OCZ "Garbage Collection" Firmware for SSDs Highlighted at the Enterprise Storage Forum

OCZ not only is at the forefront of the Solid State Drive (SSD) market for our diverse product offerings, but also for our unrelenting dedication to supply our customers with the latest firmware updates so they can get the most out of their high-performance SSDs. OCZ is in close collaboration with our controller partners including Indillinx, and have been able to offer a specially tailored "Garbage Collection" (GC) feature for our Vertex and Agility Series to restore performance. Check out the article to see the Enterprise Storage Forum's interview with our VP of Product Management Eugene Chang, and how OCZ has lead the way in regards to end-user SSD support.

Among the vendors with innovative garbage collection approaches are Indilinx, OCZ Technology Group, and SandForce. OCZ takes a different approach to garbage collection, said Eugene Chang, vice president of product management for OCZ Technology Group."Our drives are engineered with garbage collection or TRIM support, with the actual implementation dependent on the drive architecture [such as internal RAID], intended target market and application," he said.

Chang added that OCZ's goal is to keep SSD performance at peak levels over the drive's lifespan. OCZ, he said, uses two basic garbage collection methods: incorporating the maintenance within firmware, and providing user-initiated tools to accomplish the same task. OCZ provides three different garbage collection methods, said Chang.Some OCZ drives feature idle-time garbage collection in the firmware, including PCI-Express and high-capacity 3.5-inch SSDs, which aim for high-performance endurance. OCZ's mainstream 2.5-inch SSD solutions ship with TRIM support, which is enabled on Windows 7 and various Linux versions.

For users who prefer Windows XP or Vista, OCZ provides a manual garbage collection tool that can be initiated at the user's discretion, said Chang, noting that the company also provides a garbage collection upgrade firmware for XP and Vista systems. "Garbage collection is just one more tool in OCZ's feature sets that helps sustain the revolutionary performance of SSDs over the long term," said Chang.

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