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DDRdrive DDRdrive LLC is now shipping the DDRdrive X1, a PCI Express solid-state storage accelerator with over 300K random IOPS performance. Based on a breakthrough architecture that integrates both DRAM and NAND to provide unparalleled random IOPS, IOPS/W, and IOPS/$ performance. The DDRdrive X1 is "The drive for speed". .... See also:- DDRdrive - editor mentions on STORAGEsearch.com Who's who in SSD? - DDRdrive by Zsolt Kerekes, editor October 2011 - DDRdrive's PCIe RAM SSDs don't have the same IOPS problems as flash SSDs but do have much lower capacity. They can be an economic choice for some classes of applications. Although the company started in the Intel market - they are now moving into the Solaris market too. If you're considering products from DDRdrive then you should also look at PCIe SSDs from these companies too:- Foremay, Fusion-io, InnoDisk, LSI, OCZ and Texas Memory Systems. .. .. DDRdrive milestones from SSD market history November 2006 - DDRdrive started shipping its 1st generation of SSD accelerators for use in an undisclosed secret project inside Intel. In May 2009 - the company emerged from stealth mode and launched the DDRdrive X1 - a PCIe compatible RAM SSD with onboard flash backup. Backup / restore time is 60S. Performance is over 300K IOPS (512B). R/W throughput is 215MB/s and 155MB/s respectively. Capacity is 4GB. OS compatibility:- Microsoft Windows (various). Price is $1,495. The DDRdrive X1 looks competitively priced for accelerating database applications in which the hot files can utilize a capacity range from about 4GB to 12GB. Above that - you get into the region of entry level rackmount SSDs and high performance PCIe flash SSD cards from companies like Fusion-io and Texas Memory Systems. There's definitely a gap in the market for this scale of product (low entry price, low capacity - high IOPS). In November 2010 - DDRdrive published a white paper which compares flash SSDs vs RAM SSDs (pdf) as accelerators in ZFS environments.

Predictable, industry-leading PCIe SSD performance. Scales across diverse workloads, data sets, and sustains over time. Learn more about - Virident FlashMAX "When DDRdrive's PCIe RAM SSD came to market in May 2009 - it disproved the theory that RAM SSDs are always more expensive than flash SSDs." ...Editor:- from the 2011 Q3 edition of the Top SSD Companies. .. "If you can make a single server run apps 10x or 20x or 100x faster - by stuffing it with high capacity, low latency SSD - then you don't need so many servers." ...from the article:- if Fusion-io sells more SSDs does that mean Violin will sell less? .. the 3 fastest PCIe SSDs? Are you tied up in knots trying to shortlist flash SSD accelerators ranked according to published comparative benchmarks? You know the sort of thing I mean - where a magazine compares 10 SSDs or a blogger compares 2 SSDs against each other. It would be nice to have a shortlist so that you don't have to waste too much of your own valuable time testing unsuitable candidates wouldn't it? StorageSearch's long running fastest SSDs directory typically indicates 1 main product in each form factor category but those examples may not be compatible with your own ecosystem. If so a new article - the 3 fastest PCIe SSDs list (or is it really lists?) may help you cut that Gordian knot. Hmm... you may be thinking that StorageSearch's editor never gives easy answers to SSD questions if more complicated ones are available. But in this case you'd be wrong. (I didn't say you'd like the answers, though.) ...read the article

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