View Full Version : Western Digital announces its Solid State Drive Lineup
Quoted From the Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/16/wds_own_ssds/
The SiliconDrive III family succeeds the SiliconDrive II product set, and feature faster read/write speeds, increased capacities and offer mechanical scalability. WD says they are meant for embedded system and data streaming applications, such as multimedia content delivery systems and data centre media appliances.
The product range includes 2.5in Serial ATA (Sata) and parallel ATA (PATA) and 1.8in Micro Sata products, featuring native Sata 3Gb/s or ATA-7 interfaces with target read speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speeds up to 80MB/s, in capacities up to 120GB.
WD Official Link with Spec sheets:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=623
Judging from the speeds, sounds awfully like they are using Samsung controllers already in the existing market SSDs like the Corsairs
ExodusC
06-16-2009, 08:52 AM
Definitely will have to be used for embedded systems, standard desktop SSDs perform at much higher speeds (unless these drives are priced much lower).
Smartidiot89
06-16-2009, 08:56 AM
Definitely will have to be used for embedded systems, standard desktop SSDs perform at much higher speeds (unless these drives are priced much lower).
So when will someone step up and offer lower prices on SSDs anyways:confused: $1/GB is all I ask for:D
Levish
06-16-2009, 08:57 AM
100/80MBsec read/writes are still faster than a Raptor most of the time, I'm guessing these are samsung controller based so no stuttering and you still get the .1-.2ms access times of most SSD's
just because they aren't faster (or even as fast as) doesn't make them worthless just that they are likely more catered to what will eventually be the maintstream of SSD's
ExodusC
06-16-2009, 09:00 AM
100/80MBsec read/writes are still faster than a Raptor most of the time, I'm guessing these are samsung controller based so no stuttering and you still get the .1-.2ms access times of most SSD's
just because they aren't faster (or even as fast as) doesn't make them worthless just that they are likely more catered to what will eventually be the maintstream of SSD's
No one claimed they were worthless. All I said was that if these are offered at the same price as current generation SSDs, they won't cut it. They'll need to be around half the price of current SSDs to be a more viable option. I am assuming that the 2.5" drives perform somewhat like the 1.8" drives, as it seems WD released no real numbers on that. I just have a feeling these first generation drives probably won't outperform a Vertex/Falcon or an X25-M.
Its only one family of drives though...
WD has the green/blue/black marketing system, so for all we know Black Drives may be announced later for the enthusiest crowd. Green SSDs might be used for netbooks/laptops, while Blue drives might be what they just announced. Even with 100/80 speeds, the advantage comes from access times. I definitely think that these will be great to drive the price of the SSD market down. WD wants big market share and the easiest way to get in and do that is probably be price.
Just buy a controller and get 4 or 8 of these if they are around $1-$2/GB :D
Telperion
06-16-2009, 10:24 AM
Keep in mind older MTRON drives have these same specs and they're still just as fast as many newer drives because of solid performance and better random reads/writes. These are enterprise class drives being adapted for consumer use, not crappy flash with crappy controllers being shoehorned into a performance part.
duploxxx
06-16-2009, 10:43 AM
at least we are getting volume all over the place from different vendors, that is what we need to drop those prices.
even if its not the best performance it would still be very usefull in laptops or netbooks.
PrometheusCon
06-16-2009, 10:56 AM
So when will someone step up and offer lower prices on SSDs anyways:confused: $1/GB is all I ask for:D
Amen to that. I would be willing to pay that price. :)
Helmore
06-16-2009, 10:56 AM
Judging from the speeds, sounds awfully like they are using Samsung controllers already in the existing market SSDs like the Corsairs
I'd say these are controllers from SiliconSystems, as WD purchased them a couple of months ago. (http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/30/western-digital-enters-ssd-market-via-65m-siliconsystems-acquis/)
the company's acquired SiliconSystems and -- a short trip down the road to Damascus later -- it's announcing the SiliconDrive III product range. SiliconSystems' meat and potatoes were heavy hitters in such industries as communications, aerospace, and military, and it seems that WD's new range will continue to target these markets. (http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/16/western-digital-recants-announces-its-silicondrive-iii-range-of/)
In other words, they are not really meant for the average consumer.
One_Hertz
06-16-2009, 10:58 AM
AFAIK this is their own controller, not a Samsung. That's why silicone systems was worth like 60mil when WD bought it.
orangekiwii
06-16-2009, 01:16 PM
interested to see how well it performs though in small read/write :)
RaZz!
06-16-2009, 01:26 PM
i'd take a slower enterprise class wd ssd over other ssds with crap controller and flash everyday.
wd drives are always of high quality. maybe that's also why it took them so long to get on the ssd wagon. they just wanted to make it right. hopefully they made it right. waiting for benchmarks and reviews on these :)
gatecrasherlok
06-16-2009, 01:58 PM
Finally Western Digital joined the SSd frey. Thsi will certainly be interesting for us consumers who want the best and I dont think anyone would argue with WD's reputation of storage heritage.
Helmore
06-16-2009, 02:14 PM
i'd take a slower enterprise class wd ssd over other ssds with crap controller and flash everyday.
wd drives are always of high quality. maybe that's also why it took them so long to get on the ssd wagon. they just wanted to make it right. hopefully they made it right. waiting for benchmarks and reviews on these :)
You have to consider the target market though, which probably makes these a bit out of our price range.
WD doesn't say how much these things cost. However, it's purportedly aiming the drives at the "network-communications, industrial, embedded-computing, medical, military and aerospace markets." Since all of these SSDs also have five-year warranty coverage, they could end up out of the reach of consumers seeking affordable storage upgrades for their laptops. (http://techreport.com/discussions.x/17079)A 5 year warranty is nice though.
Boogerlad
06-16-2009, 02:22 PM
Keep in mind older MTRON drives have these same specs and they're still just as fast as many newer drives because of solid performance and better random reads/writes. These are enterprise class drives being adapted for consumer use, not crappy flash with crappy controllers being shoehorned into a performance part.
do you have any benches of atto 4kb random read/write or iometer? I haven't found any benches unfortunately.
gatecrasherlok
06-16-2009, 02:29 PM
You have to consider the target market though, which probably makes these a bit out of our price range.
A 5 year warranty is nice though.
I pretty much agree with what you say except WD is probably viewed as a newcomer to the already vastly populated SSD market. I think WD is unlikely to price this out of most peoples budget really. With the current economic decline I'm sure WD is brave in venturing into this humid market. What they have is a great reputation among all target markets. To really make an impact I think they will price this reasonably.
NapalmV5
06-16-2009, 04:50 PM
we need seagate/hitachi to come up with/buy out controller companies and maybe more bearable ssd prices on the way
clayton
06-16-2009, 07:40 PM
I need a SSD so bad right now. Sims 3 loads so slow with many custom item installed.
clayton
06-16-2009, 07:41 PM
*lagged and double post*
gumballguy
06-16-2009, 08:51 PM
wd drives are always of high quality. maybe that's also why it took them so long to get on the ssd wagon. they just wanted to make it right. hopefully they made it right. waiting for benchmarks and reviews on these :)
Actually I think you'll find both WD and seagate were in denial about the limited sales-life left for mechanical drives, and now WD is getting its act together before it is cut so far out of the market that it can't make it back in. They will still face a tough track because of the volume of competitors, but it's either that or the company would be destined to die.
A 5 year warranty is nice though.
It probably wont make much difference with drives of this size. Until they hit 500gb (just a rough number, dont focus on it) theyre not going to be used for long term storage. Lets face it - in two to three years you'd replace it for a drive thats both fast and large. So paying more right now doesnt seem good. One exception, is that if they had 3 years now, they wouldn't be likely to upgrade to 5 years later. So we might as well let the suckers pay the extra now and capitalise on their policy later when it matters ;)
I think you guys will cease to acknowledge this drives existance when drives at sata600 speeds come out. Which is not that far off (affordability being something else... but still destined to be reasonable in <5 years or so). Not that WD won't release better drives in the future, only good things can come of this.
Shintai
06-16-2009, 11:39 PM
SSDs dont need to be faster in raw transfer than HDs to be alot faster. Its mainly seek time thats the key. plus your HD is usually down to some 5MB/sec or less under random I/O.
Helmore
06-17-2009, 01:45 AM
I pretty much agree with what you say except WD is probably viewed as a newcomer to the already vastly populated SSD market. I think WD is unlikely to price this out of most peoples budget really. With the current economic decline I'm sure WD is brave in venturing into this humid market. What they have is a great reputation among all target markets. To really make an impact I think they will price this reasonably.
A newcomer? This is their third generation product into a market where they are one of the biggest players. You have to consider that they are simply continuing SiliconSystems' operations under WD's name and SiliconSystems is pretty big in the market it works in, which are the network-communications, industrial, embedded-computing, medical, military and aerospace markets.
Chickenfeed
06-17-2009, 02:13 AM
SSDs dont need to be faster in raw transfer than HDs to be alot faster. Its mainly seek time thats the key. plus your HD is usually down to some 5MB/sec or less under random I/O.
This is true :)
Bo_Fox
06-19-2009, 11:43 PM
Damn, who would've thought of SSD's being relased on P-ATA interface?!?
Just like AGP still being alive after 5 years of PCI-E, with HD 4770's possibly being released in AGP format by one company sometime this year, old interfaces just do not die. Long live FLOPPY!!!! :D
DragoonXX
06-20-2009, 12:38 AM
even ~1.25/GB would be bearable...ehh maybe another year or two from now
tiro_uspsss
06-20-2009, 12:47 AM
the 1.8" products are interesting... isnt that the size standard used in HDD vid-cams? mmm.. I wonder... :D
haylui
06-20-2009, 06:19 PM
i don't want hard disk that could only write up to certain of times then dies off
MentholMoose
06-20-2009, 08:22 PM
Damn, who would've thought of SSD's being relased on P-ATA interface?!?
Just like AGP still being alive after 5 years of PCI-E, with HD 4770's possibly being released in AGP format by one company sometime this year, old interfaces just do not die. Long live FLOPPY!!!! :D
Actually I'm really anxious for a decently fast and relatively cheap PATA SSD. I think an SSD will let me get a couple more years out of my Thinkpad T42p. :)
inmytaxi
06-20-2009, 11:19 PM
So when will someone step up and offer lower prices on SSDs anyways:confused: $1/GB is all I ask for:D
Hopefully the price of SSDs drops before the dollar tanks, otherwise Americans will never be able to afford them.
Enjoy being in a country with cutting edge tech while it lasts.
Levish
06-22-2009, 08:03 AM
i don't want hard disk that could only write up to certain of times then dies off
MLC is 10,000 times write cycles. Realistically would you ever come across the situation where you would completely fill / empty your drive that many times?
Cyber-Mav
06-22-2009, 08:31 AM
and i thought my pata laptop would be dead since i cant get a reasonable sized ssd for it. looks like wd to the rescue for my travelmate.
Sparky
06-22-2009, 09:18 AM
MLC is 10,000 times write cycles. Realistically would you ever come across the situation where you would completely fill / empty your drive that many times?
With the PC doing random reads/writes and swapfile stuff and defragging and whatnot you could be surprised how many writes a typical HD sees in its lifetime. I'm not saying I know for sure, because I don't, but it wouldn't surprise me if some areas of drives got hit with thousands of writes.
Manicdan
06-22-2009, 09:30 AM
With the PC doing random reads/writes and swapfile stuff and defragging and whatnot you could be surprised how many writes a typical HD sees in its lifetime. I'm not saying I know for sure, because I don't, but it wouldn't surprise me if some areas of drives got hit with thousands of writes.
a good controller will move things around so they are all used evenly, while this technology is very new, i dont believe any company plans on releasing a HD that will fail in mass quantities in the next 2-3 years. and im not sure but i think these are safer than regular HDDs since they can detect a failure before saving the info and put it to a new section. if theres one thing i hate its having a HDD get corruption and i have to reformat the whole thing
Helmore
06-22-2009, 10:11 AM
a good controller will move things around so they are all used evenly, while this technology is very new, i dont believe any company plans on releasing a HD that will fail in mass quantities in the next 2-3 years. and im not sure but i think these are safer than regular HDDs since they can detect a failure before saving the info and put it to a new section. if theres one thing i hate its having a HDD get corruption and i have to reformat the whole thing
Especially not this drive, as they cover it with a 5 year warranty.
i would think that having the swap file in some non SSD drive would be inteligent ? or would it just things slow donw terribly ? (in a system with tons of ram :P )
pd: still waiting for an affordable 128/256 gb good ssd for notebooks
Manicdan
06-22-2009, 11:36 AM
Especially not this drive, as they cover it with a 5 year warranty.
5 years is way to long for HDDs, 5 years ago i think 120GB drives were the cool thing, and sata was just starting. in 5 years when this does fail, we will be talking about mainstream SSDs Gb/s not Mb/s.