SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flash Memory Summit 2011 -- STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEC), The SSD Company™, a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and solutions, today announced a new integrated application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) architecture for its popular ZeusIOPS® enterprise-class SSD family making them more cost-efficient. The new ZeusIOPS SSD ASIC architecture will be demonstrated in the company's booth (#300) at this week's Flash Memory Summit and offers a comprehensive array of options optimized for enterprise system architects that includes 6 Gigabyte (GB) Serial Attached Storage (SAS) and Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces, as well as a broad range of capacities supporting up to 1.6 Terabytes (TB) of user accessible storage.
The new ASIC-based ZeusIOPS SSD product family, based on three previous generations of field-proven ZeusIOPS SSD success, combines high-performance with cost efficiencies that support enterprise applications. The overall ZeusIOPS SSD cost has been reduced by moving to a customized ASIC controller that intelligently manages the growing complexities associated with shrinking NAND flash memory geometries. In addition, the ASIC controller has been designed to utilize NAND process geometries of either 3X or 2X nanometers, providing more functionality in a smaller footprint, as well as reducing overall device cost and power consumption.
ZeusIOPS SSDs enable server and storage systems to reach the outstanding and sustainable input/output operations per second (IOPS) performance required for today's demanding data center and virtualization requirements. They provide long-lasting reliability, increase server utilization and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) in the data center by delivering a high-performance drop-in replacement for enterprise hard disk drives (HDDs). SAS and FC interfaces support 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors, with future products to support 1.8-inch form factors.
"ZeusIOPS SSDs have led the way in enabling businesses to access critical data in the enterprise, overcoming the performance bottlenecks inherent with traditional rotating HDD storage media, and now we provide an even more cost-effective design with our new ASIC architecture," said Manouch Moshayedi, STEC's Chairman and CEO. "Data is money in today's economy and our new ASIC-based ZeusIOPS SSD family delivers high-performance, advanced wear-leveling, and exceptional data integrity, at a cost that is unmatched in the industry."
Supporting very high throughput for enterprise storage and server platforms, the transactional performance of ASIC-based ZeusIOPS SSDs exceeds 120,000/70,000 sustained IOPS with sequential large block transfers of up to 500 Megabytes per second.
To improve the endurance and reliability of its ZeusIOPS SSD multi-level cell (MLC) flash-based architecture, STEC's CellCare™ and Secure Array of Flash Elements™ (S.A.F.E.) technologies have also been further advanced. CellCare utilizes adaptive flash access, signal processing, data management algorithms and error correction codes to improve ZeusIOPS SSD endurance and can handle intensive workloads of up to 10 full capacity writes per day for over five years without limiting ZeusIOPS SSD performance. S.A.F.E. technology eliminates virtually all failures associated with both SLC and MLC flash, providing yet another mechanism to reduce ZeusIOPS SSD failures.
This new generation of cost-effective, ASIC-based ZeusIOPS SSDs is now sampling to key customers. For more information regarding this solution, or other STEC enterprise solid-state solutions covering ZeusRAM™, Kronos™ PCIe and MACH16™, please visit the company's web site at http://www.stec-inc.com.
About STEC
STEC, Inc., The SSD Company™, is a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and solutions tailored to meet the high-performance, high-reliability needs of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). With headquarters in Santa Ana, California and locations worldwide, STEC leverages almost two decades of solid-state knowledge and experience to deliver the most comprehensive line of SSDs to the storage industry. For more information, visit the company's web site at http://www.stec-inc.com.
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STEC, the STEC logo, The SSD Company, CellCare, MACH16, Secure Array of Flash Elements, ZeusIOPS and ZeusRAM are either registered trademarks or trademarks of STEC, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks or brand names referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those statements concerning customer adoption, sampling and utilization of ZeusIOPS SSD products; the performance of ZeusIOPS SSD products; the cost efficiencies of ASIC-based ZeusIOPS SSD products; the adoption of ZeusIOPS SSD products into new applications and markets; the benefits from CellCare, Secure Array of Flash Elements, and other developing technologies; overall product and solution cost savings; the capabilities and performance of STEC's products and solutions; and the evolving enterprise storage and server markets. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are detailed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made from time to time by STEC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and its Current Reports on Form 8-K. The information contained in this press release is a statement of STEC's present intention, belief or expectation. STEC may change its intention, belief or expectation, at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in STEC's assumptions or otherwise. STEC undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.