Why SandForce Is Fast Moving Up the SSD Value Chain

Sold-state drive maker SandForce reported a milestone Feb. 14 in that it has shipped more than 1 million of its SF-1500 and SF-1200 SSD processors since they went into production in 2010.

In addition, SandForce’s 27 manufacturers shipped more than 100 petabytes of NAND flash into mainstream computing markets in 2010, the company said.

The Milpitas, Calif.-based company brashly proclaimed that 100PB is enough storage capacity to contain 2 billion four-drawer filing cabinets full of text, or more than 5,000 years of continuously played standard DVD movies.

That’s a lot of popcorn to eat, too.

The Station isn’t sure how statistics like that are calculated, to tell the truth, and SandForce didn’t go into detail. But it does provide an interesting illustration.

SandForce’s SF-2000 SSD Processor product line features enhanced error correction, built-in double encryption, and a 6Gb/sec SATA III interface. They obviously work well, or else why would anybody buy them?

Jim Handy, the respected SSD analyst at Objective Analysis, has bought into SandForce’s story.

“SandForce-based SSDs have received accolades from leading reviewers, winning the company designs at many leading SSD suppliers, so it’s not surprising that they have so quickly achieved the one million unit milestone,” Handy said. “Technologies like DuraClass, that allow enterprise-class SSDs to use commodity MLC flash, have really helped to put this company on the map.”

Fair enough. SandForce still isn’t Samsung, SanDisk, or Toshiba, but it appears to be moving up the value chain. We’ll have to keep an eye on all those petabytes of NAND flash going out their doors.

Anybody out there have 5K hours of DVD movies?