AMD, Toshiba Rumored to be Teaming Up for Branded SSD
It's just a rumor, but so was the Radeon memory at one point.
The rumor that AMD is working on a branded solid state drive shouldn't be all that surprising. After all, the company's line of memory was all just a rumor until AMD revealed its Radeon-branded memory modules back in 2011. Producing an SSD seems like the logical next step.
The latest AMD rumor is that the branded SSD will feature an OCZ controller -- possibly from the Barefoot series -- and Toshiba's own 19 nm NAND memory. Unnamed sources claim that AMD provided the specifications, and that the drive is specially tailored to fit AMD's needs.
AMD is expected to announce the SSD soon, including pricing and the specification for a 120 GB drive and a 240 GB drive. There's speculation that the company isn't trying to compete with Samsung and Intel in the SSD space, but to provide a more attractive, branded bundle. AMD may be focused on value rather than high capacity and high performance.
Toshiba purchased OCZ Technology Group and launched OCZ Storage Solution back in January. The acquisition provides Toshiba with OCZ's enterprise and client SSD businesses, allowing Toshiba to continue manufacturing SSDs using the established OCZ brand. In turn, OCZ Storage Solutions has access to Toshiba's NAND and combines it with the OCZ's proprietary controllers, firmware and software.
"We are very excited to be part of the Toshiba family where we will continue to develop new and unique solid-state storage technologies that position the new entity as a market leader," said Ralph Schmitt, CEO for OCZ Storage Solutions. "With Toshiba's financial strength and portfolio of leading-edge NAND flash memory, OCZ is now in an advantageous position."
For now, take all this branded SSD talk with a grain of salt. We reached out to AMD for more information, but the company will not comment on rumored products. Honestly, it wouldn't be surprising if the rumor was true. A Radeon SSD would make a great addition to any AMD-based bundle.
Yep, with shoddy, inefficient, unreliable, and underperforming products. Seems legit!
Yep, with shoddy, inefficient, unreliable, and underperforming products. Seems legit!
While we cannot say this for sure both OCZ and Toshiba have not been having the best streak of luck recently with reliability. I have had OCZ SSDs just stop detecting in systems (a lot of them) and the newer Toshiba 7mm HDDs were dying faster than any others out there.
I hope AMD does not get that kind of quality as it will tarnish the brand more than anything.
I also don't see AMD dropping prices. OCZ was already a cheaper alternative to Samsung and Intel but as well they were considered lower end. You pay for that reliability and superior NAND quality with Intel/Samsung/Corsair/Plextor. SSD prices will drop as they become more common, larger sizes and higher density NAND from smaller process sizes become more widely available.
That said, I dont think this would help AMD in their economic situation. Sure they are gaining market share and finally turning a profit, but this would most likely just end up like most other AMD venues where they either break even every year or lose money. however its good to see them expand their market, AMD is slowly but steadily getting everywhere.
They have newer MLC Z-Drive 4500, PCI-Express slot, 3.2TB $6,533, 1.6TB $3,806 and 800GB $2,355. The drives offers endurance of 2.5PB, and random read times of 252,000 IOPS (I/O per second) and random write times of up to 76,000 IOPS.
They come with bundled SW,Windows Accelerator and OCZ’s VXL virtualization
read more here;
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2104420/toshibas-ocz-cranks-up-speed-on-new-32tb-solid-state-drives.html
Enough out dated FUD
http://ocz.com/consumer/support/warranty:
They have newer MLC Z-Drive 4500, PCI-Express slot, 3.2TB $6,533, 1.6TB $3,806 and 800GB $2,355. The drives offers endurance of 2.5PB, and random read times of 252,000 IOPS (I/O per second) and random write times of up to 76,000 IOPS.
They come with bundled SW,Windows Accelerator and OCZ’s VXL virtualization
read more here;
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2104420/toshibas-ocz-cranks-up-speed-on-new-32tb-solid-state-drives.html
Enough out dated FUD
Because the average consumer is purchasing a $2,000 enterprise edition ssd? Enterprise hardware is designed to last since it isn't worth the risk to save $200, but lose a client.
"OCZ Storage Solutions is unable to provide any warranty support for the following legacy and end of life “OCZ Technology” products that were discontinued over the past year or prior: solid state drives from the following families, Core, Apex, Solid, Solid 2, Solid 3, Colossus, IBIS, Enyo, Nocti, Synapse, Octane S2, Octane S3, Onyx, Petrol, and RevoDrive Hybrid"
Intel SSD's are made by PQI memory. Not exactly in house.
Riddle me this; why do you see so many Macbooks go back for repairs? Simple, because of their Toshiba hard drives! Who makes the cheapest hard drives? Toshiba. Who makes the cheaper chipset? AMD.
Looks like I WON'T be getting my hands on these!
There is literally no reason for AMD to brand an SSD, their branded RAM is silly enough already.
Intel SSD's are made by PQI memory. Not exactly in house.
That is not true. Their SSDs use Intel/Micron 20nm (for the latest SSDs) NAND. Intel and Micron have been working together for quite a while on NAND.
Their controller is either their own or a SandForce.
Riddle me this; why do you see so many Macbooks go back for repairs? Simple, because of their Toshiba hard drives! Who makes the cheapest hard drives? Toshiba. Who makes the cheaper chipset? AMD.
Looks like I WON'T be getting my hands on these!
Actually, the reason why so many Macbooks go back for repairs is the users themselves. Have you seen how most Apple users treat their products? When they're being told they're "perfect" and nothing can go wrong with them, most users treat them like crap. Try dropping any laptop with a running hard drive over and over and see how long the hard drive lasts, regardless of brand. Not saying that Toshiba hard drives may not be of lower quality, but that it's the user base itself in that case.