Intel Thunderbolt High Speed I/O examined
You might have known it in a past life as LightPeak, but Intel's high speed I/O interface is now ready for prime time under the new name of Thunderbolt, complete with a deal with Apple to see it appear on their latest MacBook Pro parts before seeing any PC availability next year.آ Can Thunderbolt challenge USB and Serial ATA?
So here is the basic summary: Thunderbolt technology will combine both support for PCI Express based data transfers and DisplayPort technology for high resolution display outputs into a single controller and a single cable.آ That cable, as we saw yesterday, basically is identical in appearance to the mini-DisplayPort connection that we have seen on graphics cards for some time now.آ The connection will indeed run at 10 Gbps, making it about twice as fast (in theory) than USB 3.0, and will provide more than enough headroom for storage technologies and high speed data transfers into the future.آ Users like simple answers so Intel says that you can "transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30 seconds" and "backup 1 year of continuous MP3 playback in just over 10 minutes."آ Pretty impressive stuff.
Technically, Thunderbolt is pretty interesting as both data and display signals will transfer over the same cable with arbitration from the controller chip.آ It is a bi-directional communication that actually provides 10 Gbps of bandwidth PER PORT.آ It remains backwards compatible with existing DisplayPort displays, but since those devices likely do NOT have female mini-DisplayPort connections on them, they will not facilitate the daisy-chaining required for connecting multiple devices to a single Thunderbolt connection.آ Unlike what some people worried, Thunderbolt will carry some amount of power over cable, though how much hasn't really been specified yet.
PC Perspective has a full explanation of the technology as it stands.Technically, Thunderbolt is pretty interesting as both data and display signals will transfer over the same cable with arbitration from the controller chip.آ It is a bi-directional communication that actually provides 10 Gbps of bandwidth PER PORT.آ It remains backwards compatible with existing DisplayPort displays, but since those devices likely do NOT have female mini-DisplayPort connections on them, they will not facilitate the daisy-chaining required for connecting multiple devices to a single Thunderbolt connection.آ Unlike what some people worried, Thunderbolt will carry some amount of power over cable, though how much hasn't really been specified yet.
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OCZ Vertex 3 SSD previews
After seeing (and being rather impressed by) what the Pro version of OCZ's forthcoming Sandforce SF-2200 series controller-sporting SSDs were capable of the other week, now we can see what the consumer level Vertex 3 product will be all about via a number of previews.
If you pay attention to the table above you’ll notice that there are two specs for 4KB random write IOPS: burst and sustained. The burst value is for around 15 seconds of operation, the sustained is what happens when the firmware initiated performance cap kicks into action. By default the SF-2100/2200 drives have a cap of 20,000 IOPS for 4KB random writes. After a period of about 15 seconds, the max performance on these drives will drop to 20K. The SF-2500/2600 controllers are uncapped, max performance can remain at up to 60K IOPS.
The beta Vertex 3 review sample I have here today manages around 45K IOPS in our 4KB random write test. That test runs for 3 minutes straight so obviously the cap should’ve kicked in. However it didn’t.
I asked SandForce why this was. SandForce told me that the initial pre-release firmwares on the SF-2200 drives don’t have the cap enabled, but the final release will put the cap in place. I also asked SandForce if it was possible for one of its partners to ship with a special firmware build that didn’t have the cap in place. SandForce replied that anything was possible.
I asked OCZ if this meant the drive I was testing wasn’t representative of final, shipping performance. OCZ stated very clearly that performance will not change between the drive I have today and the drive that goes on sale in the next 2 months. To me this sounds like SF and OCZ have struck another exclusive firmware deal to ensure slightly higher performance on the Vertex 3 compared to a standard SF-2200 based drive.
AnandtechThe beta Vertex 3 review sample I have here today manages around 45K IOPS in our 4KB random write test. That test runs for 3 minutes straight so obviously the cap should’ve kicked in. However it didn’t.
I asked SandForce why this was. SandForce told me that the initial pre-release firmwares on the SF-2200 drives don’t have the cap enabled, but the final release will put the cap in place. I also asked SandForce if it was possible for one of its partners to ship with a special firmware build that didn’t have the cap in place. SandForce replied that anything was possible.
I asked OCZ if this meant the drive I was testing wasn’t representative of final, shipping performance. OCZ stated very clearly that performance will not change between the drive I have today and the drive that goes on sale in the next 2 months. To me this sounds like SF and OCZ have struck another exclusive firmware deal to ensure slightly higher performance on the Vertex 3 compared to a standard SF-2200 based drive.
The new SandForce SF-2281 controller used in the Vertex 3 takes the technology of the original SF-1200 line of controllers, and expands it in line with the SATA 6Gbps standard, with SandForce claiming outlandishly fast speeds of up to 550MB/sec for sequential reads and 525MB/sec for sequential writes. These will be the absolutle best-case speeds, but they're still a huge step up from the 355MB/sec and 215MB/sec respective read and write speeds of the Crucial C300 256GB, which has been the fastest single-drive SSD on the market for the last nine months.
To accomplish this speed improvement, OCZ has implemented a number of improvements to the Vertex 3, not least the inclusion of support for the higher bandwidth ONFI (Open NAND Flash Interface) 2.1 memory and a SATA 6Gbps interface. The version we've been sent is the standard Vertex 3, rather than the Vertex 3 Pro previewed at Anandtech, and this means that it's fitted with Micron's new NAND flash memory too.
bit-techTo accomplish this speed improvement, OCZ has implemented a number of improvements to the Vertex 3, not least the inclusion of support for the higher bandwidth ONFI (Open NAND Flash Interface) 2.1 memory and a SATA 6Gbps interface. The version we've been sent is the standard Vertex 3, rather than the Vertex 3 Pro previewed at Anandtech, and this means that it's fitted with Micron's new NAND flash memory too.
OCZ plans to initially introduce two solid state drives in the Vertex 3 line, a 120GB version and a 240GB version. The 120GB version is set to arrive with a $249 MSRP and the 240GB with a $499 MSRP. Looking at current pricing for the Vertex 2 (which has fluctuated significantly in recent weeks), it seems the Vertex 3 will carry a roughly 20% to 25% price premium when it arrives in a few weeks. Considering how strong the Vertex 3's performance was throughout testing and that it's likely to get better as OCZ has more time to work with and tweak the firmware on the drive, we can't help but be excited for this product, despite the price premium it will command.
If you've been waiting to make the move to a solid state drive, the arrival of the Vertex 3 (and a handful of other next-gen SATA III drives) is going to shake things up a bit.آ Pricing on many of the current generation offerings is sure to fall somewhat, which we're will make the proposition more attractive to many users. And if you've got a system that doesn't have SATA III ports, by all means, consider the upgrade. If you've got a system with native SATA III support though, the Vertex 3 is one heck of a performer and will be worth the additional investment, as the numbers have shown.
Hot HardwareIf you've been waiting to make the move to a solid state drive, the arrival of the Vertex 3 (and a handful of other next-gen SATA III drives) is going to shake things up a bit.آ Pricing on many of the current generation offerings is sure to fall somewhat, which we're will make the proposition more attractive to many users. And if you've got a system that doesn't have SATA III ports, by all means, consider the upgrade. If you've got a system with native SATA III support though, the Vertex 3 is one heck of a performer and will be worth the additional investment, as the numbers have shown.
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