14 DAY TRIAL // The SandForce controller is the most popular part of its kind currently on the market, as is obvious from the many solid state drives based on it that have been launched over the past few months. Nevertheless, it is not the only solution and can even be said to have a close competitor, in terms of performance. Said competitor was created by Marvell and has now shown up as a component of the A-Data S501 SSD.
The S501 is A-Data's first solid state drive, designed for the SATA 6.0Gbps connection, but it is not exactly the first of its kind. In fact, Lexar Media launched such a device back in February, under the name of RealSSD C300. This unit's performance is comparable with that of A-Data's new offspring, though the target user base may not be the same.
The S501 is constructed out of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND Flash memory chips and boasts a cache memory of 128MB. The Marvell controller is able to utilize these resources to push read and write speeds to 350MB/s and 200MB/s, respectively. This capability should be able to provide any enthusiast-grade system with a noticeable boost in loading time, though marketing plans may interfere with this possibility.
To be more specific, according to HEXUS, this product isn't exactly meant for the consumer segment, being better suited for the enterprise market, in applications such as data centers and servers.
Regardless of the market segments it will be meant for, end-users will have to wait a while before getting a chance to buy A-Data's new storage unit, though exact pricing and availability details have not been disclosed. When shipments do start, however, variety, at the very least, won't be an issue, as there will be 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and even 512GB versions on shelves.