SandForce

The SandForce SF3000 series has become the unicorn of the SSD industry. For the past two years there has been a lot of hype about the new controller, but Seagate/SandForce has kept missing deadlines one after the other. Initially the third generation SandForce controller was supposed to ship in mid-2014, but obviously that didn't happen. Next we heard Q4'15, which was then changed to mid-2015 and the latest word I got at Computex is expected mass production in Q4'15, meaning that we could see first products shipping in early 2016. The SF3500 package is considerably smaller than the SF3700 The original paper launch back in late 2013 only included the SF3700 lineup, which was first supposed to cater all markets from entry-level client to enterprise...

Mushkin Announces First 480GB mSATA SSD

We're seeing a true shift in the mobile market to including SSDs in more of the market spectrum. What was once the domain of $1500+ laptops is now being...

27 by Jarred Walton on 12/6/2012

SandForce TRIM Issue & Corsair Force Series GS (240GB) Review

SandForce and TRIM—that has always been a tricky combination. SandForce SSDs have always behaved a bit differently when tortured and TRIM'ed due to their internal design. When a non-SandForce...

56 by Kristian Vättö on 11/22/2012

Intel SSD 335 (240GB) Review

Back in February, Intel released its first SandForce based SSD: the Intel SSD 520. Since then Intel's SSD lineup has evolved. A couple of months after the 520's release...

70 by Kristian Vättö on 10/29/2012

The Intel SSD 330 Review (60GB, 120GB, 180GB)

Earlier this year Intel introduced its second SandForce based SSD: the Intel SSD 330. While Intel had previously reserved the 5xx line for 3rd party controllers, the 330 marks...

64 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 8/1/2012

OWC Releases 960GB Mercury Electra MAX 3G SSD

OWC has released a 960GB version of their Mercury Electra 3G SSD series. The drive uses two SandForce SF-2181 controllers, configured in RAID 0 using Silicon Image's RAID controller...

20 by Kristian Vättö on 6/25/2012

Intel Discovers SandForce SF-2281 Controller Can't Do AES-256 Encryption, Offers Return Program

Although SandForce's SF-2281 controller has been shipping for well over a year at this point, it took Intel to discover a bug in the controller that prevents it from...

45 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/11/2012

SandForce Demos 19nm Toshiba & 20nm IMFT NAND Flash

SandForce's controllers have fairly broad compatibility with NAND available on the market today. It shouldn't be a surprise that the first demo we saw of Toshiba's 19nm and Intel/Micron's...

20 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/8/2012

ADATA XPG SX900 (128GB) Review: Maximizing SandForce Capacity

SandForce sets aside more NAND capacity than most controllers for spare area. While Intel, Marvell, Samsung and others default to ~7% of total NAND capacity for spare area, SandForce...

58 by Kristian Vättö on 6/8/2012

OCZ Releases Low Profile Version of Vertex 3

OCZ has added a low profile version of the Vertex 3 to their SSD portfolio. The drive has a height of 7mm, which is 2.5mm slimmer than most 2.5"...

28 by Kristian Vättö on 5/18/2012

Intel SSD 330 Officially Announced: Affordable SandForce

We reported on Intel's SSD 330 weeks ago, but today is the official announcement of the drive and its availability in the channel. Unlike previous 300 series drives, the...

75 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/16/2012

Kingston HyperX 3K (240GB) SSD Review

With OCZ intent on moving as much volume to its in-house Indilinx controllers as possible, SandForce (now LSI) needed to expand to additional partners. OCZ has strong control over...

44 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/10/2012

LSI's Nytro MegaRAID Brings SSD Caching to SAS RAID Cards

At the beginning of the year LSI completed the acquisition of SandForce, the SSD controller maker we've been covering extensively since its arrival on the scene in late 2009...

4 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/2/2012

ADATA Releases Three SSDs - Maximizing The Capacity of SandForce Drives

ADATA has released three new SSD lineups: XPG SX900, Premier Pro SP900, and Premier SP800. XPG is ADATA's high-end brand aimed at gamers and enthusiasts and SX900 is the...

32 by Kristian Vättö on 2/25/2012

Intel SSD 520 Review: Cherryville Brings Reliability to SandForce

Intel was rumored to be working on a SandForce based drive for several months now, but even the rumors couldn't encapsulate just how long Intel and SF has worked...

139 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/6/2012

Kingston's SSDNow V+200: More Affordable SandForce

Last year Kingston introduced its HyperX line of SF-2281 based SSDs. HyperX marked the first time SandForce and Kingston ever worked together but the relationship continued. Kingston quietly introduced...

13 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/19/2012

Some Thoughts on SandForce's 3rd Generation SSD Controller

I spent a few minutes talking to SandForce in between meetings today and got a general idea of what a third generation SF controller might look like. The SandForce...

14 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/12/2012

The LSI SandForce Acquisition: Anand's Thoughts

I'd almost given up hope that someone would acquire SandForce. After taking so long to fix the infamous BSOD issue and our own interests beginning to shift away to...

22 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/2/2011

LSI Announces Agreement to Acquire SandForce

For much of the past year I've been hearing SandForce wanted to be bought. The price? $300M - $400M. A bit too rich for OCZ's blood, but a figure...

27 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/26/2011

SandForce Identifies Firmware Bug Causing BSOD Issue, Fix Available Today

After months of end user complaints, SandForce has finally duplicated, verified and provided a fix for the infamous BSOD/disconnect issue that affected SF-2200 based SSDs. The root cause is...

31 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/17/2011

OWC Releases 6Gb/s SSD Upgrades for 2011 MacBook Air

OWC has released SSD upgrades suitable for Apple's MacBook Air (our 2011 review). The SSDs are branded as Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G and come in capacities of 120GB...

8 by Kristian Vättö on 9/16/2011

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