WHITE PAPER: LACIE FASTKEY USB 3.0 SSD Summary and FAQ
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WHITE PAPER: LACIE FASTKEY USB 3.0 SSD Summary and FAQ This white paper discusses the advantages of solid-state drives over traditional hard disk drives, focusing on LaCie’s first implementation of this emerging technology, the FastKey USB 3.0. LaCie White Paper (Summary and FAQ): FastKey USB 3.0 SSD WHAT IS A SOLID STATE PERFORMANCE Random Transfer Rate – The amount of data that the device can read or write to non-adjacent sectors DRIVE (SSD)? of the storage media in one second. Access Time – The time a program or device takes SSD is exclusively composed of NAND flash memory to locate a single piece of information and make it Random transfer rate is typically measured in mega- chips and a very fast controller. available to the computer for processing. Access time bytes per second (MB/s). is typically measured in milliseconds (ms). Reliability and speed are higher than standard hard Measured speeds on LaCie FastKey are up disks because there are no moving parts inside, la- Access time for LaCie FastKey is less than to 260MB/s in read mode and 180MB/s in tency, or variable transfer speeds. 1ms, up to 18 times faster than a hard write mode. (USB 2.0 delivers 40MB/s in disk. read mode and 20 MB/s in write mode.) LaCie FastKey is a true SSD. Sequential Transfer Rate – The amount of data Turbo USB 3.0 Drivers that the device can read or write to adjacent sectors of the storage media in one second. MLC OR SLC? LaCie FastKey can work with specific USB 3.0 drivers Sequential transfer rate is typically measured in developed by Symwave. Single-Layer Cell is usually used in “professional megabytes per second (MB/s). grade” products, because both price and reliability WHAT IS WEAR LEVELING? These drivers permit superior performance with LaCie are higher reliability. FastKey on Windows-based computers. NAND flash memory chips have a limited lifetime Multi-Layer Cell is usually used in “consumer grade” (1,000,000 “Programmed/Erased” cycles). Wear products. Leveling has been created in order to mitigate this USB 3.0 Drivers for Mac problem by spreading writes over the entire device Both technologies have the same architecture. and not always on the same memory blocks. LaCie has recently released exclusive USB 3.0 drivers for Mac OS 10.6. LaCie FastKey uses MLC technology. LaCie FastKey uses wear levelling. These drivers permit full USB 3.0 speeds and com- patibility between LaCie’s USB 3.0 products and Apple computers. WHAT IS USB 3.0? WHAT IS TRIM FUNCTION? USB 3.0 (or SuperSpeed USB 3.0) is the latest imple- TRIM is a command for Windows 7, Windows Server WHAT IS DRAM CACHE? mentation of the USB technology (improving on USB 2008, and Linux. 1.1 and USB 2.0). Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) buffer TRIM improves performance when you delete files boosts SSD performances and dramatically increases The main improvement is transfer speed (now up to to prepare the space for future writing. The delete the random and sequential read and write transfer 5Gb/s) and decreased power consumption over USB is slower, but you get better performance for future rates for small files. 2.0. writes because the space is already empty. LaCie FastKey includes 64MB of DRAM LaCie FastKey is a native USB 3.0 device LaCie FastKey is compatible with the TRIM Cache, which permits small file copying but is compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1. function. 100 times quicker than with USB 2.0. Page 2 Page 3 LaCie White Paper (Summary and FAQ): FastKey USB 3.0 SSD HOW TO GET MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE WITH ABOUT LACIE LACIE FASTKEY USB 3.0? Through a combination of cutting-edge engi- neering and a rich history of unique design aes- Overall performance is always limited by the slow- thetics, LaCie has earned an excellent reputa- est component in the system. So be sure that your tion for producing products that are the perfect computer and your USB 3.0 motherboard or USB synthesis of form and function. Our hard disks 3.0 card is correctly installed and configured. and SSDs, network and RAID solutions, optical drives, displays, and accessories are created to FastKey can reach 260MB/s with the following (or enhance and expand your computing environ- equivalent) system configuration: ment, no matter its platform or configuration. ✦ Motherboard ASUS P5Q3 Featuring the exclusive styles of world-re- ✦ Intel Quad Core Q8200 2.34GHz CPU nowned designers such as Neil Poulton, Philippe Starck, Karim Rashid and Sam Hecht, ✦ 4GB of RAM DDR3 LaCie’s award-winning products look stun- ning and perform with unparalleled reliabil- ✦ Windows 7 32-bit ity and versatility. LaCie is a global leader in manufacturing top-of-the-line tools that are ✦ Turbo USB 3.0 drivers (available on the LaCie often first-to-market, constantly raising the FastKey or from www.lacie.com) bar and re-establishing industry standards. ✦ Crystal Disk Mark 3.0 Please visit our website: www.lacie.com, for Speed Results with USB 3.0 PCI Express Card or up-to-date product specifications—available ExpressCard/34 can be lower (approx. 150MB/s in multiple languages for worldwide accessi- with a PCI Express Card and 50MB/s with an Ex- bility. Use it to purchase items online, contact pressCard/34). our excellent technical support or locate the sales office or reseller nearest you. www.lacie.com While reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy, LaCie assumes no liability result- ing from errors or omissions in this document, or from the use of the information contained herein. Page 4.