NTRODUCTION

   Who would had thought even just 5 years ago that a few years later one could just walk inside an electronics store and pick an SSD (Solid State Drive) out of a whole section filled with models from virtually every single storage media manufacturer out there? Well i always thought it would be just a matter of time but i have to admit that i never really expected to see SSD models get released even by companies which appeared out of nowhere and without any previous products in the market. That being said the competition with the leading manufacturers that hold the largest percentage of the SSD market as we speak is always a good thing since it helps keep product quality at good levels while it also helps control prices so i can't say i mind. Today on our test bench we have one of the most recent SSD models to hit the market the Slim S55 240GB by our close friends over at Silicon Power.

   Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, SP has been recognized and well accepted by millions of end-users in more than 100 countries, becomes the world’s leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, DRAM modules, solid state disks, and portable hard drives in less than a decade. Headquartered in Taipei, we continuously established various branches throughout the world including Netherlands, Japan, Russia, Mainland China and other emerging market. With superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009 and 2010. Winning trust of global consumers SP holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. For SP, the product we introduced is not only a digital storage device but also a real promise to create and preserve your most valuable memory in every moment.

   Last time we had a SSD model by Silicon Power with us it was their Velox V55 240GB model which featured the cost-effective PS3108-S8-I SATA-to-Flash 8-channel micro-controller by PHISON paired with 19nm MLC NAND flash by Toshiba. The flash controller by PHISON may not be the most popular in the market right now but several manufacturers have also made use of their controllers in the past including Crucial, Corsair, Team Group, Good Ram and MyDigitalSSD so PHISON must be doing something right. Strangely enough the brand new Slim S55 model also makes use of the same PS3108-S8-I controller by PHISON as the V55 did over a year ago (uses an updated firmware version however) so we don't really expect much in terms of performance difference between those two models. Also much like most consumer oriented SSD models in the market currently the PHISON controller may support many basic features including AES encryption, NCQ/TRIM/RAID, S.M.A.R.T and DEVSLP (Device Sleep) but lacks the tantalum capacitor array used for power-loss emergencies. So after this somewhat short introduction the time has come for us to see how the Slim S55 does in terms of read/write performance.