Operation and Performance Characteristics
Product Description
Zeus Ultra DMA Solid State Drives
11
1.7.4
Data Transfer Rate
The data transfer rate of Zeus SSDs depends on the flash controller/flash memory
configuration of the drive. The drive’s scalable architecture is capable of accommodating
sustained and burst data transfer rates as follows:
Sustained Read/Write Rates:
20, 30, 40 and 60 MB/sec
Burst Read/Write Rate:
66 MB/sec
1.7.5
Endurance
The useful life of a flash media is limited by the number of write/erase operations that can
be performed on the media. Typically, the write/erase cycles for flash media ranges
between 100,000 and 300,000. To extend the useful life of Zeus SSDs, special wear-
leveling and bad-block mapping algorithms are integrated in the drive’s firmware—
increasing the drive’s overall endurance rating to 2,000,000 write/erase cycles.
1.7.5.1 Wear-Leveling
The dynamic wear-leveling algorithm integrated in the Zeus SSD’s firmware guarantees
that erase/write cycles are evenly distributed across all of the drive’s flash memory block
locations. Wear-leveling eliminates repeated writes to the same physical flash memory
location, thereby preventing blocks from wearing out prematurely.
1.7.5.2 Bad-block Management
The Zeus SSD’s bad-block mapping algorithm, replaces bad blocks with new ones from
available spares. One percent (1%) of the Zeus SSD’s flash memory is held in reserve
(spare block) for bad block replacement. Bad blocks in the media are flagged when
detected. The next time an attempt is made to access a flagged block, it is immediately
replaced by a spare block. The drive’s bad block mapping function enables data to be
automatically transferred from a bad sector to an available spare block.
1.7.5.3 Data Retention
Data stored on Zeus SSDs remains valid for 10 years without requiring power support.
1.7.6
Reliability
1.7.6.1 Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
The average time Zeus SSDs work without failure is typically greater than 2,300,000
hours.
