Update on Viking’s SATADIMM SSD--no cable needed, Sandforce SSD controller

Previously, I wrote about Viking’s SATADIMM, an SSD built into a standard DDR DIMM (see “SSD Form Factors: Viking Modular Solutions talk at Flash Memory Summit explodes the possibilities”). Michael Bloebaum, owner of a company in the Netherlands named SSD Distribution, “announced” Viking’s SATADIMM in LinkedIn’s Solid State Disk Innovator’s group and prompted some good discussion. Gene Patino, VP of High Performance Products at Justyn Tyme Solutions in Orange County, California commented that the SATADIMM merely uses the DIMM socket for a convenient and omnipresent power outlet and that the SSD’s SATA interface is on a separate connector, accessed via a SATA cable. Then Steve Garceau, a Senior Product Manager at Viking Modular Solutions commented that the SATADIMM’s SATA interface is also easily accessed through the DIMM connector; that it is relatively easy and cost-effective to design a motherboard with a DIMM socket that accepts either a standard DDR SDRAM DIMM or a Viking Modular Solutions’ SATADIMM; and that the motherboard BIOS can be configured to automatically detect the type of DIMM occupying the socket so that the system can be appropriately configured. Have your cake and eat it too.

Also in this discussion, both Bloebaum and Patino stated that the Viking SATADIMM employs a Sandforce SSD controller.