Super Talent SSD: 16GB of Solid State Goodness
by Gary Key on May 7, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Super Talent SSD16GB25/25M Features
The external design of the Super Talent 16GB SSD is offered in either a hard plastic suitable for a commercial rating or high-strength aluminum design for industrial usage. The hard plastic design is capable of operating temperatures from 0C to 70C with the metal casing featuring a temperature range from -40C to 85C. The drive is based on the industry standard 2.5" form factor with measurements of 69.9mm x 100.2mm x 9.5mm. The drive utilizes a standard SATA interface for both power and data transfer capabilities.
Hard Disk Test Comparison and Features
The Super Talent SSD16GB25/25M features a capacity of 16GB with capacity in the 2.5" form factor family ranging from 4GB to 64GB. The 16GB drive sells for approximately $575 at this time. The drive is marketed into the commercial and industrial sectors with an emphasis placed on use in such products as ATM, factory automation machines, measuring products, point of sale devices, ticket-vending machines, parking systems, and general industrial equipment that requires a storage device with a high degree of tolerance to environmental conditions.
The SSD16GB25/25M features a read seek time of less than 1ms, a maximum read/write speed of up to 28 MB/sec, a sustained transfer rate of 25 MB/sec, and an estimated write/erase cycle of approximately 100,000 cycles. This equates into a 1,000,000 hour MTBF rating and indicates a 10 year life expectancy based upon normal usage patterns. Super Talent has developed a set of proprietary wear leveling algorithms along with built in EDD/EDC functions to ensure excellent data integrity over the course of the drive's lifespan.
Looking at the specifications, it should become immediately apparent that we should not expect class leading performance in all applications. The Super Talent drive has no cache, and the maximum read/write speeds are clearly lower than the best hard drives currently available. It's also worth noting that the relatively low read/write speeds and lack of cache make the question of SATA interface a moot point. While the drive can of course function with a chipset that supports SATA 3.0Gbps connections, it will only utilize the 1.5Gbps standard, and actual transfer rates are still significantly lower than the maximum 150 MB per second SATA is capable of transmitting.
The Super Talent drive is truly silent as indicated by the acoustics test, features a very low power envelope with load requirements being five times less than the Seagate Momentus drive, and excellent thermals considering our room temperature base was 24C. The drive is designed to withstand 1500G of shock and 16G of vibration under operating conditions.
The external design of the Super Talent 16GB SSD is offered in either a hard plastic suitable for a commercial rating or high-strength aluminum design for industrial usage. The hard plastic design is capable of operating temperatures from 0C to 70C with the metal casing featuring a temperature range from -40C to 85C. The drive is based on the industry standard 2.5" form factor with measurements of 69.9mm x 100.2mm x 9.5mm. The drive utilizes a standard SATA interface for both power and data transfer capabilities.
Hard Disk Test Comparison and Features
| Drive Specifications | |||
| Super Talent Flash Drive 16GB SSD16GB25/25M | Seagate Momentus 7200.2 160GB ST9160823ASG | Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD | |
| Manufacturer's Stated Capacity | 16 GB | 160 GB | 150 GB |
| Operating System Stated Capacity | 15.5 GB | 149.04 GB | 139.73 GB |
| Interface | SATA | SATA 3Gb/s | SATA 1.5Gb/s |
| Rotational Speed | n/a | 7,200 RPM | 10,000 RPM |
| Cache Size | n/a | 8 MB | 16 MB |
| Average Latency | n/a | 4.17 ms (nominal) | 2.99 ms (nominal) |
| Read Seek Time | 1 ms | 11 ms | 4.6 ms |
| Number of Heads | n/a | 4 | 4 |
| Number of Platters | n/a | 2 | 2 |
| Power Draw Idle / Load | .16W / .48W | .87W / 2.42W | 9.19W / 10.02W |
| Acoustics Idle / Load | 0 dB(A) / 0 dB(A) | 27 dB(A) / 32 dB(A) | 35 dB(A) / 48 dB(A) |
| Thermals Idle / Load | 24C / 25C | 27C / 31C | 47C / 58C |
| Write/Erase Cycles | 100,000 Estimated | - | - |
| Command Queuing | n/a | Native Command Queuing | Native Command Queuing |
| Warranty | OEM Specific | 5 Year - Retail or OEM | 5 Year - Retail or OEM |
The Super Talent SSD16GB25/25M features a capacity of 16GB with capacity in the 2.5" form factor family ranging from 4GB to 64GB. The 16GB drive sells for approximately $575 at this time. The drive is marketed into the commercial and industrial sectors with an emphasis placed on use in such products as ATM, factory automation machines, measuring products, point of sale devices, ticket-vending machines, parking systems, and general industrial equipment that requires a storage device with a high degree of tolerance to environmental conditions.
The SSD16GB25/25M features a read seek time of less than 1ms, a maximum read/write speed of up to 28 MB/sec, a sustained transfer rate of 25 MB/sec, and an estimated write/erase cycle of approximately 100,000 cycles. This equates into a 1,000,000 hour MTBF rating and indicates a 10 year life expectancy based upon normal usage patterns. Super Talent has developed a set of proprietary wear leveling algorithms along with built in EDD/EDC functions to ensure excellent data integrity over the course of the drive's lifespan.
Looking at the specifications, it should become immediately apparent that we should not expect class leading performance in all applications. The Super Talent drive has no cache, and the maximum read/write speeds are clearly lower than the best hard drives currently available. It's also worth noting that the relatively low read/write speeds and lack of cache make the question of SATA interface a moot point. While the drive can of course function with a chipset that supports SATA 3.0Gbps connections, it will only utilize the 1.5Gbps standard, and actual transfer rates are still significantly lower than the maximum 150 MB per second SATA is capable of transmitting.
The Super Talent drive is truly silent as indicated by the acoustics test, features a very low power envelope with load requirements being five times less than the Seagate Momentus drive, and excellent thermals considering our room temperature base was 24C. The drive is designed to withstand 1500G of shock and 16G of vibration under operating conditions.
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eguy - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
These guys are knowledgable and sell the Super Talent and other SSDs. They are even working on a RAID0 SSD box! http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html">http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html .There are not many SSDs that can benefit from RAID0. The issue is that the CONTROLLERS used IN these disks max out in speed before the NAND chips will. That means that the Samsung NAND chips while capable of 60+MB/S are throttled by a controller than in some cases will only do 25MB/S. In a hard disk, the media transfer rate is lower than the controller's bandwith. The hard disk controller can do 150MB/S+. So in hard drive land a 50MB/S hard disk + another 50MB/S hard disk = about 100MB/S in RAID0. But I've seen a 25MB/S SSD + 25MB/S SSD =, you ready for this? 17MB/S. DV Nation is predicting they will have a RAID0 box out later this year that can outperform a single SSD. They couldn't get the ultra-fast IDE Samsungs to RAID up. I told them I wanted to do 2X SATA SSDs in RAID and they said their customers had not had success with that.
I'm thinking newer models might in the future.
Also don't get bent out of shape between SATA and IDE in SSDs. IDEs are just as fast, if not faster than SATA. Even in the world of hard drives, IDE vs SATA does not matter in speed. Drive makers CHOOSE to make their fastest consumer drives in SATA, but even a 10 year old IDE interface is capable of 166MB/S, right? My 10,000 RPM SATA RAPTOR can only to 75MB/S, so IDE would be just as fast for it.
Modern SSDs will outlast hard disks. Forget the write cycles. They are rated between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 write cycles. The problem is, hard disks are not rated in write cycles. For an apples to apples comparison, you need to use MTBF (mean time between failures). SSDs are rated much MUCH higher in that regard. Look at documentation on Sandisk's site, Samsungs, all the big manufacturers and independent reviewers. I've seen math done that shows life of up to 144 years! (!??!!)
Bladen - Tuesday, May 8, 2007 - link
I think many of us would be interested in seeing exactly what RAID 0 can do for these things. It would be good to compare 2x RAID 0 of this drive vs 2x RAID 0 of the Sandisk and/or Samsung ones, and compare that to 2x RAID Raptors too.Just be particularly flattering to Sandisk or Samsung to get another drive of them if you can.
abakshi - Tuesday, May 8, 2007 - link
If I recall, the price point for the current (OEM) SanDisk 32GB SSD is $350 in volume. If those (which are shipping in laptops today) have much better performance than this, why would anyone use this in an industrial/medical/etc. application - pay $150 more for 1/2 the space and a slower drive? Am I missing something here?Also, any idea of when are the SanDisk/Samsung/etc. consumer SSD's coming out?
PandaBear - Thursday, May 10, 2007 - link
Yeah, longer life span if you do not read/write a lot. HD wear out regardless of use but flash usually doesn't. Also, industrial environment don't usually use a lot of storage but have a lot of packaging limitation (can't fit a large HD or don't have enough cooling) that rule out HD.Check out Hitachi's Endurastar HD, they are rated for industrial grade but are more expensive and smaller capactiy. Now that is a better comparison.
MrGarrison - Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - link
Samsung's SSDs are already out. Check Newegg. They are even available here in Sweden.I would buy two of their 16GB SSDs if only they had SATA interface. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait a couple of months more.
Calin - Tuesday, May 8, 2007 - link
Interesting review, but I have a small problem with it:Please, compare the cost per gigabyte of the 2.5" SSD drive with the cost per gigabyte of other 2.5" mechanical hard drives.
While totally correct, the cost of $0.4/GB of current 3.5", high-capacity hard drives is much lower than the cost for the 2.5" mechanical hard drives (somewhere around the $1/GB, or slightly higher for low capacity drives).
The 16GB 2.5" SSD don't fit in the place of a Raptor, and a Raptor won't fit in the place of a SSD 16GB drive.
Thanks
bob4432 - Monday, May 7, 2007 - link
are the power requirements for the seagate 7200.2 correct - .87W / 2.42W?MadBoris - Monday, May 7, 2007 - link
I'm just very disappointed with performance on these for consumer PC usage.I mean this is solid state memory.
Somebody is going to break this wide open with performance someday, because flash is just so damn slow it's painful to write this.
Making a RAMDRIVE today (using a portion of system RAM) on our PC's is thousands fold faster only lacking volatility for persistent data.
Just duct tape some RAM sticks together on a PCB, hook a duracell to it and we should be good. ;) Well, you get the idea...We need to leverage performance of RAM today.
Wake me up when this technology gets interesting.
Shadar - Monday, May 7, 2007 - link
The article seems to imply that transfer rates are the problem with performance. In this case a RAID of 2 or 4 of these in RAID-0 would drastically increase performance. 4 of these in a Raid 0 should crush a standard hard drive as the transfer rate would always be higher and it would have blazing access times.Though I must wonder why the CF cards are not raided as it is inside this drive. Why wouldn't the manufacturer be using 4 4GB cards in a raid array to boost the speeds themselves inside the box?
yyrkoon - Monday, May 7, 2007 - link
Yeah sure, lets take something with an already severely limited lifespan, and decrease the lifespan by abusing it with RAID . . . Lets not forget that 4 of these drives would set you back over $2000, and it makes even less sense to do so.
I have done intesive testing in this area of my own, and to tell you the truth, *you* do not need that type of performance. *you*, of course meaning, you, me, or the next guy. Besides all this, if you really want to waste you money in the name of peformance, why dont you get 4x or more servers, capable of supporting 32 GB of memory each, use iSCSI, export 31GB of ram from each server, and RAID across those. If you're worried about redundancy, toss in a couple of Raptors into the initiator, and run RAID 0+1, or RAID 10 for redundancy . . .