When you have something as modular as a PC, with all its little bits individually replaceable but still interdependent, it stands to reason that advances in one area might necessitate changes in another. Better video cards demand faster interfaces; thus, PCI Express x16. Faster processors and motherboard functions require more power; thus, more pins on the connector. Now, SSDs are taking over the storage space and your hard drive controller deserves a critical look. After all, the setup and drivers are based on 20 years of working with the limitations of spinning platters, a certain kind of sequential reads, and so on.

Indilinx has been working on (and has finalized) a new controller specifically for SSDs. The new architecture, called Barefoot, has allowed them to reach speeds of 230MB/second, which is twice what a single unit could do last I checked, and getting on towards as much as four could do in RAID-0. Although Memoright and Texas Memory’s RAM-SANs are technically faster, it’s worth noting that both (especially RAM-SAN) are extremely expensive. The Barefoot modules should be more scalable and will get the best out of any SSDs you have lying around up to 512GB. Sounds good to me.

You like that graphic? I pulled out all the stops.