During the Flash Memory Summit 2012 in Santa Clara, CA, PNY said it launched a new lineup of high-performance SSDs for the consumer and enterprise sectors. The XLR8 Series includes three XLR8 Pro and three XLR8 Solid State Drives designed for consumer use, and the PNY Prevail Series includes two Prevail Elite and three Prevail SSDs designed for workstation use.
On the consumer front, the mid and entry-level PNY XLR8 Series features a 2.5-inch form factor, a SATA 3 (6 Gbps) interface and support for 128-bit AES encryption and specifications. Overall the XLR8 line offers up to 550 MB/s sequential read speeds, 520 MB/s sequential write speeds, 85,000 random read/write IOPS, and capacities of 480 GB, 240 GB, and 120 GB.
Consumers who purchase an XLR8 120 GB SSD will also receive a bonus PNY 32 GB Compact Attaché USB Flash Drive, the company said.
So what's the difference between the Pro and standard versions? As an example, the $149.99 XLR8 120 GB SSD features a SandForce 2241 controller and cranks out up to 500 MB/s read speeds, up to 450 MB/s write speeds, and up to 60,000 random read/write IOPS. The $169.99 XLR8 Pro version features the SandForce 2281 controller, and provides up to 550 MB/s read speeds, up to 515 MB/s write speeds, and up to 85,000 random read/write IOPS.
Currently pricing for the three XLR8 drives are $149.99 (120 GB), $259.99 (240 GB) and $579.99 (480 GB). Pricing for the XLR8 Pro Series is $169.99 (120 GB), $329.99 (240 GB) and $679.99 (480 GB).
On the enterprise front, the PNY Prevail Series is designed for enterprise class performance and endurance, offering low power operation and a flash endurance rating of up to 10K Program/Erase cycles. The drives feature a 2.5-inch form factor, a SATA 3 interface, and high endurance flash for running multiple applications and operating systems faster. There's also support for 128-bit AES encryption and Secure Erase.
As with the consumer line, PNY offers two versions of this specific series: Prevail (standard) and Prevail Elite. The series on a whole is based on the SandForce 2200 family of controllers, offering up to 550 MB/s sequential read speeds, 520 MB/s sequential write speeds, 85,000 random read/write IOPS, and capacities of 480 GB, 240 GB, and 120 GB.
For the Prevail series, the difference between the standard and Elite drives seem to be in the NAND components and the SandForce controllers. The standard drives feature a SandForce 2281 controller and Synchronous-Mode Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND whereas the Elite versions sport a SandForce 2282 controller and Synchronous-Mode Enterprise Multi-Level Cell (eMLC) NAND.
Currently pricing for the three Prevail SSDs are $229.99 (120 GB), $429.99 (240 GB) and $849.99 (480 GB). Pricing for the two Prevail Elite are $399.99 (120 GB) and $749.99 (240 GB).
"PNY's new Solid State Drives have emerged to support the new storage demand for NAND flash-based memory," said Mark Honeck, director of product marketing at PNY. "As the SSD market is growing exponentially, PNY is here to help our customers take advantage of the explosive growth within this market. With cost to performance ratio, we're making it easier than ever for customers to adopt SSD usage."
For more information about the XLR8 and Prevail SSDs, head here.
