DDRdrive releases superfast, superexpensive SSD
You've heard that solid-state drives, such as the Intel X-25M, are significantly faster than traditional hard drives. However, they are still nowhere near as fast as the DDRdrive X1 introduced on Monday.
The DDRdrive X1
(Credit: DDRdrive)This is the first storage device I've seen that comes in the form of an expansion card. At a glance, it looks very much like a video card or a modem and it is compatible with any PCIe expansion slot.
Unlike other SSDs that use a flash memory called NAND, the X1 uses two types of memory: NAND and DRAM. The latter is commonly used as system memory. DRAM (or RAM in generally) is very fast; however, information stored in RAM is volatile and is destroyed when the computer is powered off. This is where the NAND part of the X1 comes into play by retaining the information when the computer is not in operation.
The drive has the same amount of DRAM as it has of NAND, which is only 4GB. This combination is designed for optimum input/output operations per second and, according to DDRdrive, the X1 indeed offers superfast performance and can be backed up or restored in its entirety in less than a minute.
The fact that you can get thumbdrives with 8GB or more might seem to lessen the appeal of the 4GB X1. The drive, however, is made for special applications such as databases or those that require performance above all else.
Somebody must really need the performance to be willing to buy the X1. With a price of almost $1,500, it has by far the highest dollar-per-gigabyte figure I've seen: more than $370. In the case of the Intel X-25M or most other SSDs currently on the market, you'll pay only about $4 per gigabyte of storage.
To DDRdrive's credit, the X1 does come with a five-year warranty and is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions.
Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong. 
On a side note the idea of using RAM for storage is not new, although this does seem to be well implemented version. I always thought the best way to enjoy the speed benefits of RAM as a hard drive were in lite Linux distributions, like Puppy Linux, where even on slower systems opening programs is nearly instantaneous. Unfortunately these distributions are often too spartan for an everyday working environment.
If anything, you're probably referring to the generous amount of cache given on the Vertex. If you ask me, I think it's your fanboyism or need for instant gratification that made you sound like an idiot with your erroneous comment that hardly contributed anything at all.
Oh, if you're so happy about your device's performance, fill it up to about 90+% capacity, and then try running your benchmarks again :)
Of course, before that happens we're going to have to improve our SSD technology, starting with following Intel's example with the MLC drives and making SLC drives more cost effective.
- by DDRdriveLLC May 11, 2009 10:41 AM PDT
- Clarifications from the CTO of DDRdrive LLC:
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(10 Comments)The DDRdrive X1 was singularly designed to target IOPS intensive applications while setting a new standard in performance, power, and price.
In other words, a product exclusively targeted for the enterprise market, i.e. not the consumer market.
What's the difference? Simply IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second).
The DDRdrive X1 is the highest performing (300,000+ IOPS), most power efficient (30,000+IOPS/W and lowest price (0.005 $/IOPS) internal storage device in existence.
For a significant class of applications (database tables, indices, and transaction logs) that are capacity constrained, we are an extremely potent and unique solution.
The drive for speed,
Christopher George
Founder/CTO
DDRdrive LLC
www.ddrdrive.com