Start-up releases uber-fast, efficient enterprise-class SSDs

Pliant's SSD controller architecture is not vastly different from those of other high-end SSD manufacturers. It has twelve independent I/O channels to interleaved single level cell (SLC) NAND flash chips from Samsung Corp. The drives are configured as RAID 0 for increased performance and the controller.

Most enterprise-class SSDs today also use a general purpose field programmable gate array (FPGA) controllers as opposed to Pliant's custom controller, which is programmed specifically to address SSD issues, such as wear leveling (spreading writes more evenly throughout the memory) and write amplification (reducing the number of operations required for a write), according to analysts.

Also unique to Pliant's controller is the use of a triple redundancy error correction code algorithm to ensure that meta data - which is used to locate data on the drive -- is saved even if two copies of it become corrupted. Also, the lack of any DRAM cache, which can store data writes more quickly, laying them down on the NAND flash chips during non-peak performance periods, is also unique to Pliant's enterprise-class product.

Some of today's more popular server-class SSDs, like those from Intel, use serial ATA interfaces, which has a half-duplex interface as opposed to SAS, which like Fibre Channel, is full duplex. The difference between the two is that full duplex is dual ported, allowing for reads and writes at the same time. Single-port half-duplex allows for one or the other.

Pliant, based in Milpitas, Calif., released its new SSDs for beta testing last year and plans to make them generally available later this month. The company raised $15 million in Series C funding in March, which was used to ramp up production of the SSDs, the company said.

"I think with Pliant's announcement we're starting to see some of the true promises of SSD coming to market," Janukowicz said. "A lot of these applications are demanding, mission critical, 24/7 applications and they require high reliability, efficiency and predictable performance. And, based on Pliant's claims, they see to have addressed many of those important issues."

The company refused to release a suggested retail price for the drives. However, it did note that the drives will be more expensive than Intel's X25-E SSD, which sells for $780 for a 64GB SATA model, and less expensive than STECs Zeus SSD, which sells for about $6,000 for a 73GB Fibre Channel model.

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