Anobit plans to use a new controller in upcoming solid-state drives that will help increase long-term reliability for its SSDs.
The Anobit Genesis line of SSDs uses custom Memory Signal Processing (MSP) technology that is able to increase the drive's lifespan but also keep costs down. The drive has a read speed of 220MB/sec, and utilizes a write speed of 180MB/sec.
A significant difference between multi-level cell (MLC) SSD drives and single-level cell (SLC) technology is the price difference between the two formats -- SLC flash costs more, but is more reliable and less likely to wear out.
SLC flash is available for $6.75 per GB, providing 50,000 program/erase (P/E) cycles. MLC costs roughly $1.58 per gig, but normally only provides 3,000 P/E cycles. Anobit's new MSP MLC flash is about the same price as standard MLC -- but it provides the same P/E performance as SLC.
"For too long, the high prices of SLC SSDs and concerns about MLC SSD endurance have slowed the adoption of flash memory storage in the enterprise," the company said in a press release. "Anobit Genesis SSDs effectively neutralise both of these concerns. By delivering true enterprise-class SSD reliability at affordable MLC SSD prices, Anobit Genesis SSDs unlock the full promise of solid-state enterprise storage."
The 50,000 P/E cycle figure is extremely important for enterprise users, as they expect to store a significant amount of data on a drive over a five-year period. There aren't too many products that offer 50,000 P/E cycles over five years with random, non-compressed data, so Anobit hopes this will give it a step-up over the competition.
Anobit will offer 200GB and 400GB SSDs to companies in the enterprise, but pricing wasn't released.
Anobit isn't a company you've likely heard of before, as they're a small Israeli company trying to carve itself a piece of the SSD market. If their enterprise endeavors are successful, we might even see Anobit SSD's in the consumer space some day.
