Introduction

As I'm sitting here looking over the performance numbers Speed Channel is airing a documentary on the Porsche 911. Around 1963 Porsche released their iconic two door sports car. The 911 name lives on today, but so does the exterior design. When you see a 911, be it a model produced in 1969, my favorite, the 1982 slant nose turbo with the big whale tail to the new 2012 you know it is a 911. Altogether, there have only been seven major revisions to this car, quite a legacy.

The Marvell 88SS9174 isn't quite sixty years old, but the controller first hit the scene in January 2010, a long time in computer component years. Just like the 911, each minor revision adds to the speed and functionality. Also like the 911, the components that surround the main controller have changed to produce a better product.

Plextor has taken a bit of that Porsche magic and brought it into the new M3 Pro solid state drive. The base for the M3 Pro is the same 9174 controller we've been reporting on for more than two years. Plextor has paired this ageless controller with the newest NAND flash on the market today, Toshiba 24nm Toggle Mode flash.

The 256GB model M3 Pro that we are looking at today is also equipped with a massive 512MB cache buffer which certainly adds to the amazing performance we're seeing from this new series of products from Plextor. We've already seen the performance of the 128GB model; now let's take a close look at the 256GB model.

Let's go dive into the technical details.