LAMD 87800 controller
What's unique about Corsair's SSD is that new LAMD controller. The 87800 controller is state-of-the-art, with SATA600 interface, support for TRIM and impressive speeds of 555 MB/s for reading and 500 MB/s for writing. Little is known about the controller, other than that it doesn't employ SandForce-like compression tricks.
Corsair has introduced two series of SSDs built around the new 87800 controller, the Neutron and the Neutron GTX. In the Neutron the LAMD chip is combined with 25nm flash chips from Micron. The more expensive GTX version has the faster ToggleFlash memory from Toshiba. Both SSD series have 256 MB flash memory.
The LAMD controller in the centre of the small PCB
The Neutron is available in 120 GB and 240 GB models. A 480 GB version has been announced as well, but is not yet available. LAMD and Corsair have left more space for over-provisioning than Marvell or Samsung, and corresponds to the available capacity of most SandForce SSDs.
For the Neutron models Corsair promises read speeds up to 555 MB/s and write speeds of up to 370 MB/s. The GTX version is supposed to have write speeds of 500 MB/s. Both SSDs are 7 mm thick and will fit in any laptop with a 2.5-inch slot.
All Neutrons come with five years of warranty, which has become standard for high-end SSDs. The Corsair Neutron 240GB has an average price of £167, which translates to a price per gigabyte of £0.70. The Neutron GTX costs an average of £199, which is £0.83 per GB. This is more than the Vertex 4, but less than the Plextor M5 Pro, its two main competitors.
Will the LAMD 87800 controller impress?
