jmke

OCZ has updated their enterprise Z-Drive lineup with new fourth-generation R4 PCIe SSD. OCZ had a prototype of this SSD on display at Computex (our article). R4 adapts SandForce's SF-2000 series controllers, more specifically it has up to eight SF-2281 controllers in RAID 0 configuration. Due to the exceptional amount of controllers, R4 is good for up to 2.8GB/s reads and writes and up to 500,000 IOPS. The amount of controllers increases the risk of failure though, especially in RAID 0 configuration, so we aren't exactly convinced about the market of this product (OCZ claims enterprise but usually reliability is very important for enterprises).

Other improvements include new OCZ SuperScale storage controller and support for VCA 2.0 technology. SuperScale controller is OCZ's in-house design whereas the R3 used Marvell's storage controller. VCA 2.0 stands for Virtualized Controller Architecture which enables TRIM, SCSI unmap and SMART monitoring for system administrators.

Z-Drive R4 will be available in two different series: C and R series. Evidently, the difference is that R series has more over provisioning and protection against power failure, but unfortunately OCZ has not revealed any details of this. R4 will be available in capacities from 300GB to up to 3.2TB and in half-height and full-height form factors. Z-Drive is a custom order so pricing and availability are not publicly available.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4566/o...ve-r4-pcie-ssd

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