AMD SSDs!
Paging Mr. Hallock. (I know you can;t give us any info)
From engadget.com/2014/08/07/amd-radeon-r7-ssds/
"With all the computing components AMD makes already, it's still hard to believe the company has yet to explore the solid-state drive space. But that's about to change soon -- it looks like AMD's finally ready to get into the business of making SSDs. Not surprisingly, the chip maker is bringing its new SSD line to market under the renowned Radeon R7 brand, perhaps hoping that becomes an incentive for potential customers. These solid-state drives, which AMD says are geared toward PC gamers, will be available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB flavors, while the advertised read and write speeds appear to be on par with similar offerings from competitors like Samsung. Unfortunately, it's not easy to compare any further, since AMD won't be announcing the price of its Radeon R7 SSDs until they launch "later this year.""
I feel there is already decent competition in the flash storage arena, but I won't complain about the possibility of AMD shaking the game up a bit. I do find it interesting that users are basically going to build a rig that is almost entirely AMD branded (CPU, GPU, RAM and now SSDs). I can see some marketing potential in that. What's the IC consensus? Do want?
Comments
If what I've read is true, the OEM is OCZ. I've been very happy with their SSDs and own several from the Vertex 2 all the way up to their RevoDrive line. The Barefoot 3 controller used in the Vector series is quite reliable and a good performer. Again, if sources are accurate, this is the same controller in the Radeon R7 SSDs.
buyRydersShit
Perhaps with custom firmware to take advantage of AMD's unique processing architectures it will be differentiated enough to be interesting?
They'll have to do something, for sure. The problem with SSDs is similar to the problem with LCD panels, in that there are very few companies that actually make them.
That means that the differentiation needs to come from the packager. And value-adds to things like an SSD, which are so completely dependent on the qualities of their underlying components, will be exceedingly difficult.
http://www.storagereview.com/amd_radeon_r7_series_ssd_review
Pretty much what Mr. DeGruven said. Differentiation through marketing is not easy with commodities. If this SSD came with free games, it would do better. Until then, it's sort of like a rebranded OCZ drive that AMD seems to want to sell just based on riding out their own brand name unless I'm missing something.
There is no drive in OCZ's lineup that uses the hardware our SSD does. We use a faster controller than the Vertex, first-to-market Toshiba A19nm NAND, and we're their only SKU with a 4-year warranty. Other products are 3 or 5.
Generally we have a strategy to increase the number of AMD-branded products, pushing closer to the "all-AMD" system that users are building in droves. Even without the all-AMD angle, we're whipping the competition on price.
Finally {breathes again}
Eric and I have been talking about this for over a year.
I do believe we discussed it before you were actually doing the marketing for it? I know you heard of it early.
Then I want