Introduction

In our very first SandForce SF-2200 article we told you that SandForce opened the door for manufacturers to get creative with products this year. When that article went live we had already learned that some SSD manufacturers were taking a good look at what NAND flash they wanted to use in their SF-2281 offerings. So far, we've only seen IMFT (Intel / Micron) 25nm flash paired with the SandForce SF-2281 controller, but that is about to change.

The OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS uses Toshiba Toggle flash rather than the IMFT flash we saw on the standard Vertex 3 and OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G. In order to use the Toshiba flash, a new PCB was needed and we suspect a few programming tweaks went in as well. The end result was a higher maximum limit for Input / Output operations Per Second.

If a higher IOPS version sounds familiar from OCZ, it's because it is. Last year the Vertex 2 Line was the highest rated IOPS model for the consumer product line of SSDs and the Agility 2 was the 'standard' model. For some reason the naming scheme changed this year. We suspect that OCZ pushed their Vertex 3 out and while doing so found that the Toshiba flash would allow them to push the SF-2281 even higher. The Agility line is returning as is the Solid, both now getting a '3' and both using SandForce controllers. We'll have the Agility 3 in for testing around the time you read this article and at that time we'll break down OCZ's SSD product line for 2011.