.
As far as performance is concerned, AnandTech recently tested an OCZ Vertex 3 Pro drive based on the SF-2200 controller and found that it was capable of reaching sequential read speeds of 371MB/s and write speeds of 413.5MB/s.
The 4K random read/write numbers were also impressive as the drive was able to deliver 330MB/s in write mode and 188.2MB/s when random reads are performed.
SandForce's new SF-2000 consumer grade controllers are expected to become available in a wide range of SSD drives and many manufacturers should launch such solutions during the CeBIT fair.
Until now ADATA, Corsair, Mushkin, OCZ, Patriot have announced solid state disks based on the SF-2000 SSD processor family, but more should follow soon.