Apacer unveils PCI Express SSD with HDD caching

Apacer has announced its SSD caching solution, a PCI Express x1 add-in card featuring 32GB of SSD storage and an SATA port for the hard disk to apply the cache. Like Intel’s Smart Response technology, the card works by storing frequently accessed data on the SSD for high speed writing and less frequently accessed data is stored on the HDD only. Newly written data is also first stored on the SSD for high speed writing and later transferred to the HDD in the background.

The Apacer PHFD is a full-height PCI Express 2.0 x1 expansion card. It is reported to be run by the Marvel 88SE9130 (2-port SATA 6Gbps) or similar controller, of which one is hardwired with the on-board 32GB SSD and the other is available as an SATA connector for a HDD to be attached. The caching is carried out by Marvell’s HyperDuo technology on-board, where the OS sees the SSD’s and HDD’s data as a single volume.

So far no details on price or availability have been announced yet. Apacer has not released any info about how fast the cache performs and their official product page provides very little additional info at this time.