OCZ Technology Group, a leading manufacturer of high-performance solid-state drives (SSD) for consumers, businesses and enterprises, on Wednesday introduced its highest-performing solid-state drive for consumers. Powered by Everest 2.0 controller and architecture, the Vertex 4 family of SSDs offers up to 400% performance improvement compared to previous-generation Vertex 3 solid-state drives. In addition, the new drives will be offered with 5 years warranty.

“The Vertex 4 represents an evolution in SSD technology and is a milestone product, delivering maximum performance and the highest NAND flash durability to date while eliminating the tradeoffs typically associated with on-the-fly data compression in MLC-based SSDs,” said Ryan Petersen, chief executive officer of OCZ Technology.

OCZ Vertex 4 solid-state drives will be available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities and will utilize Serial ATA 6Gb/s interface. Powered by OCZ's new Indilinx Everest 2 controller platform, featuring a dual-core architecture and 400MHz clock speeds, the Vertex 4 eliminates the need for internal data compression, further enhancing drive reliability. This advanced controller architecture also includes key features such as an advanced error correction code (ECC) engine, dynamic wear-leveling, auto encryption, and Indilinx’s next generation Ndurance 2.0 NAND flash management technology, enabling OCZ to support the Vertex 4 SSD line with a 5-year warranty.

Thanks to Everest 2.0 controller and architecture, the Vertex 4 features sequential bandwidth up to 535MB/s, maximum random performance up to 120 000 IOPS [input/output operations per second], and with hard to manage incompressible data, delivers 95 000 4K random read IOPS and 85 000 random write IOPS, a massive improvement over Vertex 3 SSD that is rated at 60 000 sustained 4K random write IOPS. OCZ claims that the Vertex 4 also generates best in class latency as low as 0.04ms for read operations and 0.02ms for write operations, delivering an improvement of approximately 80% over the Vertex 3. In typical use case scenarios, the Vertex 4 outperforms the Vertex 3 by as much as 400%.

“We have raised the bar with an SSD product that delivers the ultimate in performance, regardless of data type, and for the first time ever, provides high read and write IOPS performance all on the same SSD platform,” added Mr. Petersen.

The Vertex 4 SSD will be available through OCZ’s global channel shortly.

Tags: OCZ, Vertex, Indilinx, Everest, SSD, NAND, Flash