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| SSD history
- search volume for PCIe SSDs surpassed that for 2.5" SSDs exactly one
year ago in
September 2009. "This
is a tsunami warning event for SSD vendors..." said Zsolt Kerekes, editor
of StorageSearch.com |
PCIe SSDs -
vendors, news, market
How Big will be the Market for PCIe SSDs? |
It's only 3 years
since the 1st PCIe SSDs products were launched so this is still a comparatively
new market - but search volume based data reveals some useful comparisons.
In
Q2 2010 - PCIe was the #1 most popular form factor for SSD related
searches. And 6 out of
the top 10 SSD companies
sold PCIe SSDs - compared to just 1 - in the year ago edition of this list.
There's little doubt that the availability of PCIe SSDs will bring new
customers into the server acceleration SSD market.
The PCIe SSD approach suits a Google style architecture - in which
the applications infrastructure consists of large numbers of democratically
equal powered servers.
The traditional FC-SAN
SSD approach fits in better with a hierarchical applications infrastructure
- with a lean top and fat bottom. However, the servers at the bottom can also
get speedup benefits from a DAS style
SATA SSD
implementation .
I think both SAN and PCIe SSDs will exist side by
side for many years serving different types of application - even within the
same enterprise. For more about this - see my articles - my
2009 - Year of SSD
Market Confusion and
Market Trends in the
Rackmount SSD Market.
The PCIe SSD market has low entry barriers
from a technical design point of view. And the high asps in the server market
will make it look like a voluptuous alternative for recession weary consumer
SSD product marketers.
Simply add a PCIe interface to a
flash SSD controller,
an array of flash memory, some firmware and some ASIC glue. Chip companies like
Marvell can supply
nearly everything you need. It's much simpler than getting started with a 2.5"
SAS SSD product - for
example.
I wouldn't be surprised to see as many as 50 oems marketing
PCIe compatible SSD cards and systems by the middle of 2010. Although not
all products will be equally good.
If you're interested in quantitative
predictions about PCIe SSD market size by revenue and unit shipments - see
SSD market analysts. | |
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PCI Express SSDs Technical
Pros and Cons
The great attraction of PCIe for SSD oems is
that it can support a wide range of performance options with throughput upto
16GB/s, and much lower attachment costs than the
alternatives.
The
older busses like PCI and cPCI also provide performance which is adequate for
many applications.
Bus connected SSDs have been around since the
earliest days
of the SSD market.
The advantage of this approach is high
throughput and low latency compared to SSDs connected via traditional hard disk
style interfaces like
SAS,
SATA,
fibre-channel or
InfiniBand.
But
there are disadvantages too which include:-
1 - Bus style
interfaces reduce the available market for the SSD oem. Because older servers
may not have the interface, or perhaps the interface (for example Sun's SBus) is
proprietary and is only available in a small range of models.
2 - Bus
interfaces tend to have shorter permissable cable lengths - which restrict how
such SSDs can be connected.
3 - Bus interfaces usually don't include
intrinsic end to end error detection and correction. If the physical arrangement
of the SSD pushes the speed and cable lengths too far - then errors can arise in
the bus connect - which have to be dealt with in the associated driver.
...Later:-
May 13, 2009 - Dolphin's
CTO, Venkat Krishnan emailed this article correction.
"Dolphin's
StorExpress addresses concerns of PCIe direct attached SSDs raised in (2) above.
It includes support for different types of PCIe interfaces (ExpressModule, AMC,
etc.). Multiple PCIe SSD cards can be used without requiring multiple PCIe slots
in the server. The storage can be collocated at distances of up to 300m from the
server and can also be potentially shared by more than one server." | |
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the Fastest SSDs
Fibre-Channel SSDs
Flash SSDs /
RAM SSDs
the Top 10 SSD Companies
the Solid State Disks
Buyers Guide
Looking Ahead to
the 2009 SSD Market
Predicting Future Flash SSD
Performance
RAM
SSDs versus Flash SSDs - which is Best? | |
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| PCIe
SSD milestones from
SSD History |
A new way of looking at the
Enterprise SSD market
Editor:- September 6, 2010 - in a new
article published today on the home page of StorageSearch.com I suggest a new
way of looking at all "enterprise SSDs" to help you cut more
quickly through the tangle of new SSD web content which grows bigger than the
hours in the day you've got to think about it.
If you're confused
about the bewildering choice of PCIe SSDs - this new way of looking at the
market can help you sweep away a lot of research hours.
PCIe SSDs enable 512 virtual desktops on a single vSphere
Editor:-
August 31, 2010 -
Fusion-io
today showed how its PCIe
SSDs can enable users to run
512
virtual desktops on a single
vSphere
host in a demo at VMworld .
"Fusion-io is changing the way customers think about data-center
architecture, driving further efficiency, consolidation and scalability into
virtual platforms," said Neil
Carson, CTO of Fusion-io. "Fusion's ability to efficiently handle
the highly random access patterns prevalent in virtualized workloads, aids
customers in reducing the cost and complexity of adding multiple virtual
machines."
Virident signs supercomputing channel partner
Editor:-
August 10, 2010 - Virident
Systems today announced
the signing of a reseller
agreement with Appro
for Virident's tachIOn
drive - a fast PCIe flash
SSD.
"As the leading supplier of hardware and software
solutions for the High Performance Computing Market, we are very familiar with
the I/O bottleneck and the need for solutions that address concurrent,
multi-core processor demands while providing maximum storage throughput,"
said Anthony Kenisky, VP of Sales for Appro. "We are very impressed with
the potential of the Virident tachIOn SSD solution to deliver leading,
predictable, high-performance
IOPS for
data intensive workloads. In addition, the expandable capacity and ease of
integration into existing environments makes this a very attractive solution for
our customers. We are pleased to be working with Virident as a certified
solutions partner."
OCZ will demo 3.5" PCIe SSD
Editor:- August 5,
2010 - At the Flash
Memory Summit later this month OCZ says it will
demonstrate a new 3.5"
SSD with what it calls a
High Speed Data
Link interface - which is
PCIe physically
connected via a SAS
connector.
Popular storage searches in July
Editor:- August 2,
2010 - StorageSearch.com
disclosed that overall SSD searches in July 2010 were 20% higher than
a year ago.
Pageviews of the SSD Buyers Guide
grew 14%.
PCIe
SSDs retained the #1 popularity slot for the 11th consecutive month.
3.5" SSDs rebounded
in popularity - with pageviews overtaking those of
1.8" SSDs.
The
top 30 subjects and articles (out of thousands on this site) are listed on the
home page.
PCIe SSDs steam enterprise Oracle clouds
Editor:-
July 21, 2010 - Texas
Memory Systems today
announced
that its RamSan-20
models (PCIe SSDs)
have been deployed by Mercury
Technology (a leading provider of
Oracle
enterprise cloud services).
"We chose Texas Memory Systems
because it is the only company that has such a long history in this technology,"
Brian Day, VP of Sales at Mercury Technology. "...It's important to have a
partner that is not only knowledgeable, but who also has first-hand experience
with other customers running Oracle software.... "
ASIC vs FPGA for use in enterprise SSDs
Editor:- July
21, 2010 - a reader's email this morning asked me to comment on the
business and technical pros and cons of FPGAs vs ASICs when it comes to
enterprise SSD design.
He named a bunch of enterprise SSD makers in
both camps - and said he hadn't seen me write anything about this issue on
StorageSearch.com. As you know - I'm never shy about commenting. Click here if you're
interested to see what I said. |
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