SandForce
Encyclopedia
SandForce is an American "fabless
" semiconductor company based in Milpitas, California
, that designs and manufactures flash memory controller
s for solid-state drive
s (SSDs). On October 26th 2011 it was acquired by LSI Corporation
.
SandForce was founded in 2006 by Alex Naqvi and Rado Danilak, who brought with them a mix of related technology experience to the startup company. In April 2009, they announced their entrance into the quickly-expanding solid-state drive market.
SandForce does not sell complete solid-state drives, but rather sells their flash memory controllers, or "SSD processors", to partners who then build and sell complete SSDs to manufacturers, corporations, and end-users. The key component of any SSD is actually the controller, upon which SandForce focuses. Zsolt Kerekes, an SSD Market Analyst and publisher of StorageSearch.com, has stated that SandForce is the best-known maker of SSD controllers.
, Intel
, NVIDIA
, Toshiba
, and SanDisk
when they started SandForce. At the end of 2009 there were approximately 100 employees at SandForce working on their SSD controllers.
SandForce was initially financed by private equity firm
s Storm Ventures
, Doll Capital Management (DCM), and unnamed leading storage firms. By April 2009 SandForce had taken in more than $20 million in two venture round
s. In November that same year they closed a series C funding round of $21 million led by TransLink Capital and included LSI
, A-DATA, and other Tier-1 storage OEMs, including Seagate
. Finally in October 2010, SandForce closed a series D round of $25 million led by Canaan Partners
and included the existing investors.
The board of directors
includes Carl Amdahl (General Partner
at DCM and son of Gene Amdahl
), Ryan Floyd (General Partner at Storm Ventures), S. "Sundi" Sundaresh (former President
and CEO of Adaptec
), Jackie Yang (Managing Director at TransLink Capital), and Eric Young (General Partner and co-founder at Canaan Partners). C.S. Park, a current Seagate board member and also a former chief executive at Maxtor
and former chief executive at Hynix
was also on the board until sometime before mid 2011.
Sandforce announced being acquired by LSI Corporation
on October 26th, 2011.
environment with a 5-year expected life
. At the time the company emerged from stealth mode, other solid-state drives in the enterprise were using the more expensive SLC flash memory. SandForce also works with multiple flash memory
manufacturers to increase options for their partners so they are not locked into a single flash memory supplier.
SandForce gives the name "DuraClass" to the overall technology incorporated in its controllers. SandForce controllers do not use DRAM
for caching which reduces cost and complexity compared to most other SSD controllers. SandForce controllers also use a proprietary compression
system to minimize the amount of data actually written to non-volatile memory (the "write amplification
") which increases speed and lifetime for most data (known as "DuraWrite"). SandForce claims to have reduced write amplification to 0.5 on a typical workload. As a byproduct, data that cannot readily be compressed (for example random data, compressed files, or many common audio and video file format
s) is slower to write, although this is not typical use. Other features include error detection and correction
technology known as "RAISE" (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) which improves the disk failure rates, and "AES encryption
" which works in the background and is completely automatic. It is linked to the BIOS password and encrypts the user data at the full speed of the data as it passes through the controller.
and freezing. In early June 2011, Corsair Memory
issued a recall on the 120 GB Force 3 with specific serial numbers, but not on any other Force 3 drive with a SandForce SF-2000 controller, therefore that recall does not appear to be related to the controller. Other manufacturers such as OCZ have sent out firmware updates to address the reported issue, but some users have continued to report the problem. Anand Shimpi, creator and editor of computer product review site Anandtech.com, reported he has seen the issue himself, but notes it has been very difficult to determine the cause and in many drives and systems he has never seen any problems. He noted that SandForce has agreed to send someone to his office to investigate if he could reproduce it.
provides response to SandForce customer inquiries within 24 hours. SandForce created a new SandForce Trusted logo which member companies use in their advertising and promotional materials.
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
" semiconductor company based in Milpitas, California
Milpitas, California
Milpitas is a city in Santa Clara County, California. It is a suburb of the major city of San Jose, California. It is located with San Jose to its south and Fremont to its north, at the eastern end of State Route 237 and generally between Interstates 680 and 880 which run roughly north/south...
, that designs and manufactures flash memory controller
Flash memory controller
A flash memory controller manages the data stored on flash memory and communicates with a computer or electronic device. Flash memory controllers can be designed for operating in low duty-cycle environments like SD cards, CompactFlash cards, or other similar media for use in digital cameras, PDAs,...
s for solid-state drive
Solid-state drive
A solid-state drive , sometimes called a solid-state disk or electronic disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner of a traditional block i/o hard disk drive...
s (SSDs). On October 26th 2011 it was acquired by LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas, California that designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters and mobile networks.-History:...
.
SandForce was founded in 2006 by Alex Naqvi and Rado Danilak, who brought with them a mix of related technology experience to the startup company. In April 2009, they announced their entrance into the quickly-expanding solid-state drive market.
SandForce does not sell complete solid-state drives, but rather sells their flash memory controllers, or "SSD processors", to partners who then build and sell complete SSDs to manufacturers, corporations, and end-users. The key component of any SSD is actually the controller, upon which SandForce focuses. Zsolt Kerekes, an SSD Market Analyst and publisher of StorageSearch.com, has stated that SandForce is the best-known maker of SSD controllers.
History
Alex Naqvi and Rado Danilak had accumulated considerable semiconductor experience from companies including MarvellMarvell Technology Group
Marvell is an American producer of storage, communications and consumer semiconductor products.Founded in 1995, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. has operations worldwide and approximately 5,700 employees. Marvell’s U.S. operating subsidiary is based in Santa Clara, California and Marvell has...
, Intel
Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most...
, NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
, Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
, and SanDisk
SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory...
when they started SandForce. At the end of 2009 there were approximately 100 employees at SandForce working on their SSD controllers.
SandForce was initially financed by private equity firm
Private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment manager that makes investments in the private equity of operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital...
s Storm Ventures
Sand Hill Road
Sand Hill Road is a road in Menlo Park, California, notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. Its significance as a symbol of private equity in the United States may be compared to that of Wall Street in the stock market...
, Doll Capital Management (DCM), and unnamed leading storage firms. By April 2009 SandForce had taken in more than $20 million in two venture round
Venture round
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the primary stimuli for the development of new companies...
s. In November that same year they closed a series C funding round of $21 million led by TransLink Capital and included LSI
LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas, California that designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters and mobile networks.-History:...
, A-DATA, and other Tier-1 storage OEMs, including Seagate
Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives. Incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology, Seagate is currently incorporated in Dublin, Ireland and has its principal executive offices in Scotts Valley, California, United States.-1970s:On November 1, 1979...
. Finally in October 2010, SandForce closed a series D round of $25 million led by Canaan Partners
Canaan Partners
Canaan Partners is a multi-billion dollar global venture capital firm focusing on investments in early stage companies in the technology and healthcare sectors....
and included the existing investors.
The board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
includes Carl Amdahl (General Partner
General partner
General partner is a legal term used to describe a person who joins with at least one other person to form a business. A general partner has responsibility for the actions of the business, can legally bind the business and is personally liable for all the business's debts and obligations.General...
at DCM and son of Gene Amdahl
Gene Amdahl
Gene Myron Amdahl is a Norwegian-American computer architect and high-tech entrepreneur, chiefly known for his work on mainframe computers at IBM and later his own companies, especially Amdahl Corporation...
), Ryan Floyd (General Partner at Storm Ventures), S. "Sundi" Sundaresh (former President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
and CEO of Adaptec
Adaptec
Adaptec is a computer hardware brand owned by PMC-Sierra that is used on some of its host adapters for connecting storage devices to computers. The production line of Adaptec is in Indonesia. Products are made to interface with SCSI, Serial ATA, and Serial attached SCSI. Some of its host adapters...
), Jackie Yang (Managing Director at TransLink Capital), and Eric Young (General Partner and co-founder at Canaan Partners). C.S. Park, a current Seagate board member and also a former chief executive at Maxtor
Maxtor
Maxtor Corporation, founded in 1982 and acquired by Seagate Technology in 2006, was an American manufacturer of computer hard disk drives, the third largest in the world immediately prior to acquisition...
and former chief executive at Hynix
Hynix
Hynix Semiconductor Inc. chips and flash memory chips. Founded in 1983, Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, the largest being Samsung Electronics. Formerly known as Hyundai Electronics, the company has manufacturing sites in Korea, the U.S., China and Taiwan...
was also on the board until sometime before mid 2011.
Sandforce announced being acquired by LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas, California that designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters and mobile networks.-History:...
on October 26th, 2011.
Technology
The major message behind SandForce is that the inexpensive MLC flash memory can be used in an enterprise computingEnterprise storage
In computing, an enterprise storage is the computer storage designed for large-scale, high-technology environments of the modern enterprises. When comparing to the consumer storage, it has higher scalability, higher reliability, better fault tolerance, and much higher initial price.From the...
environment with a 5-year expected life
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
. At the time the company emerged from stealth mode, other solid-state drives in the enterprise were using the more expensive SLC flash memory. SandForce also works with multiple flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
manufacturers to increase options for their partners so they are not locked into a single flash memory supplier.
SandForce gives the name "DuraClass" to the overall technology incorporated in its controllers. SandForce controllers do not use DRAM
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
for caching which reduces cost and complexity compared to most other SSD controllers. SandForce controllers also use a proprietary compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
system to minimize the amount of data actually written to non-volatile memory (the "write amplification
Write amplification
Write amplification is an undesirable phenomenon associated with Flash memory and solid-state drives . Because Flash memory must be erased before it can be rewritten, the process to perform these operations results in moving user data and metadata more than once...
") which increases speed and lifetime for most data (known as "DuraWrite"). SandForce claims to have reduced write amplification to 0.5 on a typical workload. As a byproduct, data that cannot readily be compressed (for example random data, compressed files, or many common audio and video file format
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
s) is slower to write, although this is not typical use. Other features include error detection and correction
Error detection and correction
In information theory and coding theory with applications in computer science and telecommunication, error detection and correction or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communication channels...
technology known as "RAISE" (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) which improves the disk failure rates, and "AES encryption
Advanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...
" which works in the background and is completely automatic. It is linked to the BIOS password and encrypts the user data at the full speed of the data as it passes through the controller.
Products
SandForce initially released the SF-1000 family of SSD Processors and split them into enterprise and client computing applications. The SF-1500 is the enterprise focused product and the SF-1200 is the client focused product. Also available are complete reference designs that include the schematics and layout information to build and sell a complete SSD. In October 2010, SandForce introduced their second generation SSD controllers called the SF-2000 family with models that are focused on enterprise applications. Key enhancements from the current enterprise product are: SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s), 500MB/s sequential read and write speeds, 60,000 IOPS random read and write speeds, non-512 byte sector support, TCG Enterprise security, AES-256, and ECC protection with up to 55 bits per 512-byte sector. The client version of this second generation SSD controller line was introduced in February 2011 with most of the same enhancements seen in the SF-2500 over the first generation products. The SF-2200 provides the same SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) speeds with sequential read and write operations at 500 MB/s and the random read and write performance is 20,000 IOPS. For the SF-2100 line it supports the older SATA 2.0 (3Gb/s) speeds at 250 MB/s. Both client products support the second generation ECC protection of the enterprise line.Issues
After the introduction of the SF-2000 series controller, a few customers using drives with that controller reported issues such as BSODBSoD
BSoD is an initialism. It may stand for:* Blue Screen of Death* Black Screen of Death...
and freezing. In early June 2011, Corsair Memory
Corsair Memory
Corsair Memory is a computer peripherals and hardware company headquartered in Fremont, California. Corsair designs and sells a range of products for computers, including high-speed DRAM modules, ATX power supplies , USB flash drives , CPU and memory cooling solutions, computer cases, solid-state...
issued a recall on the 120 GB Force 3 with specific serial numbers, but not on any other Force 3 drive with a SandForce SF-2000 controller, therefore that recall does not appear to be related to the controller. Other manufacturers such as OCZ have sent out firmware updates to address the reported issue, but some users have continued to report the problem. Anand Shimpi, creator and editor of computer product review site Anandtech.com, reported he has seen the issue himself, but notes it has been very difficult to determine the cause and in many drives and systems he has never seen any problems. He noted that SandForce has agreed to send someone to his office to investigate if he could reproduce it.
SandForce Driven
In May 2010, SandForce introduced the SandForce Driven program. The idea itself is not new. The now famous "Intel Inside" program and the BASF advertising slogan that said "We don't make the things you use, we make the things you use better" are two examples of companies promoting a component inside the end product. SandForce created a logo that partners can display on the SSD or their advertising to indicate a SandForce controller is inside. As of June 2011 there are 30 companies who are members of the SandForce Driven program.SSDs
Not every company listed in the table participates in the SandForce Driven program, but they do identify the controller in the SSD is from SandForce.| Company | Products | Controller | Capacities (GB) (MLC Multi-level cell In electronics, a multi-level cell is a memory element capable of storing more than a single bit of information.MLC NAND flash is a flash memory technology using multiple levels per cell to allow more bits to be stored using the same number of transistors... /SLC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADATA Technology Adata Adata , in Arabic al-Ḥadath al-Ḥamrā , was a town and fortress in the mountains of Cilicia , which played an important role in the Byzantine–Arab Wars.... |
S599 | SF-1200 | 40/60/120/240 (MLC) |
| S511 | SF-2200 | 60/120/240/480 (MLC) | |
| AMP Inc. | SATAsphere | SF-1500 | 25/50/100/200 (SLC) 50/100/200/400 (MLC) |
| Bay Bridge | SF-1500 | 25/50/100 (SLC) 50/100/200 (MLC) |
|
| Angelbird | Crest SSD | SF-1222 | 60/115/240 (MLC) |
| Apacer Technology Inc. Apacer Apacer Technology Inc. is a Taiwanese multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, memory modules and digital storage hardware and software. Founded in 1997 as a DRAM module supplier, in 1999, Apacer Technology expanded its product range to include mobile storage... |
Turbo II Series-AS602 | SF-1200 | 60/120/240 (MLC) |
| ATP Electronics | Velocity M-IV | SF-2000 | 60/120/240/480 (MLC) |
| Velocity SI Pro | SF-2000 | 30/60/120/240 (SLC) | |
| Codisk | Codragon | SF-1200 | 32 - 256 (MLC) |
| Corsair Corsair Memory Corsair Memory is a computer peripherals and hardware company headquartered in Fremont, California. Corsair designs and sells a range of products for computers, including high-speed DRAM modules, ATX power supplies , USB flash drives , CPU and memory cooling solutions, computer cases, solid-state... |
Force | SF-1200 | 40/60/90/120/180/240 (MLC) |
| Force 3 | SF-2200 | 60/90/120/180/240/480 (MLC) | |
| Force GT | SF-2200 | 60/90/120/180/240/480 (MLC) | |
| extrememory | XLR8 Plus | SF-1200 | 60/120/240/480 (MLC) |
| G.Skill G.Skill G.Skill International Enterprise Co., Ltd. is a Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturing company. The company's main target is the overclocking community and produces a variety of products, particularly memory.-History:... |
Phoenix | SF-1200 | 60/100/120/240 (MLC) |
| Phoenix Pro | SF-1200 | 40/60/80/120/160/240 (MLC) | |
| GWMedium Co. | GWM 2.5" SATA II SSD | SF-1200 | 60~240 (TBD) |
| LSI Corporation LSI Corporation LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas, California that designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters and mobile networks.-History:... |
SSS6200 | TBD | TBD |
| MX-Tech Co. | MX-DS | SF-1200 | 40/50/60/100/120 200/240/400/480 (MLC) |
| Mushkin, Inc. Mushkin Mushkin is best known for producing computer memory modules . Located in Englewood, Colorado, United States, Mushkin provides performance enhanced computer products to users worldwide, with customers including gamers and industry professionals, and the firm claims to have supplied Apple Inc... |
Callisto | SF-1200 | 60/120/240 (MLC) |
| Callisto Deluxe | SF-1200 | 40/60/120/240 (MLC) | |
| Chronos | SF-2200 | 60/120/240 (MLC) | |
| Chronos Deluxe | SF-2200 | 60/120/240 (MLC) | |
| OCZ Inc. OCZ Technology OCZ Technology is a manufacturer of computer hardware based in San Jose, California, USA. Since entering the memory market in 2002, OCZ has targeted its products primarily at the computer hardware enthusiast market, first producing performance DDR RAM, Video Cards, USB drives, and various Cooling... |
Agility 2 | SF-1200 | 40/50/100/200/400 (MLC) Extended 60/90/120/180/240/480 (MLC) |
| Agility 3 | SF-2200 | 60/90/120/240 (MLC) Extended 60/90/120/180/240/480 (MLC) |
|
| Onyx 2 | SF-1200 | 120/140 (MLC) | |
| RevoDrive | SF-1222 (x2) |
50/80/120/180/240/360/480 (MLC) | |
| Solid | SF-2200 | 60/120 (MLC) | |
| Vertex 2 | SF-1200 | 40/50/100/200/400 (MLC) Extended 60/90/120/180/240/480 (MLC) |
|
| Vertex 2 Pro | SF-1500 | 50/100/200/400 (MLC) | |
| Vertex 2 EX | SF-1500 | 50/100/200 (SLC) | |
| Vertex 3 | SF-2200 | 120/240/480 (MLC) | |
| Vertex 3 Max IOPS | SF-2200 | 120/240 (MLC) | |
| Z-Drive R4 C-Series | SF-2281 (x4 or x8) |
300/600/800/1200/1600/3200 (MLC) | |
| Z-Drive R4 R-Series | SF-2582 (x4 or x8) |
300/600/800/1200/1600/3200 (MLC) | |
| OWC | Mercury Extreme Pro | SF-1200 | 40/60/120/240/480 (MLC) |
| Mercury Extreme Pro RE | SF-1200 | 50/100/200/400 (MLC) | |
| Mercury Legacy Pro | SF-1200 | 40/60/120/240 (MLC) | |
| Patriot Memory | Inferno | SF-1200 | 60/100/120/200/240 (MLC) |
| PhotoFast | PowerDrive PCI Express | SF-1200 | 240/480/960 (MLC) |
| Pretech | P4000 | TBA | 32/64/128/256 |
| Sandisk SanDisk SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory... |
Ultra | SF-2200 | 120-240 (MLC) |
| Silicon Power Silicon Power Silicon Power Computer & Communications Incorporated , commonly referred to as Silicon Power, is an international brand and a Taiwan based manufacturer of flash memory products including: flash memory cards, USB flash drives, portable hard drives, DRAM modules, card readers, solid state drives, USB... |
Velox series V20 | SF-1xxx | 40/60/120/240 |
| SMART Modular | XceedIOPS (1.8") | SF-1500 | 50/100/200 (eMLC) |
| XceedIOPS (2.5") | SF-1500 | 50/100/200/400 (eMLC) | |
| Solidata | K8 Series (2.5") | SF-1200 | 60/120/240 (MLC) |
| SS Series (2.5") | SF-1500 | 50/100/200 (MLC) | |
| SC Series (2.5") | SF-1200 | 60 (SLC) | |
| SC-P Series (2.5") | SF-1500 | 50/100 (SLC) | |
| SM8 (SATA Mini PCI-e) | SF-1200 | 25/60/120/240 (MLC) | |
| N8 (1.8" Micro SATA) | SF-1200 | 25/60/120/240 (MLC) | |
| Soligen Corp. | Spartan | SF-1200 | 64 (SLC) 128/256 (MLC) |
| Elite Enterprise | SF-1500 | 64/128/256 (MLC) | |
| Flashbridge | SF-1200 | 128/256 (MLC) | |
| Flashbridge Enterprise | SF-1500 | 64/128 (SLC) 128/256 (MLC) |
|
| Super Talent Technology Super Talent Technology Super Talent Technology is a San Jose, California-based designer and manufacturer of DRAM and flash memory products for the computer industry.-History:... |
FT2 (2.5") | SF-1500 | 50/100/200/400 (MLC/SLC) |
| FT (2.5") | SF-1200 | 50/100/200/400 (MLC/SLC) | |
| CT (2.5") | SF-1200 | 60/120/240/480 (MLC/SLC) | |
| Team Group Inc. | Xtreem-S1 | SF-1200 | 60/120/240 (MLC) |
| Unigen Corp. | Orion 1200 (2.5") | SF-1200 | 25/50 (SLC) 100/120/200/240/400/480 (MLC) |
| Orion 1500 (2.5") | SF-1500 | 100/200 (SLC) 100/200/400 (MLC) 100/200/400 (eMLC) |
|
| Orion 1500 SAS (2.5") | SF-1500 | 50/100/200 (SLC) 50/100/200/400 (MLC) 50/100/200/400 (eMLC) |
|
| Orion 297 (MO-297) | TBD | 25/50 (SLC) 30/60/120 (MLC) |
|
| Viking Modular Solutions | SATADIMM | SF-1200 SF-1500 |
25 to 200 (SLC) 50 to 400 (MLC/eMLC) |
| Element 2.5” SATA SSD | N/A | 25/50/100/200 (SLC) 50/100/200/400 (MLC/eMLC) |
|
| Element 2.5” SAS SSD | N/A | 50/100/200 (SLC) 100/200/400 (eMLC) |
|
| Element Slim SATA SSD (MO-297) | N/A | 25/60 (SLC) 25/60/120 (MLC/eMLC) |
|
| Embedded SATA Cube3 | N/A | 4 to 256 |
Systems
In December 2010, SandForce announced the expansion of the SandForce Driven program to include system manufacturers naming Eurocom as the first member in that category. The system manufacturer offers configurations that include SSDs which include SandForce controllers.| Company | Products |
|---|---|
| Eurocom Eurocom Eurocom is a British video game developer founded specifically to develop games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then Eurocom has expanded to several other platforms including handheld game systems and most major video game consoles.The company was once famous for its arcade to console... |
Many |
SandForce Trusted
After the success of the SandForce Driven program, SandForce created the SandForce Trusted program in January 2011, which identifies approved vendors that provide equipment, tools, and services compatible with SandForce SSD Processors. It is a form of Approved Vendor List that helps SSD OEMs and manufacturers get a higher level of service and support from the companies on the SandForce Trusted list. Each member company ensures that their products and/or services fully support SandForce SSD Processors andprovides response to SandForce customer inquiries within 24 hours. SandForce created a new SandForce Trusted logo which member companies use in their advertising and promotional materials.
| Company |
|---|
| Calypso Systems |
| DriveSavers DriveSavers DriveSavers is a privately held company in Northern California that provides data recovery services, and is approved by hardware manufacturers including Alienware, Apple, HP, Maxell, Samsung, Sony, and Western Digital.... |
| Granite River Labs |
| LeCroy LeCroy Corporation LeCroy is a provider of oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers and related test and measurement solutions that enable engineers to design and test electronic devices of all types.... |
| OakGate Technology |
| Serial Cables |
| SerialTek |
| ULINK Technology |