| Top 10
SSD OEMs - based on reader search volume in 3rd Quarter 2009 - ©
STORAGEsearch.com |
| rank |
manufacturer |
SSD technology |
notes re this
quarter.................................................... |
| 1 |
Fusion-io |
PCIe SSDs |
Same as before.
In
July 2009 - Fusion-io
announced the results of TPC-H benchmark tests sponsored by, and running
on, Dell servers, and audited by
Performance Metrics, Inc. The tested
system
achieved
28,772 QphH on a 100GB database, at a cost of $1.47 per database
transaction. (The typical 3 year cost of ownership for the whole system
including software is quoted as $41,998.)
 In
September 2009 - a historic milestone for the whole SSD industry was
passed - when overall search volume for PCIe SSDs surpassed that for 2.5"
SSDs for the 1st time. That helped Fusion-io - which had already
established for itself the iconic brand recognition of being the SSD company
most strongly associated in customer minds with the
PCIe form factor .
That recognition is due as much to clever marketing as cleverly
designed products and is despite the fact that Fusion-io wasn't the 1st
company to launch such a product - and also despite the growing high number
and quality of competitors in this segment.
Fusion-io's search volume was more than 2x as high as the #4
ranked company in this list indicating overwhelmingly high reader affinity for
learning more about this company.
...Later:- in October
2009 - Fusion-io
published a
case
study showing how their ioDrive
SSDs helped MySpace reduce server
count, claim back 50% rack space while increasing application performance
(compared to its legacy SAS RAID system) and massively decreasing electrical
power.
As a result of this initial project - MySpace plans to
replace all remaining 1,770 2U servers with Fusion-io enabled servers as they
reach their end-of-life. |
| 2 |
SandForce |
flash SSD Controllers |
Same as before.
In August
2009 -
SandForce announced
the availability of the SF-1000
family Evaluation 2.5" SSD featuring 34nm flash from
Micron.
In
September 2009 -
SMART Modular
Technologies announced it has selected the
SandForce
SF-1500
SSD processor for use in its next-generation enterprise-class
SATA SSDs sampling
later this year.
Everyone
wants to be in
the SSD market - and the growing number of
flash SSD controller &
IP companies is just 1 of the
3 factors breaking
down the barriers to SSD market entry. SSD IP companies make it much
easier for SSD oems to fill gaps in their product lines or freshen up tired old
product ranges.
But companies like SandForce also represent a
potential threat to SSD makers who target the high volume oem market. That's
because high end server oems could tactically make their own brand SSDs once
they have proved there is sufficient demand using merchant market SSD
products.
SandForce's dual
frenemmy nature may be a
factor in the high interest levels in this company. Even if you're not
planning to use their products - you can't afford to ignore them - because
their technology may pop up in another place close to your own interests.
...Later:-
in October 2009 - SandForce published a new article called -
Data Integrity
Challenges in flash SSD Design. It describes what's needed inside the
next generation of fast flash SSDs to ensure data integrity and to eliminate
the risk of "silent errors."
In November 2009 - SandForce
announced
that it has closed $21 million in Series C funding. |
| 3 |
STEC |
SAS SSDs
military SSDs |
Up 5 places since the last quarter.
In
July 2009 -
STEC announced it had
received
$120
million order for its ZeusIOPS SSDs from a single enterprise storage
customer for delivery in the 2nd 1/2 of 2009. This followed an earlier
announcement that the company has partnered with a leading defense systems
contractor to supply its
MACH8 industrial SSDs
for integration into a platform designed on behalf of the U.S. Military as part
of a 12 month,
$28
million supply contract.
In August 2009 -
STEC
said
it will ship 6Gb/s SAS
flash SSDs in both 2.5"
and 3.5" form
factors in Q4. STEC's new ZeusIOPS SSDs will deliver 80,000 IOPS random read,
40,000 IOPS random write with transfer speeds of 550MB/s read and 300MB/s write.
STEC also said it's
sampling
a faster version of its 3.5"
FC compatible SSDs. STEC
also announced a new policy of offering
MLC flash
in so called "enterprise class SSDs".
Over many years
STEC has earned a good reputation for shipping boringly reliable, high-quality
fast SSDs which its oem customers can install and forget.
As the
performance gap between STEC and rivals has narrowed I would have expected it
to become vulnerable to its customers switching away to lower priced products.
Instead - STEC has been gaining from all the bad news stories in the industry
about badly designed and inadequately validated SSD products shipped by
other companies.
Each time an oem customer sees another
flaky flash SSD news
story - that's another reason to worry about the dangers of using nouvelle
SSDs. And that is reinforced by the growing awareness that many engineers
can't even rely on
their own benchmarks to filter and shortlist products they can depend on in
real applications.
These growing uncertainties mean that STEC may not
have to worry unduly about
Pliant Technology's
long anticapted
foray
into SAS flash SSD turf.
...Later:-
in November 2009 -
STEC disclosed that its
biggest customer, EMC,
hasn't sold as many of its SSDs as expected - and
will
carry inventory into 2010. If this was a surprise to anyone it's only
because they didn't read my analysis (published April 1, 2009) which appeared
in the 8th quarterly
edition of the top 10 SSD oems. |
| 4 |
Samsung |
Notebook SSDs |
Down 1 place since the last quarter.
In August 2009 -
Samsung Electronics
announced it is
targeting
the PC gaming industry with its 256GB SSD. This seemed to confirm the
consumer-led focus of the company's business strategy.
Earlier
StorageSearch.com had said it doesn't think Samsung's SSD product marketing
is good enough to achieve success in the enterprise server market. Not
everyone agrees with that. Because in September 2009 -
Samsung announced that
HP was offering its SSDs as
an option in ProLiant servers.
Also in September 2009 -
Samsung
announced
it has begun producing 512Mb PRAM memory. PRAM combines the speed of RAM for
processing functions with the non-volatile characteristics of flash memory for
storage. This has been a Problematic (rather than a Perfect) RAM technology.
Samsung originally announced a working
prototype of the
512Mb PRAM 3 years earlier - in September 2006.
...Later:-
in October 2009 -
Samsung announced
it has invested in
Fusion-io. |
| 5 |
WD Solid State Storage |
SLC Flash SSDs |
Up 5 places since the last quarter.
This
is the highest rank which WD has achieved in these tables and is 2 places higher
than the previous best for SiliconSystems - which WD acquired in March 2009.
This indicates a positive market reaction to the strongly rebranded
SiliconDrive product family. |
| 6 |
Texas Memory Systems |
Rackmount SSDs
PCIe SSDs |
Down 2 places since the last quarter.
In August 2009 -
Texas Memory Systems launched the
RamSan-6200 a 40U
rackmount SSD
with 100TB of SLC
flash storage, 5 million IOPS performance and upto 60GB/s throughput - which
uses approximately 6kW of power. It's a scaled up system that combines 20x
RamSan-620s in a single
datacenter rack and uses TMS' TeraWatch software to provide unified management
and monitoring from a single GUI console.
In September 2009 -
Texas Memory Systems expanded its IP
base with the acquisition of data management patents and source code from
Incipient. This
technology acquisition
will allow TMS to further differentiate its RamSan line of solid state storage
solutions. Incipient developed scalable storage virtualisation and
management capabilities over a period of 8 years. During that time, the company
made significant technological advances and was awarded multiple patents.
Although other rackmount SSD oems have appeared in the top 10 lists
from time to time - TMS is the only one which has consistently made an
appearance in every edition.
I've tracked the company's solid state
storage products for nearly 20 years, but they've been in the SSD market even
longer than
that. Maybe it's because of their longevity and endurance (no pun intended)
they are regarded as being the "safe" choice for many high end
conservative SSD buyers - in the same way that
STEC is the "safe"
(albeit expensive) choice in the small form factor SSD market.
Both
companies have an intense focus on the duality of SSD performance and
reliability. And
yet both have the ability to surprise the market and analysts from time to time
with new innovative products that push back the frontiers.
...Later:-
in October 2009 - Texas
Memory Systems
announced
that its RamSan-620 - (2U
5TB SLC flash SSD, price $220,000 approx) - has achieved a
record
setting SPC-1 result. It produced 254,994.21 SPC-1 IOPS with average
response time of 0.72mS and at a cost of only $1.13 per SPC-1 IOPS - which is
better than any competing RAID or Flash solution.
|
| 7 |
Foremay |
1.8"
SSDs
2.5" SSDs
3.5" SSDs
military SSDs |
First appearance in these top 10 tables.
In
July 2009 -
Foremay announced a new
1.8" SLC flash SSD.
The SATA compatible
SC 199 Cheetah
has sustained R/W speeds of 250MB/s and 220MB/s respectively. R/W IOPS are
6,000 and 5,200 respectively. Capacity options range from 16GB to 64GB.
Endurance
for the 16GB device is rated at 87 years assuming 50GB sequential writes per
day.
 In
September 2009 -
Foremay announced the
SC199 Hi-Rel Series SLC flash SSDs in 1.8", 2.5" and 3.5" form
factors which meet military standards MIL-STD-810G and MIL-STD-833G.
Operational temperature options include -40°C to approx 100°C.
...Later:-
in October 2009 - Foremay entered the
PCIe SSD market with
its
EC188
Dragon series - which is now sampling. R/W performance is upto 1.5 GB/s and 1.3
GB/s respectively. Both MLC and SLC models are available. Capacities range from
128GB to 4TB. Random R/W IOPS is up to 27,000/12,000.
In November
2009 - Foremay
announced it is shipping the
world's fastest 2.5"
SATA flash SSDs.
The SC199 Cheetah Y-Series
has R/W speeds up to 290/280 MB/s in
2.5" and
3.5" SATA form
factors - which approaches the theoretical speed limit of the SATA-II protocol.
It also delivers impressive R/W IOPS of up to 50,000/45,000 respectively.
|
| 8 |
SanDisk |
MLC Flash SSDs |
Down 2 places since the last quarter.
SanDisk which had reported a
10%
year on year revenue decline for the previous quarter was more - talked
about by SSD analysts
- than talking itself about the SSD market - in this quarter. |
| 9 |
RunCore |
Flash SSDs |
Down 4 places since the last quarter.
In September 2009 -
RunCore, which has 20
patents in China, and a strong background with the defense market in the PRC,
launched a family of military SSDs with
-55°C to +125°C
operation as well as an enhanced range of
industrial 2.5" SSDs. |
| 10 |
Intel |
2.5" SSDs |
Reappearance in these top 10 tables.
Companies
can get high visibility for negative as well as positive reasons. This was,
alas, the case for Intel - which in a mixed good-news / bad-news quarter
joined the notorious band of companies having once
shipped flaky SSDs.
In
July 2009 - Intel
announced a
process
shrink for its
X25-M -
SATA 2.5" MLC flash SSD. The new 34nm devices deliver upto 8,800
(4KB) write IOPS and up to 35,000 read IOPS. R/W speeds are 250MB/s and 70MB/s
respectively. R/W latenciy is 65µS and 85µS. The 160GB model is
priced at $440 (1,000 unit price point).
But within days of
announcing the new Intel SSDs -
shipments
were suspended due to an internal bug.
That was one reason - cited
by Pillar Data Systems
in this quarter - for publicly dumping Intel SSDs and
switching
to STEC.
In
September 2009 -
Kevin T Crow, Strategy Specialist, NAND Solutions Group,
Intel shared his
SSD Bookmarks
with readers of
StorageSearch.com.
...Later:-
in October 2009 -
Intel joined the growing
roster of SSD companies who
have
announced
support for Trim functions. These benefit flash SSDs which don't have
internal fast active garbage collection. The company recommends users install
the firmware update and toolbox, and run the Trim function daily to ensure best
performance. |
| Waiting in the wings - just below the top 10 in this period
were:- Mtron (11),
DTS (12) and
Violin Memory (13). |
