Vertex 4 Overview
The Vertex 4 looks just like any other 2.5-inch solid state drive really. It is currently available in 64, 126, 256 and 512GB versions. On the front there is a sticker that identifies the drive as the Vertex 4. On the back of the drive you will find another sticker with more information, serial numbers and even a QR code.
Just like all hard drives you have your SATA power and data connections on the end of the drive. There are 2 mounting holes on each side of the drive as well as 4 on the bottom of the drive.
Now let’s get under the hood and see what is powering the Vertex 4! Note: When you open your drive you are voiding the warranty. To get inside the drive you remove the 4 screws on the back of the drive and slide the back of the drive off. This may be a little hard as there is a thermal pad that sits on top of the actual controller. The inside of this drive looks very different from many of the solid state drives we have reviewed. The controller sits in the center with memory chips circled around it.
As we said in the introduction the Vertex 4 is powered by the Indilinx Everest 2 platform. This platform is SATA III 6GB/s with support for SLC, MLC, TLC (down to 1xnm) memory with ONF12.3, Toggle, and async support. The Everest 2 controller is a 400MHz dual-core ASIC processor with a 1GB DRAM cache. This is provided by two Micron DDR3-800 512MB chips, one on each side of the PCB.
Looking at the NAND chips there are 16 total. So if this is a 256GB drive that means each chip is 16GB. The chips are labeled OCZ chips with part number M2502128T048SX22. This is 25nm synchronous NAND. From what we know this is Micron-made flash that is branded as OCZ.
