OCZ has a lot to show off this year at CES/Storage Visions, but the most exciting product from a client standpoint is its new Everest 2 controller. While the original Everest just launched two months ago, Everest 2 is expected in the next 6 months. OCZ already has silicon back and it is fast. 

Whereas Everest 1 was a competitive performer, Everest 2 is designed to really go after the performance crown. OCZ has focused more on small block performance as well as reducing write amplification, both issues I've brought up regarding the current Everest in our reviews of OCZ's Octane. Everest 2 is an updated controller (IDX400M00-BC vs. IDX300M00-BC) with a new firmware architecture designed to address these shortcomings. Both it and the original Everest controller will co-exist in the market for a period of time, but the Everest 2 will clearly be aimed at the high end. Target performance is around 550MB/s sequential reads, 500MB/s sequential writes and 90K 4KB random write IOPS (the Iometer screenshots in the gallery below show early 4KB Random Write and 128KB Sequential Write performance, using our own Iometer tests, in that order). If OCZ ends up really confident in the Everest 2, it might just end up being the heart of the Vertex 4...