Adata XPG SX910 : SSD sous SandForce sans over-provisioning

AData presents a new SSD SandForce under reference to the usable capacity of 7%.

In late February, LSI-SandForce announced the availability of a new firmware for his star on the market for SSD, SF-2281 controller. An important update because it allows manufacturers to flash drives, if they wish, with the over-provisioning and thus offer 7% of additional storage on their models. AData has decided to take advantage of this opportunity with its new SSD in the XPG, launched under SX910 reference range.

                                

A DSS that therefore in shops in capacities of 128, 256 and 512 GB (instead of the usual 120, 240 and 480 GB). AData is of course reassuring, explaining that the lack of over-provisioning is affected in no performance of its disks, or longevity. Faithful to the message passed by LSI-SandForce upon the release of its new firmware. Moreover, since it is better to prevent healing, Adata guarantees the XPG SX910 for 5 years, without however communicate on the number of cycles that the selected cells may cash.

Interfaced in SATA III 6 Gbps and the 2.5-inch format, these SSD Adata promise to reach top-flight performance but nonetheless classic controller SF-2281, namely up to 550 MB/s read and 530 MB/s write sequential (on compressible data), and 85,000 in random IOPS. It now expected of these DSS rates.

Problem in encryption AES-256 for SandForce

SandForce SF - 2000 controllers are affected by a problem in the management of the hardware encryption in AES 256 bit.

An internal audit conducted by LSI discovered a concern in the management of the hardware encryption offered by the SandForce SF-2000 series chips. Other solutions of hardware encryption for hard disks, SandForce controllers use two systems separate encryption, first of 256 bit and 128 bit a second. According to the audit, the first level 256 bit is not present, not working in 128-bit mode.

For individuals, the problem is not really embarrassing, but for companies and Governments that have special constraints on the encryption of hard disks, it becomes a little more serious. For example, the US Government asked that used hard drives are encrypted in AES 256 bit, what these controllers offered natively. However, if the controller does not handle...

If this is really disturbing, some manufacturers of DSS that uses its default controllers offer rebate offers or alternatives. For example, Intel offers fully reimburse customers who have purchased flash drives of the series 520 - Yes, no error on the press release - 1 July, and have just contacted customer service before October 1 for it. Kingston for its SSDNow V200 + and its KC100 and adds that a solution is being developed jointly with LSI to repair this problem of encryption. Of course, other manufacturers using the SandForce controllers will also publish their news releases to meet the demands of their customers.