Angelbird
Private | |
Industry |
Computer peripherals Computer hardware Solid-state drives |
Founded | 2011 |
Headquarters | Lustenau, Vorarlberg, Austria |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
Roman Rabitsch (CEO) Mark Pustjens (CTO) Dirk de Bont (Global Sales) Chris Bovey (Founder) |
Products | Solid-state drives |
Website | www.angelbird.com |
Angelbird Technologies GmbH is a privately held Austrian computer electronics company that designs and manufactures solid-state drives (SSDs) for both consumer and enterprise markets, including the fastest external SSD in the world. Founded in 2011,
Austria was chosen as the company headquarters because of its rapidly expanding tech industry.[1] Unusually, Angelbird handles all stages of development and manufacture of its products in-house.[2]
Products
Angelbird's first product, a stackable PCIe SSD named Wings, was released in 2011 but did not make much impact on the SSD market, due to distribution problems in North America and the coincidental release of the OCZ RevoDrive.[3]
Angelbird Crest SSDs, released after Wings, are fitted with an uninterruptible power supply and are responsive to TRIM commands using Apple Macs, the only non-Apple SSDs with these features pre-enabled. They also support the SMART command on Apple Macs.[4]
To draw attention to the Crest SSD's record-breaking speeds, Angelbird sponsored an overclocking event in Austria in December 2012 using the PCMark05 benchmark, using its Crest SSDs. Users from the Austrian overclocking forum o.v.e.r.clockers.at attempted to break the world record, set the night before by US overclockers at 62.759 points.[5] Using an Angelbird Crest SSD, an Intel Core i7 3770K CPU, and cooling components from Noctua, o.v.e.r.clockers members reached 63.665 points and set a new world record at the PCMark05 benchmark.[6]
In December 2012, Angelbird launched its external USB3 SSD2go mobile storage device, the fastest external SSD in the world.[3] Les Tokar of The SSD Review believed this was due to Angelbird's use of ASMedia components, performing in tests at transfer speeds of over 400MB/s for both read and write access.[7] The SSD2Go was released in three models - 120, 240 and 480 GB capacity, with a starting price point of $219 and customisable casing colours. TweakTown granted the SSD2Go an Editor's Choice Award, rating it 95/100 and commenting, "Angelbird has created a work of art that cuts no corners".[8] Deepak Sharma, after bench-testing the SSD2GO 480 GB model, noted that the ability of the product's capacity of 6 Gbit/s was hampered by the USB 3.0 port's 5 Gbit/s limit, and the USB 3.0 interface also prevented TRIM from working, but nonetheless concluded,
"The Angelbird SSD2go 480GB and SSD2go TWIN 480GB (240GB x 2), simply put, are unrivaled. There are no other external SSD USB 3.0 solutions in the market at the moment that can even touch them in terms of raw performance. The benchmark results are absolutely exquisite when considering the interface these are running off of. Achieving close to SATA 3.0 – or 6Gb/s – speeds on a USB 3.0 interface, when considering all of the headroom, encoding and decoding, and the rest of the processes that hinder USB 3.0…it is difficult not to be utterly astounded."[9]
Building on this success, Roman Rabitsch announced the release of a range of products, including the SSD2go Pro, AVpro SSD and AVraw SSD, in September 2013 at the International Broadcasting Convention Conference of that year, targeting professional audio and video producers.[10] The AVraw is specifically designed for professional raw video footage. Red Shark News, a technology publication for professionals in the moving images industry, stated in their review of the AVPro SSD, "It's as if it was designed as a new type of media cartridge that has to last for ages in tough conditions, and be very fast at the same time. It's almost analogous to XDCAM or P2 storage - both designed for rugged, professional use, except that they don't come clad in solid aluminium. When you see it, you realise how inadequate "standard" SSDs are."[11]
See also
References
- ↑ Shapton, David (6 September 2013), New 4K camcorders - Exclusive Sony Interview on RedShark's IBC Preview Show. Red Shark News.
- ↑ Red Shark News (15 August 2013), "Amazing new SSDs for professionals: We test the fastest, toughest and safest SSDs, ever".
- 1 2 Tokar, Les (22 June 2013), "Angelbird SSD2Go USB 3.0 External 480GB SSD Review – Unbelievable Build & Performance + 10% Off". The SSD Review.
- ↑ Uninterruptible Power Supply in Solid State Drives, (19 July 2013), Angelbird.com.
- ↑ btarunr (10 December 2012) "Noctua Products Help Achieve PCMark05 World Record". Techpowerup.com.
- ↑ Submission details (7 December 2012), HWBot.org.
- ↑ Tokar, Les (22 June 2013), "Angelbird SSD2Go USB 3.0 External 480GB SSD Review – Unbelievable Build & Performance + 10% Off", pg 6. The SSD Review.
- ↑ Bernath, Tyler (21 June 2013), Angelbird SSD2Go 240GB USB 3.0 Portable SSD Drive Review. TweakTown.
- ↑ Sharma, Deepak (August 26th 2013), Angelbird SSD2go & Angelbird SSD2go TWIN 480GB External SSD Review – Pushing USB 3.0 To The Limit. Technology X.
- ↑ Roberts, Neil (16 September 2013), Angelbird launch new products at IBC. Red Shark News.
- ↑ Red Shark News (15 August 2013), "Amazing new SSDs for professionals: We test the fastest, toughest and safest SSDs, ever", pg 2.
External links
- Company website
- Linus Tech Tips review of SSD2Go
- HWbot.org - full details of overclocking event using PCMark05 benchmarks.
- Interview with Roman Rabitsch (CEO)