OCZ launches second-gen Agility and Vertex SSD series

We've known about these drives for quite a while already, but today OCZ officially announced their second generation Vertex and Agility SSDs. Both drives are based on MLC NAND memory chips and use the new SandForce controllers for achieving up to 285MB/s read and 275MB/s write speeds, with sustained writes at an impressive 250MB/s. The differentiator between the two, however, is the all important random write performance.


The Vertex 2 is capable of 50,000 IOPS with 4KB random writes while the Agility 2 offers a much lower but still remarkable 10,000 IOPS. To put this into perspective, Intel's often praised second generation X-25M manages 6,600 IOPS in this same test. Seek times for both OCZ solid-state drive models stay under 0.1ms and power consumption is rated at just 2W in operation or 0.5W in standby.

The Agility 2 and Vertex 2 series will ship in 50GB, 100GB, 200GB and 400GB varieties in a few weeks with a SATA 3Gbps interface, TRIM support and a three-year warranty. Prices have not been disclosed at the time of writing.

Memristors could make CPUs and RAM obsolete

Dubbed the "memory of the future," a new type of integrated circuit combining resistors with memory capabilities was recently shown off by HP and touted as a possible alternative to transistors in both computation and storage devices. Today, these functions are handled by separate chips, meaning data must be transferred between them, slowing down the computation and wasting energy. Could this new tech mean the unification of memory and CPU?


In simplest terms, transistors are the on/off mechanisms which allow CPUs to compute and memory to store data. CPUs are often made with tens or even hundreds of millions of transistors. As the performance and capacity of devices increase, so do the number of transistors. Memristors have the potential to fundamentally change circuitry by performing the same duties as the transistor, but more efficiently and occupying far less space.

They also provide some unique properties such as three-dimensional stacking, faster switching, retention of off/on states without power and a proven durability which exceeds hundreds of thousands of reads/writes.

Little more than theory in 1971, the development of actual memristors didn't become reality until 2008 by an HP Labs research team led by Professor Stan Williams. The idea may have been floating around for some time, but finding the processes and materials to physically engineer memristors have remained elusive. A detailed article on the subject can be found here, explaining some of the principles behind how memristors work. If the technology proves viable, it will no doubt become a hugely important breakthrough for our increasingly digital lives -- perhaps in as little as three years.

Gateway FX 6831-03 Gaming Desktop PC Review

While many hardcore gamers and hardware enthusiasts will tell you it's better to build your own rig, some still choose to go with a custom-built model from a recognized brand name. These often come attached to higher premiums, but also to comprehensive customer support and warranties covering the entire system, plus the peace of mind of not having to deal with any troubles that may occur while assembling it piece by piece.

The Gateway FX 6831-03 on our test bed today features an Intel Core i7 860 processor operating at 2.8 GHz (up to 3.46 GHz with Turbo Boost), a whopping 16GB of DDR3 memory, 1.5 TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive and an ATI Radeon HD 5850 graphics card with 1 GB of onboard memory.


Priced at around $1,650, the Gateway FX6831-03 is aimed at those who want a very capable gaming system that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It is more of a "budget" system in the larger arena of gaming rigs, which can cost you upwards of $5,000, but its hardware should be able to deliver enough performance to handle any game you throw at it with little effort.