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Tag: ssd

  • Texas Memory Systems Delivers Record 5-Million IOPS Flash-based SSD System

    Texas Memory Systems launches the RamSan-6200 SSD System that offers up to 100 terabytes of Flash-based storage in a 40U rack configuration that can sustain a record 5 million input/outputs per second (IOPS) with 60 gigabytes per second throughput while using a little over 6 kilowatts of power.

    To achieve the equivalent level of performance with hard disk-based storage arrays would require several thousand of the 15,000 RPM hard disk drives.

    The RamSan-6200 is a scaled up system that combines twenty RamSan-620 solid state disks in a single datacenter rack and uses Texas Memory Systems’ TeraWatch software to provide unified management and monitoring from a single GUI console. The system utilizes enterprise grade Single Level Cell (SLC) Flash as well as multiple levels of RAID and advanced Flash management algorithms.

    A single RamSan-620 unit provides 5TB of Single Level Cell (SLC) Flash with 250,000 sustained IOPS for random reads and random writes. Each RamSan-620 unit can support 2 to 8 Fibre Channel or up to 4 InfiniBand links.

    At the chip level, TMS uses only SLC Flash memory. Each Flash chip incorporates an Error Checking and Correction (ECC) data field within the chip to check and correct single-bit errors.

    At the board level, each set of Flash chips is organized as a board-level RAID, thereby eliminating any single chip failure from corrupting data.

    At the system level, the RamSan-620 allows to designate one of the cards inside the system as an active-spare that works hand-in-hand with the chip level RAID on each of our boards. If one of the cards experiences a failure that degrades its RAID protection, the system will immediately migrate the data on that card to the hot-spare to return to a fully redundant state.

  • Corsair Launches new 'Extreme' Series High-Performance SSDs


    Corsair has added another "s" to solid state storage with its latest offering – Speed.

    The Extreme Series X32, X64 and X128 high-performance SSDs, in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB densities respectively, offer read speeds of up to 240MB/s and write speeds of up to 170MB/s.

    Built using the renowned Indilinx Barefoot controller and Samsung MLC NAND flash memory, the Extreme Series can justifiably claim to have the highest performance currently available on the market.

    Jim Carlton, VP of Marketing at Corsair, said the combination of the Indilinx Barefoot controller, Samsung flash memory, and 64MB of on-board cache delivers "blistering, stutter-free performance".

    He said the SSDs eliminateg the bottleneck imposed by traditional mechanical hard disks.

    "The new Extreme Series SSDs are ideal for use as primary drives in desktop and notebooks systems, and also for RAID 0 configurations in high-performance desktops for enthusiasts who want extreme performance," he said.

    All Extreme Series SSDs feature end-user upgradable firmware to allow for new features to be added, such as the upcoming TRIM command for Windows 7 and other operating systems, which maintains optimal performance over time.

    Firmware upgrades and support for the Extreme Series SSDs will be available via Corsair’s website, and drives can be updated without the need to wipe data from the SSD, ensuring seamless upgrades.

    The Corsair Extreme Series X32, X64 and X128 solid-state drives are available immediately.

    No information is available yet on pricing.

  • STEC Signs $120 Million Deal for ZeusIOPS SSDs


    STEC has signed an agreement with one of its largest enterprise storage customers for sales of USD $120 million of ZeusIOPS SSDs in the second half of 2009.

    With this agreement signed, the company is now forecasting revenue from the sale of its ZeusIOPS drives will exceed USD $220 million in 2009.

    Manouch Moshayedi, chairman and chief executive officer of STEC, said the agreement reflects the enterprise storage manufacturer’s continued commitment to integrate STEC’s SSD technology into the manufacturer’s systems.

    He said it validates significant storage system performance improvements enabled by STEC’s ZeusIOPS SSDs in these enterprise systems.

    "We are pleased to see that sales of our customer’s enterprise storage systems utilizing our ZeusIOPS drives have grown significantly over the past few years," he said.

    "Our customers have helped evangelize this technology and we are glad to be partnered with them as we expect that they will help drive further innovation in SSD usage in the highest-end of the enterprise storage markets."

    The STEC ZeusIOPS SSD product family offers an array of options for enterprise system architects. ZeusIOPS SSD provides a wide range of interface options, spanning Fibre Channel to SAS to SATA, as well as the widest range of capacity options, spanning 73GB to 1TB.

    Fundamental to the ZeusIOPS product family is the proprietary SSD architecture which renders an enterprise-optimized storage device with an unprecedented combination of performance and energy efficiency.

  • Texas Announces Microsoft Certification of RamSan-500 SSD


    Texas Memory Systems has announced that its RamSan-500 solid state disk system has been certified as interoperable with Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008.

    The RamSan-500 is an enterprise-class cached Flash storage system that delivers high performance, large capacity storage more economically than adding a similar capacity high-end hard disk-based RAID system.

    The SSD system can deliver more than sixteen times the performance while using 50 per cent less power.

    Woody Hutsell, president of Texas Memory Systems, said maintaining interoperability with all major platforms is vital as its customers’ IT environments continue to evolve rapidly.

    He said more demanding applications are being built on the powerful Windows Server 2008 platform.

    "The RamSan’s ability to solve most I/O bottlenecks and improve transaction rate increases customers’ overall IT return on investment by enabling more responsive applications and a richer experience for more concurrent users," he said.

    Hutsell said the RamSan-500 delivers 100,000 I/Os per second (IOPS) sustained random read, 25,000 IOPS sustained random writes, and two gigabytes per second of sustained random read or write bandwidth, yet only consumes 250 watts of power.

    The system can be SAN-attached with up to eight 4-gigabits per second Fibre Channel ports.

    Multiple RamSan-500s can be combined to deliver additional high-performance capacity.

  • WhipTail Introduces 6TB SSD Tier 0 Storage Appliance


    WhipTail Technologies has launched a 6TB SSD appliance which it claims provides mid- to large-sized enterprises with the highest-capacity SSD tier 0 appliance with the smallest footprint.

    Manufactured as a 2 rack unit (2U), WhipTail is now available in 1.5, 3.0 and 6.0 TB and varying levels of redundancies.

    It is best suited for enterprises with poorly performing databases, over-taxed virtualization storage pools and underperforming email systems.

    The company said that, when compared with traditional storage, the WhipTail SSD appliance:

    • Accelerates the delivery of data by a factor of 10
    • Reduces report run time by a factor of 10
    • Provides up to a 90 percent energy savings
    • Reduces the data center footprint by 60 percent
    • Reduces database report generation and load time by 90 percent

    WhipTail pricing starts at USD $46,000 for a 1.5 TB system.

    Ed Rebholz, CEO of WhipTail Technologies, said one of Tier 0 storage’s downfalls to date has been the perception within the industry that it’s too expensive.

    "Since WhipTail’s introduction earlier this year, we’ve already made significant strides in helping our industry peers to gain a new perspective," he said.

    "And in introducing the 6TB capacity, not only is WhipTail setting the bar for performance, footprint and affordability, but now we’re the SSD capacity leader."

  • Notebook Vendors Not Hopeful Windows 7 Will Boost SSD Sales


    Windows 7’s support for SSDs will not do much to boost sales because the price gap with HDDs is still too high.

    That’s according to a report in Digitimes, which spoke to sources at notebook vendors.

    Since current SSDs are priced around USD $4-5 per GB, while HDDs cost less than USD $0.50 per GB, the sources don’t expect SSDs to become the mainstream specification for at least three years.

    This is despite Windows 7 including several optimizations specifically targeted at SSD-equipped systems.

    The sources estimated the penetration rate of SSDs in notebooks in 2009 will only be around 1 per cent, equivalent to a volume of 1.5 million units.

  • Intel Advances Roadmap to Double SSD Capacity


    Intel is to implement the projected doubling of its SSD capacities earlier than expected – possibly as soon as next month.

    The current X18-M and X25-M solid-state drives (SSDs) use a 50nm process and have 80GB and 160GB capacities with 2-bit multi-level cell (MLC) technology.

    A single level cell (SLC) X25-E has faster I/O rates and comes in 32GB and 64GB capacities.

    In January, it was reported that Intel wanted to move to a smaller 34nm process and double the capacities with the 1.8-inch form factor X18-M and 2.5-inch form factor X25-M (M meaning Mainstream) moving to 160GB and 320GB capacities.

    This is now expected to take place, with the X25-E growing to 64GB and 128GB capacities.

    No information is available yet on pricing.

  • Green-House Launches New Line of SSDs


    The Japanese firm Green-House has announced a new line of 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch SSDs that use PATA IDE interface.

    Both lines are available with capacities ranging from 16GB to 128GB.

    The SLC flash based models have 16GB-64GB capacities and offer 65MB/s read and 55MB/s write speeds. MLC-based models offers 16GB-128GB densities and have 60MB/s and 35MB/s write speeds.

    The Solid State Drives will be released in mid-July.

    1.8-inch Models:

    • 16GB/SLC GH-SSD16GP-1SA / 4511677054372
    • 32GB/SLC GH-SSD32GP-1SA / 4511677054389
    • 64GB/SLC GH-SSD64GP-1SA / 4511677054396
    • 16GB/MLC GH-SSD16GP-1MA / 4511677054402
    • 32GB/MLC GH-SSD32GP-1MA / 4511677054419
    • 64GB/MLC GH-SSD64GP-1MA / 4511677054426
    • 128GB/MLC GH-SSD128GP-1MA / 4511677054433

    2.5-inch Models:

    • 16GB/SLC GH-SSD16GP-2SA / 4511677054099
    • 32GB/SLC GH-SSD32GP-2SA / 4511677054105
    • 64GB/SLC GH-SSD64GP-2SA / 4511677054112
    • 16GB/MLC GH-SSD16GP-2MA / 4511677054051
    • 32GB/MLC GH-SSD32GP-2MA / 4511677054068
    • 64GB/MLC GH-SSD64GP-2MA / 4511677054075
    • 128GB/MLC GH-SSD128GP-2MA / 4511677054082

  • Varisys Boosts Storage Range


    Varisys has added to its range of storage products with two new high performance boards intended for use in harsh environments.

    The VTS2 also provides high-density storage in standard form factors. It is now available in a conduction-cooled assembly that provides VME users the ability to add mass storage into a rugged system.

    Utilizing either single or dual, 1.8 or 2.5" Solid-State or regular Hard Disk Drives, Varisys said the VTS2 is easily customizable to meet exact project requirements in terms of cost memory size and performance.

    Using solid-state disk technology up to 640GByts of storage can be mounted on the VTS2.

    The VMS2 (PMC hard drive carrier) is an IEEE P1386.1 compliant PMC module that allows either a 1.8 or 2.5" hard disk drive to be used to build a compact and robust mass storage solution for embedded systems.

    Ruggedization options include industrial temperature operation, conduction cooling and conformal coating.

    The VMS2 offers various factory options including the ability to use either a standard rotary drive or a solid-state drive in either 1.8" or 2.5" form factor.

    Solid State drive technology permits up to 320GBytes on a single PMC site.

    Varisys said its storage products are ideally suited for RADAR, SONAR, medical imaging and telecommunications applications.

  • Sun Expands Unified Storage Family


    Sun Microsystems is extending its Unified Storage family with an array that allows solid state disk (SSD) drives and hard disk drives to be used in the same chassis and under the same management interface.

    The Sun Storage 7310 is a comprehensive, Flash-powered storage system that includes leverages Hybrid Storage Pool capabilities.

    In addition to the maximum 64GB of DRAM cache, it can be configured with up to an additional 600GB of SSD cache (1.2TB for cluster version) for enhanced application performance.

    John Fowler, executive vice-president, Systems, Sun Microsystems, said the Storage 7310 opens up a door for customers to more widely deploy high availability clustered storage and experience the power and economic benefits of Unified Storage.

    Other features within the Sun Storage 7310 storage system include:

    • Three times (3x) less power consumption than traditional storage solutions
    • Scalability up from 12TB to 96TB capacity with no interruption to system availability
    • High network throughput with four 1Gb Ethernet ports per controller and optional 10Gb connectivity
    • Single controller offers two PCI slots for additional network or tape-backup connectivity for easy plug and play integration

    The Storage 7310 is available immediately and costs from USD $40,165