SSD Prices Could be Cut in Half

[WiCKeD]

With JMicron seeking to recapture the emerging SSD controller market, competition among controller manufacturers is about to heat up. Let the price war begin!

JMicron seeks redemption with a new chip that could drive mainstream SSD adoption

DailyTech has learned that JMicron will be unveiling a new NAND flash controller for use in Solid State Drives (SSDs) in the near future. The JMF612 chip uses an ARM9 core in a 289-ball TFBGA package, and will support the use of up to 256MB of DDR or DDR2 DRAM as an external cache.

The new chip was designed to remedy stuttering problems during random write operations, which has plagued SSDs using the JMF602 flash controller. JMicron rushed out a JMF602B chip to address shortcomings, but was only partially successful. Several firms decided to combine two JMF602B chips and an internal RAID chip from JMicron to boost performance. Although it raised costs significantly, it was still cheaper than controllers from Samsung and Indilinx, which were not yet available at the time. It was for this reason that SSDs like OCZ's Apex and G.Skill's Titan series were born.

The JMF612 chip is designed especially for a new generation of NAND flash chips built using smaller process geometries that will be entering the market soon. The new flash chips will be smaller, faster, and cheaper to manufacture. IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron, is already building 34nm NAND, while 32nm NAND from Samsung and Toshiba will soon be entering production. The use of a cheap single-chip controller and new higher density flash chips could cut prices in half by the vital Christmas shopping season.

SSDs using the chip will also be able to support Native Command Queuing (NCQ), which was designed to increase performance of SATA hard disks by allowing the drive to internally optimize the order in which read and write commands are executed. NCQ is used in SSDs when there is latency due to high CPU usage. It also supports 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) protocols for full disk encryption. This provides data security mandated for classified and/or privileged information in government and corporations.

Full Article @ DailyTech

[Slizzo]

Wow, nice! Maybe this will finally make SSDs viable for consumer desktops!

[Maniac]

I really wouldn't mind an SSD drive for windows and my apps...

[zollen]

I was planning to get a SSD soon. I guess I will postpone my plan. I like the new controller which automatically utilize our external DDR2 ram for caching.

[Nagoshi]

Just as I bought my new hard drives... oh well. Next upgrade

[ELItheICEman]

****, this makes me want to sell my Vertexes while they are still worth top-dollar. But I'd probably kill myself if I had to go back to using my Raptor again Never thought my system would feel slow again when I bought that thing a couple years ago, but the times are a-changin'.

[zollen]

I wonder will the new controller save us from many BIOS flashes, 128 offset + 128 strip size formatting and any additional fine-tuning?

[Grimm]

This should put the 80GB SSD's under $100. Making it affordable to have as a boot drive.

That will most definitely rock.

[Almost Tactf]

After the crap that JMicron put out the first time I'd have to see a LOT of tests before I give up my Vertex's with controllers that actually.....work

[Camride]

Originally Posted by Maniac

I really wouldn't mind an SSD drive for windows and my apps...

Exactly. I'm fine with sticking 2 smaller SSD's in for my OS partition and use a few big 'ol platters for storage.

Originally Posted by Almost Tactf

After the crap that JMicron put out the first time I'd have to see a LOT of tests before I give up my Vertex's with controllers that actually.....work

This is what I will wait on. I've never been a fan of JMicron controllers. I will have to be very convinced of it's performance and stability before I spend any money on a SSD that uses their stuff.

But I'm also the person that won't buy MSI stuff because of the whole capacitor issues years back. That put a bad enough taste in my mouth that I never want to buy their stuff again. Though I may go against my own wishes for a cheap Ci7 MB if some prioces don't drop soon though...

[Almost Tactf]

Originally Posted by Camride

Exactly. I'm fine with sticking 2 smaller SSD's in for my OS partition and use a few big 'ol platters for storage.



This is what I will wait on. I've never been a fan of JMicron controllers. I will have to be very convinced of it's performance and stability before I spend any money on a SSD that uses their stuff.

But I'm also the person that won't buy MSI stuff because of the whole capacitor issues years back. That put a bad enough taste in my mouth that I never want to buy their stuff again. Though I may go against my own wishes for a cheap Ci7 MB if some prioces don't drop soon though...

You can get a nice DFI for under $200 now.....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136065

[AruisDante]

A note... by external DDR2 cache, it means external to the controller, not your main system RAM.

I'm still skeptical. JMicron has never turned out anything but cheap crap for controllers. And an 80GB SSD for under $100 is very ambitious... the actual NAND flash just isn't that cheap yet.