Pliant's SSD benchmark
video
Editor:- March 15, 2010 - Pliant Technology
today published
benchmark results to illustrate the capability of its
3.5" SAS SSDs
when used in arrays.
The measurements performed and validated by
OakGate Technology were performed on an
array of 16 SSDs and are summarized in a
video.
"We
tested Lightning EFDs under conditions that closely mirrored the data throughput
demands of today's mission-critical data centers..." said Bob Weisickle,
CEO and founder of OakGate. "..even more impressive was the fact that
these phenomenal performance numbers remained stable and consistent over
time, which is a critical requirement for today's mission-critical 24x7 data
centers."
Editor's comments:- when (like me) you're used to seeing SSD
IOPS that
look like telephone numbers, and IOPS that have a
lot of GB/s in them
you have ask yourself - what is this vendor really saying?
I think the
point Pliant is making is that if you are an oem who wants to design a
rackmount flash
SSD which has the performance potential of a proprietary architecture such as
Texas Memory Systems,
or an array of PCIe SSDs
such as Fusion-io,
but you want to stay in the comfort zone of
SAS SSDs while avoiding
the "EMC use it so
it must be expensive" feel associated
STEC - please take a
look another look at their products. The tag line on their home page says "Do
more for less." (I've seen worse.) I've seen
better SSD videos
though. It was another 6 minutes of my life wasted (compared to reading the
text).
SSDs - reaching for the Petabyte
Editor:- March 12,
2010 - next week StorageSearch.com
will publish an industry changing article - "SSDs - reaching for the
Petabyte."
What will the PB SSD look like? - It won't fit in your
notebook. But it won't be much larger than an old style desktop PC either. The
1st models will be 2U rackmounts.
When will it appear? What technology
problems do
SSD designers have to
solve to get there? What about the
storage architecture
that the PB SSD fits into? How much electrical power will it consume? And...
you may be curious - how much will it cost?
All these questions and
more - will be discussed and answered in the most brain busting and thought
provoking SSD article I've researched and written in the past 5 years.
Planning for the future is easier if you know the direction and the destination.
Stay tuned to this channel - as ever - "leading the way to the new storage
frontier."
new directory - SSD videos
Editor:- March 11, 2010 -
whenever I'm asked -"What do you do for a living?" - the cutest
answer I come up with is - "I waste my time so my readers don't have to
waste theirs."
Few things are so time-wasting on the web - in my
opinion - as videos which talk about the
SSD market. In 99.9% of
cases the same points have already been made - earlier, better, and about 30x
quicker on static webpages.
It's several years since a reader asked -
"Why isn't there a directory of
SSD videos on
StorageSearch.com?"
Well
- there is now. I datamined and filtered it from the tens of thousands of hours
I've spent reading and writing about SSDs. It's the smallest list of links
in any directory page I've created since the web started - and at this rate of
progress will struggle to reach double digits by the time the SSD market
ends. Less is better - when it comes to wasting your time. ...read the article
$100? - too much to pay for a 32GB MLC SSD - says OCZ
Editor:-
March 10, 2010 - OCZ
today announced
it's shipping a 32GB 2.5"
MLC
SSD for under $100.
R/W speeds
are unremarkable - at a mere 125MB/s and 70MB/s respectively - but the main
point of this launch - according to OCZ's CEO, Ryan Petersen - is to
publicize the price point and show what the company is doing "to make SSDs
more affordable to end-users."
Editor's comments:- You get
exactly what you pay for in
SSD pricing. The
big problem is knowing what you want. OCZ's new
Onyx
is a very low capacity, slowish
notebook SSD
which is unsuitable
for server apps. But it does appear to be a good price today according
to
this
comparison. (It may not look so good later.)
WhipTail signs European distributor for SSD dedupe accelerator
Editor:-
March 10, 2010 -
WhipTail Technologies
today announced a Europe wide distribution and support agreement with
Consolidate IT.
Web-Feet tallies SSD numbers for 2009
Editor:- March
8, 2010 -
Web-Feet Research
has just published a quarterly update to its 7th
annual
report on SSD Markets and Applications (annual price $9,000).
This
update focuses on the SSD
market dynamics for the year ending
2009 covering
the Client, Enterprise, and Commercial markets.
Addressed in each of
these markets are the drivers of
SSD adoption,
price points, and
issues associated with SSD adoption. Web-Feet Research has compiled aggregate
SSD shipments and revenue by form factor and application markets covering 2009.
SSD market
research & analysts
Viking's DOM MIL certified
Editor:- March 3, 2010 -
Viking Modular
Solutions today
announced
that its SATA Cube3 128GB DOM
(launched in March
2009) has successfully completed tests pursuant to the
MIL-STD-810F
specification.
WD offers faster SLC and affordable MLC for disparate 2.5"
SSD markets
Editor:- March 3, 2010 -
WD Solid State
Storage is shipping a new range of
2.5" 128GB
SATA
SLC
SSDs - for
high reliability
24/7 embedded markets - called the
WD
SiliconDrive N1x.
R/W speeds are upto 240MB/s and 140MB/s
respectively. Write
endurance is
quoted as 701GB/Day - compatible with 5 year limited warranty. And
data integrity
(non-recoverable error rate) is better than 1 in 1015 bits read.
"The
WD SiliconDrive N1x SSDs are the newest addition to our SiliconDrive product
family, which has shipped several million units since the 1st products
were introduced. SiliconDrive SSDs have consistently met critical OEM
application requirements for high reliability, high performance and long product
deployment cycles," said Michael Hajeck, senior VP and general manager of
WD's solid state storage business unit.
The WD SiliconDrive N1x SSDs
feature patented and patent-pending WD technologies combined with NCQ and
Windows 7 TRIM command support for high data integrity, long product life and
sustained performance
levels throughout the drive's service life without the need for an external
refresh utility, media over-provisioning
or forced idle times used by many SSDs available today.
Editor's comments:- today WD also
announced
its entry into the
SSD notebook
market. WD's SiliconEdge
Blue 2.5" MLC SSDs offer capacity upto 256GB (MSRP $999), R/W speeds
of 250MB/s and 170MB/s.
To avoid confusion from the branding point of
view - it looks like WD has retained the 5 year market proven "SiliconDrive"
brand for its enterprise products while introducing "SiliconEdge"
as its consumer / MLC brand. To protect its reputation WD says the new
notebook design has passed over 250,000 hours of testing to prevent the kind
of flaky SSD
problems which have occurred in the past when competing oems shipped
incompletely verified products.
FalconStor tunes Violin's SSD
Editor:- March 2,
2010 - FalconStor
today announced
technical
and VAR channel support for Violin Memory's 2U
rackmount FC flash SSD
- the Violin 1010 .
Although
the headline specs of this very fast flash SSD are substantially the same as
when it was launched in
November 2008
the 2 important things which have changed are:-
- the price point
- $32,000 for the 500GB (lite capacity) version, and
- the availability of SSD
ASAP-like features implemented by FalconStor's SafeCache and HotZone
software.
STEC samples slim SSDs with deep roots
Editor:-
March 2, 2010 -STEC
has started sampling a new family of
SlimSATA and SATA-CF
32GB/64GB flash SSDs for use in embedded markets.
Performance is
15,000 / 6,000 R/W
IOPS and R/W transfer rates are up to 135MB/s and 130MB/s respectively.
Editor's comments:- in a way this is STEC going back to its
roots. In the server
market - where it is better publicly known - STEC is dependent on the success of
partners like EMC whose
secret ingredient in the SSD cola experience is bottling the water.
STEC is also vulnerable to being substituted out for other
2.5" SSDs (or
sideswiped by PCIe SSDs)
at any time.
But STEC knows how to market to designers in embedded
markets. These are currently much smaller than the other segments in the classic
SSD market
penetration model. Nevertheless it's a way of boosting revenue.
And
here's something else to think about... which links together the oldest
segments in the flash
SSD market with the newest one for
SSD backup - which is still
at the birth stage.
The important feature in these new products is
the ratio of sleep mode power to operating mode power - which is 10 to
1. That's not too far off the ideal ratio (100 to 1) it needs to reach in the
next 5 years to support the concept of putting petabytes of SSD archive storage
into 2U racks. More about that later... In the meantime experience gained in the
unsexy (but reliability
obsessed) embedded SSD
modules market can be viewed as a long term investment in what will be
the biggest market for SSD shipments long after the
current SSD market
bubble.
PCIe SSD adoption accelerates Fusion-io's revenue
Editor:-
March 2, 2010 - Fusion-io
disclosed today it has experienced more than 80% quarter-over-quarter sales
growth and more than 300% sales growth year-over-year.
This emerged in an announcement that Silicon Valley veteran Dennis
Wolf has joined the company as senior VP and CFO to help it manage its
rapid growth as it continues to expand into new markets around the globe. Wolf
has led several public and private companies as CFO, COO and CEO. He brings more
than 30 years of leadership experience in high-growth technology companies, with
work in finance and other disciplines. Most recently, he served as executive VP
and CFO at MySQL where he was
integral in MySQL's growth strategy and its ultimate sale to
Sun Microsystems in a
transaction valued at $1 billion.
"In the 20 years I've been working in this industry, I've never
seen a company grow this fast and I believe we are well poised to triple our
growth in 2010," said Jim Dawson, senior VP of worldwide sales for
Fusion-io. "As a young company experiencing such incredible, rapid
expansion, Dennis' financial expertise and broad understanding of the
marketplace will be essential to our continued ability to meet customer demand."
Editor's
comments:- the last time I wrote an article about a bunch of storage
companies with
triple digit
annual revenue growth was in 2004 - and the top 2 out of those 4 were in
the SSD market too.
Although Fusion-io is a privately held company and doesn't disclose financial
details - it's sometimes easy to tell which companies everyone seems to be
talking about.
Super Talent's Cryptic USB3 SSD
Editor:- March 2,
2010 - Super
Talent Technology today
announced
imminent availability of a new
encrypted
USB 3
flash SSD - with
upto 256GB capacity.
When I asked for more technical details I was
told the datasheet isn't ready yet. The USB 3.0 SuperCrypt is a true SSD (with
wear-leveling).
Internally the module (95 x 34 x 15.4 mm) is a
SATA SSD with a USB
bridge chip.
RunCore's new Express Card SSD / USB 3.0 adapter
Editor:-
March 1, 2010 - Among the many SSDs which RunCore
will show at CeBIT 2010
this week is an Express
Card flash SSD designed for
notebooks.
As well as providing upto 64GB capacity (R/W speeds 120MB/s and
90MB/s) - the Express 34 module also provides 2x
USB 3.0 ports with
connectors for linking the notebook to external devices. See also:-
events.
ioSafe's SSD Bookmarks
Editor:- February 26, 2010
- ioSafe's CEO,
Robb Moore - shares his
SSD Bookmarks
today with our readers.
You know
StorageSearch has been banging on
about SSDs (it seems like)
forever.
But in recent years zillions of other sites have fizzed into the
SSD bubble too.
Now you and I both know that the quality of SSD content across the
web is - well "random" is a polite way of putting it - but that
means a little part of it must be quite good too! I'm biased and don't have
time to waste browsing SSD chatter in other
publications. That's
why I started the SSD
bookmarks series last year - to get suggestions from industry leading
figures - which give you and me a clue into what they see as important. ...read the article
PCIe SSDs Dominate Product Views
Editor:- February
24, 2010 - 3 out of the top 5 most popular featured SSDs here on StorageSearch.com are now
PCIe SSDs.
Rankings
are now listed and updated daily in the
SSD buyers guide
- just below the news digest for the current month.
Unlike
the top 10 SSDs
(quarterly feature which is based on editorial search volume and excludes
ad pageviews ) - the new "products popularity" indicator is
based on ads.
In
previous years
we only listed the #1 product ad in each month.
It provides an
alternative useful way of seeing what people are looking at, and maintains a
tradition which I started in my online directories back in 1996.
Ever
wondered why the editor can spot
forward looking
trends? - Our web stats have historically predicted market behavior upto 3
years in advance in high value markets. (Keeping the dust off the
crystal ball helps too.)
Aitech's new XMC SSD
Editor:- February 18, 2010 -
Aitech launched
a new model in its family of
PMC/XMC
SSDs.
The
M224 has 128GB capacity, and
hardware RAID options
which support the onboard flash array. Sustained sequential R/W speeds are
170MB/s and 120MB/s respectively. The M224 is available in air-cooled and
conduction-cooled versions as well as in 3 levels of
ruggedization
depending on shock, vibration and humidity requirements. OS support includes
VxWorks, Windows and Linux.
Solid State Storage Backup - new directory
Editor:-
February 16, 2010 - StorageSearch.com
launched a new directory for -
Solid State Storage Backup.
Although
these are still early days for the S3B market - the new page will help you
filter out news, articles and messages from the S3B pioneers which otherwise
might get lost in the clamor of the
SSD market bubble.
"In
the early days of the
disk to disk backup market the old
tape vendors scoffed at
the idea that hard disks
might one day steal their market. Now most of those old tape dinosaurs are gone
and the hard disk backup market reigns supreme" said editor, Zsolt Kerekes.
"Despite that - I expect that most vendors in the
D2d / VTL market today
will not even be dreaming about the possibility that
SSDs will one day
transform their own cozy market too. But they urgently need to start having
fresh ideas about what backup and recovery are really for? The
S3B page will chronicle the
news from the nascent Solid State Storage Backup market - and help to accelerate
those changes."
Reliable SSDs are Rocket Science
Editor:-
February 15, 2010 -
NASA's
Solar Dynamics Observatory, launched last week, uses an SSD error
correction architecture designed by ECC Technologies.
Phil
White, inventor of this scheme says - "You can think of the SDO spacecraft
as containing a parallel-transfer, fault-tolerant
SSD that uses DRAM chips
instead of NAND Flash chips. It uses exactly the same PRS ECC that I have
proposed for use in solid state disks. All of the data collected by SDO is
encoded by the PRS encoder, stored in the SSD and decoded by the PRS decoder.
Multiple DRAM chips can fail with no loss of data or performance."
Editor's comments:-
understanding the data
failure modes in solid state storage arrays isn't rocket science. But
rocket science thinking (high mission cost of data failure without the
cushion of a service engineer) - is a critical starting point in the design
of SSDs with high data
integrity.
Here are some other "SSDs in space" links
Micron acquires NOR flash leader
Editor:- February
9, 2010 - Micron
today
announced
an agreement to acquire
privately held Numonyx
in an all-stock transaction worth approximately $1.3 billion.
This
strengthens Micron's position as one of the world's leading memory companies,
with a broad portfolio of
DRAM,
NAND and NOR memory
products.
Analyst comment:- from Objective Analysis
- "By acquiring Numonyx, Micron is buying the current leader in the NOR
flash market - which has been a difficult one for nearly all participants."
SSD Market Projections - from Denali & Gartner
Editor:-
February 9, 2010 - Denali
Software published an article -
the
Evolving Enterprise SSD - which comments on detailed SSD market size
predictions from Gartner
related to SSD form factors and interfaces.
If you look at the curves
related to form factors - you can infer that StorageSearch.com's readers are
about 3 to 4 years ahead of the market in their search volume.
Another
way of looking at it is that our readers have always been ahead of the SSD
market adoption curve - and have been
historically
and statistically significant in shaping the SSD market penetration curves by
their actions in either designing SSDs or buying them.
Foremay samples 200K IOPS class PCIe SSD Cards
Editor:-
February 8, 2010
Foremay is
sampling
its EC188 D-series 2nd generation
fast
PCIe SSDs with
capacity upto 4TB (MLC)
and 1TB (SLC).
The new SSDs deliver sequential speeds up to 1.6
GB/s for reading and 1.5 GB/s for writing, and R/W IOPS up to 200K/180K.
"IOPS is one of
the major pain points to be addressed in the deployment of today's high-end and
mission-critical servers and workstations," said Dr. Jack Winters,
Foremay's CTO and cofounder. "We hope that our new EC188 D-series PCIe
SSDs, with greater than 100K IOPS and more than 1GB/s bandwidth, can help solve
problems in the majority of those computing applications where IOPS or speed is
the bottleneck."
Editor's comments:- Foremay's new PCIe
SSDs aim at the same kind of customers who currently buy from
Fusion-io and
Texas Memory Systems
both of whom have been shipping this type of product for over a year
already. Customer qualification by OS and application type is a prerequisite
to sales in this part of the market. Foremay will have to be aggressive
on price to get volume customers interested enough to test its products.
Solaris, SSDs and Sun-Oracle - past failures - future
challenges
Editor:- February 3, 2010 - in a new article today I
look ahead to the
next 5 years of Oracle,
Solaris and SSDs.
I also look back and give you my
list of Sun's biggest market successes and failures in the past 20 years. ...read the article
Flash Memory Basics - for enterprise SSD buyers
Editor:-
February 3, 2010 - a new article -
Flash
Memory Basics - posted today by blogger Brad Diggs looks like it
could be part of an educational series laying the groundwork for Sun Microsystem's
PCIe SSD product
family.
I noticed it because it cites one of my own favorite articles
- Are MLC SSDs
Ever Safe in Enterprise Apps?.
Silicon Motion SSD SoCs - Ready for 20nm
Editor:-
February 1, 2010 - Silicon
Motion announced that its
SSD controller
shipments increased
over
50% year-on-year - in the most recent quarter and now account for
almost 10% of its ($87 million annual) corporate revenue.
The company said - that the vast majority of controllers that are shipping are
for 40nm and 30nm NAND flash and they are on track to deliver controllers for
20nm NAND flash that is expected to be available in the 2nd half 2010. In the
4th quarter 2009 the company also began shipping 3-bits per cell MLC
controllers.
25nm Flash will Double SSD Capacities in Q2
Editor:-
February 1, 2010 - Intel
and Micron
today announced they are sampling the
world's
1st 25nm NAND flash memory.
This gives 8GB MLC (classic 2 bit)
flash memory in a
stackable TSOP. The new chips will enable higher density
SSDs to ship in volume in
Q2.
Clarifying SSD Pricing - where does all the money go?
Editor:-
January 27, 2010 - StorageSearch.com
today published a new article -
Clarifying SSD Pricing.
SSDs are among the most
expensive items of computer hardware many of you will ever buy - with high end
models costing more than high end servers.
Understanding the factors
which determine SSD costs is often a confusing and irritating process - not
made any easier when market prices for identical capacity SSDs can vary more
than 100x to 1! This new guide suggests simple tactics to help
you. ...read the
article
LSI will Compete with Fusion-io
Editor:- January 26,
2010 - LSI and
Seagate today
announced
they have collaborated on designing
PCIe SSDs for the
enterprise accelerator market which will sample in Q2 2010.
Editor's
comments:- LSI is approximately the 163rd company to enter the
SSD market (not counting
SSD SoC makers - which
would push the score to about 185).
Partly this is due to a strong
suction effect from the SSD
market bubble - and partly an inevitable step given that the high end of the
RAID controller market
is going to disappear.
There's little point in spending money aggregating
IOPS in an
array of hard disks -
if the result costs more, is slower and is less
reliable to
operate.
Avere Adds SLC SSD Options to 2U ASAPs
Editor:-
January 26, 2010 - Avere
Systems today
announced
it's shipping new
SLC
flash SSD options in its
FXT Series
10GbE NAS compatible
SSD ASAPs.
The
2U Avere FXT 2700 appliance (from $82,500) features 64GB of DRAM, 1GB of
NVRAM, and 512GB of SLC flash SSD. FXT clusters can scale to 25 appliances and
support millions of operations/sec and tens of GB/sec throughput.
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