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Other World Computing (OWC)

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2013 American Business Awards

Company: Other World Computing
Company Description: Other World Computing of Woodstock, IL operates one of the largest online catalogs of enhancement products for computers, iPhones, iPads and iPods. Through its e-commerce portal www.macsales.com, OWC continues the mission it began in 1988, helping consumers make the most of their technology investments by providing the best in value, leading edge products and customer and tech support.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Hardware - Computer

Nomination Title: OWC Mercury Accelsior PCI Express SSD

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 500 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date.

The OWC Mercury Accelsior™ is the industry’s first both Mac-bootable and PC-bootable, fully supported PCIe SSD card. Utilizing the fastest data interface available in a Mac Pro or PC ( the PCIe slot ) the Mercury Accelsior offers nearly 3x the performance vs. an SSD in a SATA 2.0 3Gb/s drive bay with well beyond even 6Gb/s speeds of up to 780MB/s.

Owners of PCs and Apple Mac Pros can stop waiting for I/O-intensive apps like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or Avid Pro Tools to render, capture or process; and can experience near instantaneous booting and application launches.

The OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD card is AHCI compliant (no drivers required); is bootable on PCs; and is the only Mac-bootable, Mac supported PCIe SSD available.

With its custom SandForce® Driven™ Accelsior SSD blades, the Mercury Accelsior card enables Mac and PC users to enjoy a more responsive, productive computing experience along with cooler, quieter, and more energy efficient operation compared to standard hard drives, while SandForce RAISE™ technology provides RAID-like data redundancy protection and reliability.

In addition to video-editing and multimedia creation / management deployment, the Mercury Accelsior takes entry level servers and even gaming to entirely new levels of performance. With up to 100,000 IOPS, business-critical applications like online transaction processing databases are given an instant boost. Gamers can enjoy extreme performance speed, dramatically reducing game level-loading and object streaming.

As easy to install as a memory module, yet robust enough to handle the rigors of professional multimedia production environments, the half-height Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD card is the clear choice for pro audio and video studios producing HD-quality work. Designed and built in the U.S. from domestic and imported parts, the Accelsior is backed by a three-year warranty.

With OWC factory configurations from 120GB up to 960GB, and the ability to upgrade to larger Mercury Accelsior SSD blades in the future, the Mercury Accelsior is future-ready for growing capacity needs.

120GB (2 x 64GB for 128GB total flash) $359.99
240GB (2 x 128GB for 256GB total flash) $529.99
480GB (2 x 256GB for 512GB total flash) $929.99
960GB (2 x 500GB for 1.0TB total flash) $2,079.99

Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD Features

• The only Mac-bootable, Mac-supported PCIe SSD available
• Easy, no drivers required installation
• Dual LSI® SandForce SF-2281/82 processors
• Data transfer rates of 780MB/s read and 648MB/s write
• Features 24nm Toggle-Synchronous high-performance NAND
• Performance Hardware RAID up to 960GB (1TB total flash)
• 3-year warranty
• SandForce DuraClass™ technologies:
o DuraWrite™ for extended SSD endurance
o Intelligent Block Management & Wear Leveling automatically distributes data evenly
o Intelligent Read Disturb Management spreads reads/writes across flash components to eliminate data corruption caused by constant use
o Intelligent "Recycling" for advanced free space management gradually re-writes data across the SSD over time to ensure data never gets corrupted
o RAISE™ (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) protects the data similar to a RAID setup
o Best-in-Class ECC Protection for longest data retention and drive life

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

 

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

Larry O’Connor, 37, is CEO / founder of Other World Computing (OWC), www.macsales.com, a leading provider of upgrade, storage, and accessory products and services for computers, iPods, iPhones and iPads. O’Connor founded OWC in 1988 and today leads a $70M+ concern, having added thousands of consumer electronics and computer hardware products over the years and winning pinnacle industry recognition. O’Connor’s environmentally conscious 37,000 facility garnered LEED (Leadership in Environmental Design) Platinum certification, and unwavering focus on customer satisfaction has garnered five-time BizRate Circle of Excellence Gold Honoree accolades and Elite status by ResellerRatings.com.