OCZ's Octane 512GB solid-state drive

OCZ has been at the forefront of the desktop SSD market for several years now. Despite being something of a pioneer in the industry, OCZ has been more of a remix artist than a true original; the company's consumer-oriented SSDs have long used controller and flash silicon sourced from other firms. Flash fabs are rather expensive to build, making it unlikely that OCZ will ever be able to challenge giants like Intel, Micron, and Samsung in that arena. Controller makers are considerably more affordable, however. Earlier this year, OCZ purchased one for $32 million.

Acquiring Indilinx, the brains behind the Barefoot controller in the first Vertex solid-state drive, put OCZ in a rather exclusive club. Only a handful of companies design the flash controllers ...