OCZ RevoDrive X2 uses 4 SSDs in RAID

Memory specialist OCZ Technologies has announced an update to its RevoDrive PCI-Express SSD, which greatly increases its speed and capacity.

The aptly-named RevoDrive X2 connects up to four SandForce-based SSD modules to a single PCI Express x4 slot, promising speeds of up to 740MB/sec and 120,000 input-output operations per second (IOPS), some three times faster than rival SATA-based devices.

Ryan Petersen, OCZ's chief executive, stated of the launch that 'the original OCZ RevoDrive SSD was designed to be the first high-performance, bootable PCIe SSD solution and has become a popular choice for demanding computing applications that require faster, more reliable storage,' but its successor 'delivers both increased performance and capacity, making the RevoDrive X2 a viable option for a wide spectrum of applications that include professional graphic design, multimedia rendering, and workstations.'

Much of the increased performance comes courtesy of the four SandForce-1200 SSD controllers included in the design, which are internally connected in RAID 0 to increase capacity and throughput. While the original RevoDrive offered the same technology, it only had a pair of SandForce controllers.

The RevoDrive X2 will be manufactured in the company's shiny new Taiwan SSD plant, enabling the company to churn out up to 140,000 of the new devices each month in capacities ranging from the 100GB base model to the 960GB top-end version.

The design of the RevoDrive X2 is similar to that of the Wings PCIe SSD from the UK-based Angelbird, which manages to beat OCZ's latest creation in the speed stakes with claims of 1.02GB/s read speeds on the four-module model.

UK pricing and availability for the RevoDrive X2 has not yet been confirmed.

Are you pleased to see OCZ looking at high-performance devices like the RevoDrive X2, or would you prefer to see it concentrating on bringing out cheaper devices for more mainstream use? Share your thoughts over in the forums.