AMD Readies Radeon R7 Branded Client SSDs

[btarunr]

AMD's Radeon brand is turning out to be its only hope in capturing high-end gaming PC sales. The brand now covers AMD's high-performance GPUs, system memory modules, and now, client SSDs. The company is giving final touches to three client SSD models in the 2.5-inch SATA form-factor, bearing the Radeon R7 brand, featuring capacities of 120 GB, 240 GB, and 480 GB.

All three feature SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and offer sequential read speeds as high as 550 MB/s, sequential writes of up to 470 MB/s on the 120 GB variant; and up to 530 MB/s on both the 240 GB and 480 GB ones. The three offer 4K random access throughput of up to 85,000 IOPS, 95,000 IOPS, and 100,000 IOPS, respectively; with 4K QD32 steady-state throughput of 12,000 IOPS, 20,000 IOPS, and 23,000 IOPS, respectively. The three are based on OCZ's Indilinx Barefoot 3 processor, driving Toshiba-made 19 nm MLC NAND flash chips. The three will be formally launched on the 13th of August, 2014.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[chinmi]

the spec looks good. I hope it doesn't overheat and loud

 

[Phobia9651]

the spec looks good. I hope it doesn't overheat and loud

These are SSDs not CPUs, so there will not be heat or noise issues to begin with.

 

[lowrider_05]

These are SSDs not CPUs, so there will not be heat or noise issues to begin with.

i think that was sarcasm

 

[Desert_fox]

um a few years late to the game? I like the specs but it seems desperate in a field of over saturation with so many brands can they really make money will remain to be seen. I also hate to see money spent on ram and ssd's when they could be spent on r&d for apu cpu gpu

 

[Desert_fox]

oh the other think im curious about is price point

 

[Relayer]

um a few years late to the game? I like the specs but it seems desperate in a field of over saturation with so many brands can they really make money will remain to be seen. I also hate to see money spent on ram and ssd's when they could be spent on r&d for apu cpu gpu

It doesn't take much R&D to put your brand on something.

 

[Desert_fox]

yea I get that part but there is money spent in marketing production and other aspects but hey if it helps the bottom line and provides more cash for r&d great

 

[v12dock]

Good controller

 

[john_]

um a few years late to the game? I like the specs but it seems desperate in a field of over saturation with so many brands can they really make money will remain to be seen. I also hate to see money spent on ram and ssd's when they could be spent on r&d for apu cpu gpu

I don't think they are chasing money here. What they want to do in the end is to be able to sell an ALL AMD system. A Full Radeon PC.

 

[Massman]

And so they continue to alienate industry partners ...

 

[john_]

And so they continue to alienate industry partners ...

You mean like what Intel did with it's own SSDs?

 

[HumanSmoke]

You mean like what Intel did with it's own SSDs?

Not really the same thing at all. Intel sell their own SSD's with their own controllers. Who else sells Intel controller SSD's?

One other thing to note, Intel was making RAM memory products before every current manufacturer and basically invented the 64-bit SRAM, commercial DRAM, and even NAND traces its origins to Intel's 1702 EPROM.

 

[NC37]

Ummm...so AMD didn't have any better brand name to use than Radeon for SSDs? Really...

"So what shall we call our new SSD venture?"
"I know boss, lets call it Radeon!"
"But we're already using that name for GPUs."
"Thats the beauty of it! People generally like Radeon GPUs but not our other products. If we label it Radeon, it will sell for sure!"
"Ahh! Brilliant!! Make it so!"

 

[john_]

Not really the same thing at all. Intel sell their own SSD's with their own controllers. Who else sells Intel controller SSD's?

One other thing to note, Intel was making RAM memory products before every current manufacturer and basically invented the 64-bit SRAM, commercial DRAM, and even NAND traces its origins to Intel's 1702 EPROM.

Which makes Intel a true competitor to other SSD manufacturers, not like AMD with a couple of rebrands here and there and possibly limited availability (with limited I mean that they are not going to flood the market, or start price wars).

I don't think moves like these are going to make anybody upset enough to say that AMD is alienating from it's industry partners. And AMD's true partners are those who create PCs and laptops and for those to have to talk only to one company for parts instead of 3 or 4 is a plus.

 

[Relayer]

And so they continue to alienate industry partners ...

What? Please tell us all of the partners they've alienated.

 

[Aquinus]

And so they continue to alienate industry partners ...

...or not? Clearly you don't know what benefits there are from producing everything in house. You know another company that can keep prices low and produce a reliable product? Honda. Do you know why Honda is so good at doing what they do? They manufacture the entire car, every part, there in the same facility. It might sound nuts but they can change stuff about cars in production with a turnaround time of a couple hours. I suspect AMD is doing something similar so they produce a full machine strictly with IP that AMD has access to.

There are benefits to diversifying your business.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Ummm...so AMD didn't have any better brand name to use than Radeon for SSDs? Really...

"So what shall we call our new SSD venture?"
"I know boss, lets call it Radeon!"
"But we're already using that name for GPUs."
"Thats the beauty of it! People generally like Radeon GPUs but not our other products. If we label it Radeon, it will sell for sure!"
"Ahh! Brilliant!! Make it so!"

I wondered what was going on, I ordered a Radeon R7 and all i got was this lousy SSD.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Which makes Intel a true competitor to other SSD manufacturers

If it weren't for Intel there would be no SSD manufacturers, so it seems pretty churlish to point them out as cutting out their partners - one of the main ones they are actually physically partnered with. Intel have been selling volatile memory since 1969 so how can they be accused of taking the market away from other vendors....other vendors I might add that killed the traditional DRAM market based in the U.S. (which killed Mostek who had 85% of the market) with chip dumping by Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu, and Toshiba (who developed NAND from EEPROM) in 1981-82 thanks to the Japanese government, their funding, and the fact that they wouldn't honour U.S. companies patents.
Feel free to read up on the subject (PDF)

not like AMD with a couple of rebrands here and there and possibly limited availability (with limited I mean that they are not going to flood the market, or start price wars).

You mean like the current NAND powerhouses of Toshiba and Samsung did to crush the U.S. DRAM industry?

I don't think moves like these are going to make anybody upset enough to say that AMD is alienating from it's industry partners

I don't think so either, but then, I never said otherwise. The AMD branding- just as with the RAM sticks is niche. Not that it matters, DRAM and NAND have been commodity products for years.

I wondered what was going on, I ordered a Radeon R7 and all i got was this lousy SSD.

It's all good. The SSD will retain its value longer than the graphics card - no joke.

 

[btarunr]

Not really the same thing at all. Intel sell their own SSD's with their own controllers. Who else sells Intel controller SSD's?

One other thing to note, Intel was making RAM memory products before every current manufacturer and basically invented the 64-bit SRAM, commercial DRAM, and even NAND traces its origins to Intel's 1702 EPROM.

Intel hasn't put its own controllers in client SSDs since 2010 (SSD 320 series). Its first SATA 6G drives used rebadged Marvell, and its current drives use SandForce.

 

[AsRock]

These are SSDs not CPUs, so there will not be heat or noise issues to begin with.

You be surprised how hot some SSD's get. The casing of my OCZ inside showed heat discoloration on the steel casing.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Intel hasn't put its own controllers in client SSDs since 2010 (SSD 320 series). Its first SATA 6G drives used rebadged Marvell, and its current drives use SandForce.

Thanks for the correction - I haven't purchased an Intel SSD since the 510, so I'm obviously out of touch - one pom-pom down on Intel cheer squad!
I think the argument is still valid at this time. Sandforce don't sell SSD's, and Intel's sales will obviously predate any future involvement from Seagate.

 

[Prima.Vera]

the spec looks good. I hope it doesn't overheat and loud

A coil whine maybe??

 

[AsRock]

A coil whine maybe??

OOh yes all those nano bots working hard, you never heard them ? ha.

 

[Xzibit]

Intel hasn't put its own controllers in client SSDs since 2010 (SSD 320 series). Its first SATA 6G drives used rebadged Marvell, and its current drives use SandForce.

Intel 730 is the only consumer one to currently use one. They designed the controller but outsource the manufacturing of it to which is now Seagate.

All that aside its just branding. Steam Radeon Box ?