Smart introduces the blisteringly fast Optimus 1.6TB SSD

It wasn't so long ago that speed junkies were foaming at the mouth at the read/write performance offered by Intel's 510 series of SSD storage solutions. Now Smart has announced that it's managed to squeeze up to 1.6TB of solid state memory into the 2.5-inch form factor Optimus drive and leave the competition standing with a sequential read of up to 1GB/s, and write of 500MB/s.

Unfortunately, the Optimus Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) SSD is not being released into the clammy, storage-hungry hands of consumers. The enterprise storage solution will be offered in 200GB, 400GB, 800GB, and 1.6TB capacities, each sporting a SAS 6Gb/s interface with two ports (full duplex) and incorporates the company's Guardian technology to oversee flash management, data integrity and drive reliability. The drives come backed with a 5-year warranty, during which period Smart says that they should be capable of at least ten full device-writes per day.

Smart is also claiming that its Optimus solutions represent the world's fastest multi-level cell and highest capacity SAS SSD's available - notching up a random read performance of 100,000 IOPS, and write of 50,000 IOPS, and sustained sequential read of 1000 MB/s in applications equipped to support wide-port SAS technology, and write of 500 MB/s.

The Optimus SAS SSD enterprise solutions are scheduled to make a public appearance at the Flash Memory Summit between August 9 and 11 in Santa Clara, California ahead of sampling in September. There's no word at all on how much this technology is going to cost, which is probably a good indication that it's going to easily live up to its enterprise status.