There is a lot going on right now in the world of solid state disks. Prices are falling, while capacities and IO speeds are constantly climbing. It’s now possible to pick from a good variety of SSDs available from mainstream vendors. I decided to pop for a new 30GB model from OCZ: the 1SLD30G. It is new enough that I couldn’t find any reviews for it. Here is what you need to know.

This drive is capable of belting out some impressive read speeds. Sequential writes seem to be about on par with a mechanical disk. The image below compares the 1SLD30G (left) to a Samsung 320GB mechanical disk (right). The first row in the benchmark shows sequential reading and writing. The next two rows show the performance reading and writing 512kB and 4kB blocks in random locations.

Applications blast open now. Even apps like Photoshop, which used to take 10 seconds or so to start, snap open in just a couple seconds. The machine boots up and shuts down much faster, though I didn’t time it. And it’s kind of weird that it does all of that in silence, without the typical grinding noise of a mechanical disk. Additionally, access time was confirmed at 0.2 ms and CPU utilization was reported as low as 3.2%.

That’s all well and good, but my curiosity had been piqued. I had to pop the drive open and see what control chip was running the show. Low and behold, it is the JMicron JMF602, which is used in many other MLC SSDs. Actually, the OCZ Core V2 drives use the same chip. So it appears that the Solid series is at least very closely related to the Core V2 series. What’s so bad about that?

The problem is that writing a lot of small files can bring the JMF602 to its knees. All it takes is unzipping a file. During an unzipping operation, the computer slows down by a huge amount. I think this has been the reason for so much of the negative hype surrounding the Core V2, and other manufacturer’s drives that use the same chip. Perhaps OCZ is just looking to move more drives by capitalizing on the fact that the average user doesn’t know the Core V2 and Solid series drives use the same controller chip.

Also, keep in mind that motherboard chipsets can have a major impact on SSD speed. My SATA controller is based on the Intel ICH9R. It seemed to handle the SSD like a champ, but many laptop chipsets cripple the read and write speeds of SSDs. Find out what southbridge you have and do some research before buying an SSD.

So what is my final verdict? For my use, this drive is fast most of the time. Yes, it slows down during unzipping and some other activities. And sure, there faster drives, but at a measely $70, the 1SLD30G seems like a good deal. Something to remember is that OCZ has just announced their new Vertex series of SSDs, which although still based on MLC chips, are supposed to have 200 MB/s read and 160 MB/s write capabilities. And the MSRP for the 30G Vertex is $129. So if you have to have an SSD right this minute (I did, heh) the Solid series might be for you. Otherwise I would hold off for the Vertex.

Not quite a year ago, Spark Fun started carrying the first 5 Hz GPS module I can recall seeing. At $99, the price really isn’t that bad considering all of the cool stuff you could do with the faster position updates. I was blown away to find a company called Ohararp that is selling the exact same E-Tek EB-85A GPS module for only $55! It’s not very often you find that big of a swing in prices.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this page and signed up for a free MatchPort sample made by Lantronix. This sweet little device has an internal web server and allows you to send RS232 data over B/G wifi networks at up to 921 kB/s. My sample part showed up last Friday and I can imagine all kinds of cool stuff to do with it. I’ll have to finish up my other projects before I do anything with it though…

This is pretty wild, and I won’t pretend like I completely understand all of what’s going on here, but a company called Flylogic has been tearing down CMOS devices and posting some awesome images of their discoveries. Their latest effort is based on one of my favorite chips, the Atmel ATmega88. They have analyzed many other devices, highlighting possible security flaws, weird design features, and other anomalies. Pretty incredible what you find in a $3.00 chip!

In a recent post, I covered Zonbu, a weird little computer that is really closer to a thin client than anything else. If that idea whets your appetite, you may be interested to know that there are plenty of other similar systems out there. Witness Koolu, Linutop, and fit PC. Not surprisingly, these machines are hardly household names, so no doubt there are other similar devices lurking deep in the bowels of the intarweb. As these little boxes become more powerful, it will be interesting to see if they gain widespread adoption.

Virtual Cogs, similar to gumstix that came before them, are tiny ARM based “single board computers” with a family of proprietary add on modules. While not the first on the scene, Virtual Cogs’ front page boldly announces they are “open source hardware done right.” When most people think open source hardware, Arduino or Ethernut immediately come to mind. These two projects freely distribute their schematic and layout files in Eagle format for no charge. Virtual Cogs will provide you with schematics (in an undisclosed format) for a particular part after you have purchased it, but that’s it - no layout files. The concept of open source hardware is much newer than its software counterpart, and perhaps that accounts for the difference in opinions, but I still wonder what VC is thinking.

Intel’s D201GLY2 mini-ITX motherboard is not a piece of hardware that most American consumers will immediately give a hoot about. It’s soldered on fanless 1.2Ghz CPU is not exactly blazing fast by today’s standards, and the board has limited peripherals and expansion connectors, making it a poor choice for gaming. It is, however, cheap, small, and runs on very little power. Additionally, the D201GLY2 adds SATA over the original D201GLY. SPCR has done a typically thorough review. Combine this board with a picoPSU and I can imagine all sorts of cool stuff you could do with this board… home servers, firewalls, kid’s first computer, etc.

ARM powered gadgets are everywhere. One recently making a big splash is the Hammer by TinCan Tools. $160 buys you a 40-pin DIP sporting a 200Mhz ARM 920T processor plus 16MB of flash and 32MB of SDRAM. Pretty sweet, no doubt. But compare that to another bizarrely packaged creation, the Chumby, which packs a 350Mhz ARM, 64MB flash, 64MB RAM, plus a 320×240 touchscreen LCD, wifi, 2 USB 2.0 ports… for $180! Damn! Don’t get me wrong, I fully realize that the Hammer and the Chumby are designed with entirely different purposes in mind, but ultimately, which would you spend your hard earned greenbacks on?