OCZ Vertex Overview
Just like most SSD drives there really isn’t much to the Vertex drive. It’s a 2.5-inch drive, mainly because it does not need to be that big since there are no moving parts at all. OCZ sent us the 32B version of the drive, but it also comes in 64, 128, and 256GB versions. There is an OCZ logo on the top of the drive, letting everyone know you are running a Vertex drive.
Flipping the drive over there really isn’t much to see, just an OCZ sticker with some information on it. The drive has your typical SATA power and data connections, I thought I might point that out for people who think SSD’s are a totally new type of drive.
I attempted to open the drive up to take a look inside, but I ended up stripping 2 of the 4 screws on the back right away. After doing some research I found out what’s inside the Vertex drive. Our 30GB version uses Samsung flash memory chips, the Indilinx Barefoot controller chip, and a 64MB cache chip from Elpida.
Most SSD drives that I’ve seen have a JMicron controller, but Indilinx decided to roll out their own controller. This controller code named “Barefoot” is an ARM7 chip which controls a data pipeline between the SATA interface and flash memory. It will be interesting to see how this setup performs compared to earlier SSD setups.
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