We've been following the evolution of solid-state drives for some time now, highlighting the most relevant offerings at any given time, and noting the impact that newer controllers have had in improving performance. The first and most significant step towards mainstream adoption was made by Intel mid-2008 when they released their affordable 50nm MLC-based X25-M drives which at the time offered significantly better performance than any other competing product.Shortly after, towards the end of 2008 newer drives started to surface carrying a controller from Indilinx called “Barefoot”, most notable of which was the OCZ Vertex series. The Barefoot controller closed the performance gap on the Intel X25-M while reducing SSD prices at the same time.Further down the track around mid-2009 a new breed of solid-state drives started to emerge based on a Samsung controller (code-name S3C29RBB01-YK40). OCZ were quick to jump on it releasing the Summit series. We test drove the 120GB model, but found that the Samsung controller delivered mixed results, usually coming close or at times beating the competition put forth by the Barefoot Indilinx or the Intel X25-M.