OCZ Technology Launches New Enterprise-Class Intrepid 3000 Series SSDs

OCZ Technology Launches New Enterprise-Class Intrepid 3000 Series Delivering Its Fastest and Largest Capacity SATA III SSDs to Date

Superior Sustained I/O Operations and Latency Consistency Positions the Intrepid 3000 Series in a Class by Itself

SAN JOSE, CA December 12, 2013 – OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today introduced its next-generation Intrepid 3000 Series of enterprise-class SATA III-based SSDs delivering the industrys best sustained performance and consistent I/O responses. As the series supports storage capacities up to 800GB, Intrepid 3 represents OCZs highest performing and largest capacity enterprise SATA SSDs to date. Leveraging the Everest 2 Platform, a combination of the Marvell 88SS9187 controller with OCZs proprietary firmware, the new series features advanced flash management and endurance capabilities that extend NAND flash life and enhance drive reliability, all supported by a 5-year warranty.

Incredibly fast best describes the new Intrepid 3000 Series. In a steady state condition by which the drive is writing, erasing and re-writing data repeatedly over the full capacity of the drive, the performance for both large block sequential operations, as well as small block random operations, is unrivaled. This includes 520 MB/s for sequential reads (128K blocks), 470 MB/s for sequential writes (128K blocks), 91,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reads (4K blocks) and 40,000 IOPS for random writes (4K blocks). In comparison to OCZs previous SATA III enterprise drives, the Intrepid 3000 Series delivers five times faster sustained performance for 4K write operations and two times faster sustained performance for 4K read operations.

The proprietary Intrepid 3000 Series firmware is optimized to achieve consistent I/O responses and continues to perform at top speed regardless of whether data is in a compressed or uncompressed format. In this scenario, OCZs new advanced flash management efficiently manages all of the housekeeping routines such as garbage collection, enabling the SSD to keep up with incoming read and write requests.

Our new Intrepid 3000 Series leverages in-house firmware with an impressive enterprise feature-set to enable customers with unprecedented performance, data management, endurance and reliability, and cost flexibility resulting in an optimal storage environment, said Daryl Lang, SVP of Product Management for OCZ Technology. Delivering exceptional SSD responsiveness in even the most demanding and compute-intensive applications, the Intrepid 3000 Series achieves unsurpassed performance under any workload, regardless of data type and I/O pattern for the complete spectrum of applications including online archiving, media streaming and web browsing OLTP, VDI, email and analytics.

The Intrepid 3000 Series features an advanced suite of endurance and reliability tools designed to extend NAND flash memory life while providing the enterprise-class endurance, reliability and data integrity required by todays data center managers. This includes:

• Strong multi-level BCH error correction coding (ECC) that effectively corrects errors up to 85 bits per 2Kb of data while significantly reducing the uncorrectable bit error rate (UBER);
• End-to-end data path protection that performs data integrity checks at every juncture where data is transmitted, received, processed and stored ensuring that corrupted data is detected and not propagated;
• In-flight data protection that prevents data loss in the event of a sudden power failure guaranteeing that the in-progress write operations complete and data is properly stored in SSD flash;
• Internal SSD RAID redundancy provides additional safeguards to supplement traditional ECC algorithms, and further reduce uncorrectable bit error rates;
• Lower write amplification by concatenating multiple write requests from the host while minimizing wasteful copy back operations of unaffected data sectors;
• 256-bit AES encryption compliance for data security (encrypting data in large 256-bit key sizes); and
• Additional flash management techniques such as dynamic and static wear-leveling, background garbage collection, TRIM support and system/storage monitoring via Self-Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology (SMART).

The Intrepid 3000 Series supports the industry standard 2.5-inch form factor and is available in two configurations. The Intrepid 3600 drives utilize reliable and cost-effective Multi Level Cell (MLC) NAND media while the Intrepid 3800 models feature high endurance enterprise MLC (eMLC) NAND media. For read-intensive applications, such as online archiving, media streaming and web browsing, the Intrepid 3600 MLC Series is the best alternative and guarantees one complete drive write per day for 5 years. For write-intensive or mixed workload applications such as OnLine Transaction Processing (OLTP), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), email servers and analytics, OCZs Intrepid 3800 Series provides the best option and guarantees five complete writes per day for 5 years.

Both the new Intrepid 3600 and the Intrepid 3800 models are ideally suited for mega data centers and makers of storage appliances where optimum performance backed by high endurance and reliability are critical. Both configurations are available in 100GB, 200GB, 400GB and 800GB usable storage capacity models. All Intrepid 3000 Series models will be available through OCZs global channel of authorized enterprise solution resellers in the first quarter of 2014. More information on the Intrepid 3000 Series can be accessed at www.ocz.com/enterprise.

About OCZ Technology Group, Inc.

Founded in 2002, San Jose, CA-based OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OCZ) is a global leader in the design, manufacturing, and distribution of high-performance solid-state storage solutions and premium computer components. Offering a complete spectrum of solid-state drives (SSDs), OCZ provides SSDs in a variety of form factors and interfaces (i.e. PCIe, SAS and SATA) to address a wide range of client and enterprise applications. Having developed firmware and controller platforms, to virtualization and endurance extending technologies, the company delivers vertically integrated solutions enabling transformational approaches to how digital data is captured, stored, accessed, analyzed and leveraged by customers. More information is available at www.ocz.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this release relate to future events and expectations and as such constitute forward-looking statements involving known and unknown factors that may cause actual results of OCZ Technology Group, Inc. to be different from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. In this context, words such as “will,” “would,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “should” or other similar words and phrases often identify forward-looking statements made on behalf of OCZ. It is important to note that actual results of OCZ may differ materially from those described or implied in such forward-looking statements based on a number of factors and uncertainties, including, but not limited to the potential benefits of the Intrepid 3000 SSD Series, market acceptance of OCZ’s products and OCZ’s ability to continually develop enhanced products; adverse changes both in the general macro-economic environment as well as in the industries OCZ serves, including computer manufacturing, traditional and online retailers, information storage, internet search and content providers and computer system integrators. Other general economic, business and financing conditions and factors are described in more detail in “Item 1A — Risk Factors” in Part I in OCZ’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on October 7, 2013, and statements made in other subsequent filings. The filing is available both at www.sec.gov as well as via OCZ’s website at www.ocz.com. OCZ does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements.