Lightfoot is the first OCZ drive to make use of Intel's high bandwidth Thunderbolt external interface, targeted firmly at enthusiasts and audio/video professionals. It's not clear which controller Lightfoot uses; with data transfer rates of up to 750MB/s and the PCI Express signalling of the Thunderbolt interface the device may move from the expected Everest 2 to the Marvell PCIe to NAND controller seen on Kilomanjaro. Pricing is set at the $2 per GB of storage level.

At present Thunderbolt is only available through Apple computing solutions; however with the exclusivity agreement expiring this year Thunderbolt is expected to appear on high-end Intel motherboard chipsets at some point after the release of Z77/Panther Point.



Somewhat incongruous in this article, yet still well worth mentioning, was a sighting of OCZ-subsidiary PC Power and Cooling's new Silencer MkIII range of PSU's. On show were 600W and 1200W versions, the former of which has been in circulation for some time whilst the latter remains unlisted. The Silencer MkIII range is built on 100% Japanese capacitors, 80+ Bronze efficiency and modular cabling. The low wattage range utilises a plastic plug/socket arrangement for modular cabling, whereas the high-end 1200W version appears to use much less infrequently seen high quality metal terminations.

To sum up, OCZ's 2012 line-up looks extremely strong as they continue to push the boundaries of SSD speed, reliability and capacity. Our thanks to them for this quick tour of their upcoming products.