Tuesday, April 6th 2010
OCZ Technology Launches Next Generation Z-Drive R2 PCI-Express Solid State Drive
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), announces the Company's plan to enter mass production of the Z-Drive R2 Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, the second rendition of the original Z-Drive family. The Z-Drive R2 builds on the existing solution but provides greater performance and design flexibility due to the implementation of a series of optimized NAND modules.
"Our 4th generation PCIe SSD, the Z-Drive R2, tackles the performance challenges facing enterprise IT professionals head-on" said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "The Z-Drive R2 is a total solution that delivers exceptional performance over a wide of range of applications due to its superior sequential performance, making it a winner in both high IOP and high-throughput environments. In addition, it is the only bootable and field serviceable PCIe SSD option on the market today, and due to an innovative interchangeable module design, it enables low cost field upgradability and capacity increases giving storage architects unprecedented flexibility."The innovative Z-Drive R2 SSD maximizes bandwidth by taking the SATA bottleneck out of the equation and utilizes the speed advantages of the PCI-Express interface. Unlike competing solutions, the Z-Drive family is bootable and with 8 PCI-E lanes and an eight-way1 RAID 0 configuration, the R2 delivers performance ideal for enterprise applications that are limited by HDD technology. What also makes the R2 especially exceptional is the use of interchangeable modules in the place of permanent, surface-mounted NAND; this unique feature-set is designed to make the Z-Drive field-serviceable and field-upgradeable.
Addressing the emerging performance demands of storage area networks (SANs), workstations, and servers, the Z-Drive R2 creates new possibilities in enterprise data management. The R2 delivers extremely fast transfer rates up to 1.4 GB/s, while offering enhanced reliability and durability compared to mechanical hard drives.
Promoting greater productivity for a broad range of applications spanning across virtualization, caching, and high-end storage, the Z-Drive R2 can also provide cost savings when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO) versus complex and hard to maintain HDD infrastructures. With capacities ranging from 256GB to 2TB, the R2 makes SSDs a viable alternative to large, power-consuming hard drive arrays. Furthermore, OCZ offers customization options for OEM clients that may require tailored hardware or firmware solutions for their business.
"Our 4th generation PCIe SSD, the Z-Drive R2, tackles the performance challenges facing enterprise IT professionals head-on" said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "The Z-Drive R2 is a total solution that delivers exceptional performance over a wide of range of applications due to its superior sequential performance, making it a winner in both high IOP and high-throughput environments. In addition, it is the only bootable and field serviceable PCIe SSD option on the market today, and due to an innovative interchangeable module design, it enables low cost field upgradability and capacity increases giving storage architects unprecedented flexibility."The innovative Z-Drive R2 SSD maximizes bandwidth by taking the SATA bottleneck out of the equation and utilizes the speed advantages of the PCI-Express interface. Unlike competing solutions, the Z-Drive family is bootable and with 8 PCI-E lanes and an eight-way1 RAID 0 configuration, the R2 delivers performance ideal for enterprise applications that are limited by HDD technology. What also makes the R2 especially exceptional is the use of interchangeable modules in the place of permanent, surface-mounted NAND; this unique feature-set is designed to make the Z-Drive field-serviceable and field-upgradeable.
Addressing the emerging performance demands of storage area networks (SANs), workstations, and servers, the Z-Drive R2 creates new possibilities in enterprise data management. The R2 delivers extremely fast transfer rates up to 1.4 GB/s, while offering enhanced reliability and durability compared to mechanical hard drives.
Promoting greater productivity for a broad range of applications spanning across virtualization, caching, and high-end storage, the Z-Drive R2 can also provide cost savings when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO) versus complex and hard to maintain HDD infrastructures. With capacities ranging from 256GB to 2TB, the R2 makes SSDs a viable alternative to large, power-consuming hard drive arrays. Furthermore, OCZ offers customization options for OEM clients that may require tailored hardware or firmware solutions for their business.
25 Comments on OCZ Technology Launches Next Generation Z-Drive R2 PCI-Express Solid State Drive
price is going to be the killer.
But i think it has the same pricetag as a middelclass car. :banghead:
www.tomshardware.com/news/ocz-colossus-ssd-3.5-1tb,9116.html
www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227499
Personally, I haven't seen 8x lane slot even on server boards. It will most likely be used in 16x lane slot.
Besides Quadros and other GPGPU, most cards (SAS/RAID/NIC controllers) are x4 or x8.
Here's a pic:
When they first came out - and for some time afterwards - they had major random read/write issues, causing stuttering and latency that was worse than an old 5400 SATA mechanical drive.
With like any marketing, they boasted about the burst speeds but never told you the negative stuff - reminds me of desktop monitors.
However Intel's series managed to actually address random seek/write speeds, and I wonder if that's why they were the most expensive (and still are fairly costly). Corsair dropped a few models on us, and they were terrible.
It's been a year or so since then? I've considered SSD in a new system, however while initially I was looking at the technology for the random seek/write speeds, to reduce drive lag and stuttering, I'm now resigned to the idea the SSD would just make my overall user experience a bit more snappy, but not necessarily awesome.
Obviously, manufacturers are aware of this, but whether they've actually made noticeable leaps and bounds, is what I need to figure out.
This PCI Express method turns the whole thing on it's head for me.
I'm hoping Intel is going to be putting out new SSD drives this summer like they did last summer. If they do I'm hoping for 160 GB for about $250, then I'll buy one and try it out.
I know the Intel ones are good in about every way. If you really want to read up on them goto Anandtech. He does good reviews of SSDs, and has found several issues with them in the past.
The P84 is available in the UK for £3500.
While the top of the line p88 is listed for $8,941.79
from ocz site
OCZ Z-DRIVE R2 M84 PCI-EXPRESS SSD
Part Numbers
256GB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2M84256G
512GB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2M84512G
1TB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2M841T
OCZ Z-DRIVE R2 P84 PCI-EXPRESS SSD
Part Numbers
256GB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2P84256G
512GB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2P84512G
1TB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2P841T
OCZ Z-DRIVE R2 P88 PCI-EXPRESS SSD
Part Numbers
512GB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2P88512G
1TB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2P881T
2TB - OCZSSDPX-ZD2P882T
10K for a piece. Sick even considering parts and R&D
Price and all aside, that's one hell of a technological achievement.