Aug 10, 2011 08:43 GMT  ·  By

EDGE, a US-based supplier of DRAM and flash memory upgrades, has just announced the introduction of two new series of solid state drives based on SandForce SSD processors, which can deliver transfer speeds up to 550MB/s.

The fastest of the two SSD series is called the EDGE Boost Pro and this is based on the SandForce SF-2281 controller, which features native SATA 6Gbps support.

Thanks to the fast storage interface used, this solid state drive is able to achieve, according to the manufacturer at least, sequential read speeds as high as 550MB/s, while sequential writes are rated at 515MB/s.

Furthermore, the strong sequential speeds are also accompanied by an impressive random 4K read performance rated at 85,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second).

The second drive series to be announced, the EDGE Boost, is powered by the first generation SandForce SF-1222 SSD processor, which is limited at supporting SATA 3Gbps speeds.

As a result, the drive can achieve sequential read and write speeds of 285MB/s and 275 MB/s, respectively, while 4K read random performance is rated at 50,000 IOPS.

As is the case with all SandForce-based drives, the EDGE Boost Pro and EDGE Boost series support the DuraClass and DuraWrite technologies as well as the TRIM command.

“SandForce Inc. is a known innovator of SSD controllers”, says Simon Crossley, EDGE VP of Sales.

“As a SandForce Driven partner, we are extremely excited to offer our customers an SSD product line with unsurpassed reliability and performance, and power efficiency that differentiate SandForce-based SSDs from other SSD products,” continued the company's rep.

Both the 3Gbps EDGE Boost and 6Gbps Boost Pro solid state drives are now available for purchase. Pricing for the Boost Pro starts at $118.88 for the 60GB drive and reaches $848.88 for the 480GB unit. Its slower brother, the EDGE Boost starts at $104.95 (40GB SSD), while the 480GB model is listed at $909.95.