Marvell has introduced a new SATA controller that could truly change the game in performance computing. The hard drive is the largest bottleneck in today’s computers, unable to keep up with the speed of today’s processors. Over the years we have watched as hard drives have gotten faster up to the latest in SSD drives which, as it turns out, is not much faster than today’s SATA drives. If you could double the hard drive speed that would enable your computer to truly unleash its maximum potential for many years to come. Here is the press release from Marvell. I can’t wait to try this!

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 9, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL), a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today launched the Marvell® 88SE9230 6Gb/s SATA controller powered by HyperDuo™ embedded processor technology. The new Marvell 88SE9230 solution is designed to deliver twice the performance, capacity and scalability as its predecessor to unleash groundbreaking solid state drive (SSD) benefits to consumer desktop motherboards and consumer electronics products. Marvell's HyperDuo technology enables SSD-like performance while allowing all data to be stored on traditional SATA hard disk drives (HDDs).

Marvell's newest advanced SATA controller lays the groundwork for the next-generation of high-end consumer applications, doubling in capacity with four ports for SSD or HDD connectivity, while two PCIe 2.0 lanes are now equipped to deliver double the PCIe bus bandwidth to accommodate multiple SATA SSDs. The 88SE9230 SATA controller uses intelligent algorithms to automatically pin hot data files and directories to up to three SATA SSDs while enabling all data to be safely stored on larger capacity SATA HDDs. The 88SE9230 is also designed to provide unparalleled security, including 128/256 bit on-the-fly AES encryption to ensure maximum data security.
"Marvell is continuing in its mission to deliver leading-edge automated and integrated SSD acceleration technology to the mainstream consumer technology market via the high-performance, low cost and low power silicon solutions the company is renowned for," said Shawn Kung, director of Product Marketing at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "Our leadership in SATA technology products is reaffirmed with today's milestone 88SE9230 launch and the dedicated support of our marquis customers."

The Marvell SATA 6Gb/s controller powered by HyperDuo technology brings integrated SSD acceleration technology to the mainstream consumer technology market, especially with high-end desktops and laptops, home NAS and set-top boxes and host bus adapters. Touting an enhanced CPU for unrivaled processing performance, the new solution now supports concurrent RAID 0/1 on SATA HDDs while running HyperDuo technology to enable a dual SSD + dual RAID0/1 HDD configuration. These capabilities are being further maximized through the use of technology providers across all elements of SATA technology, including Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba for hard disk drives (HDD); ASRock, ASUSTek, GIGABYTE and msi for motherboards; Micron and OCZ for SSDs.

"Marvell is once again advancing the data transfer standard in the consumer electronics industry by delivering an advanced SATA controller with SSD-like capabilities at less than a third of the cost of competitive solutions," said Tim Bajarin, president, Creative Strategies. "Through a unique technology that combines the performance benefits of SSD with the storage and cost benefits of HDD, Marvell is helping its customers cost-effectively support both the latest and future demands in consumer-intensive applications across devices. Doubling the performance, capacity and scalability of its solution and adding on-the-fly encryption to the 88SE9230 is impressive, and further cements Marvell's legacy as an industry leader that fully understands the needs of the market and its deep roster of customers."

"The Marvell 88SE9230 delivers even greater performance with our latest hard disk drives and Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard series without sacrificing security, which is increasingly important to our customers," said Tom Lin, general manager of the Server Business Unit at ASUSTek. "Marvell has security covered in full, enabling our customers to turn on the most advanced encryption in the industry, on-the-fly, to ensure against data theft and bolster their experience with our products."

"ASRock selected Marvell's 88SE9230 controller to implement into our products because we only leverage the world's best motherboard technology and Marvell is a clear leader in this space," said James Lee, vice president of Sales and Marketing at ASRock. "By doubling the performance, capacity and scalability of its leading SATA controller technology, Marvell is equipping us to achieve greater performance potential than ever before possible with enhanced storage reliability while setting new standards for the industry."

"The Marvell 88SE9230 is the industry's first PCI-e 2.0 x2 lane SATA 6Gb/s storage IC setting new SATA performance standard," said Dr. Michael Whang president and CEO at HighPoint Technologies. "The Marvell 88SE9230 enables HighPoint to stay a step ahead of the competition and we are excited to be among the first adopters to deliver RAID HBA that truly leverages SATA 6Gb/s SSD performance and doubles storage capacity."

"The Marvell 88SE9230 helps maximize the throughput available for SATA storage devices," said Justin Sykes, director of Client SSD Products at Micron. "We're always optimizing our solid-state drive designs to deliver to the full performance potential of our Flash technology. It's great to work with companies like Marvell who help ensure all that performance can be delivered to the end-customer."

Get all the details at http://www.marvell.com/storage/system-solutions/sata-controllers