14 DAY TRIAL // With every new step forward in the foundry industry, companies do their best to become the first ones to use the new technologies. A company called SMART Storage Systems is taking its turn.
SMART Storage Systems isn't the first one to use 19nm MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips in storage units.
It is, however, the first one that has made a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6Gb/s SSD, or so it claims in its press release.
The drive is called Optimus Eco SSD and uses the 2.5-inch form factor. It is supposedly the “ best combination of performance, capacity, endurance and cost” in an enterprise-class unit of that size.
"This announcement marks the beginning of a new era in flash storage," stated Mike Lakowicz, vice president of sales and marketing at SMART Storage Systems.
"We are bringing the cost effectiveness of 19nm flash to a high performance enterprise SAS SSD platform, without compromising on endurance or reliability. This unprecedented combination will enable storage architects and data center managers to design high performance, high reliable, high available storage systems while reducing costs, and minimizing TCO."
The Optimus Eco SSD comes in 200 GB to 2 TB capacities and can read and write data at up to 500 MB/s.
Meanwhile, the random read and write 4K performance is of 100,000 and 45,000 IOPS, respectively.
What's more, the Eco can be written and overwritten 10 times per day without it suffering all that much wear.
Other features include full data path protection, third-generation backup power circuit technology, data fail recovery, AES 256-bit encryption and thermal monitoring.
So far, only sample shipments of the SMART Storage Systems Optimus Eco are changing hands. The product page is here. Sales will actually begin in June 2013. The 2 TB model will cost $3,999 / €3,999. No clue how much cheaper the 200 GB model will be.