OCZ officially unveiled its Z-Drive.
This is a SSD in a PCI-Express format, available in 3 versions:
- 250 GB: max. reading and writing performance: 450 Mb/s and 300 MB/s, respectively
- 500 GB: max. reading and writing performance: 510 Mb/s and 480 MB/s, respectively
- 1 TB: max. reading and writing performance: 500 Mb/s and 470 MB/s, respectively
All models sport 256 MB of cache to improve data transfer speed when reading/writing small files.
OCZ is not the only manufacturer to offer such devices as the PCI-Express format has several advantages:
- Larger size gives room for larger storage space, unlike the 1.8 or 2.5" SSD.
- The current SATA interface tops around 300 MB/s, while the PCI-Express higher speed.
- One can add RAID controller to further improve performance.
It is currently difficult to predict if such devices will survive to the forthcoming SATA III format (600 MB/s) and to higher density memory chips, but for sure its current prices does not target mass market for those PCI-Express SSDs: 1,400 € for the 250 GB model and around 3,500 € for hte high-end 1 TB unit...
