New SSDs are optimized for mixed workloads, such as online transaction processing, database or Web indexing, and email.
Seagate started shipping its
new Pulsar solid-state drives-2.5-inch SSDs the company claims are the fastest
it has ever manufactured-July 18 to its channel partners.
Seagate said that the 400GB
Pulsar XT.2 uses SLC (single-level cell) flash with a native 6Gb/s SAS
(serial-attached SCSI) interface. The XT.2 is optimized for mixed workloads
typical of enterprise environments, such as OLTP (online transaction processing),
database or Web indexing, and email.
A more capacious version,
the 800GB Pulsar.2, is scheduled to become available July 29. Seagate claimed
that this is the first MLC (multi-level cell) flash-enabled SSD made available
by an enterprise hard-drive producer.
In a single storage device
configuration, the XT.2 produced an SPC-1C result of 20,008.82 SPC-1 IOPS
with an average response time of 2.05 milliseconds over a 10-minute duration,
compared with an SPC-1C Sustainability Test result of 20,011.07 IOPS with an
average response time of 2.08 milliseconds over four hours.
SPC (Storage Performance
Council, an independent storage research firm)
benchmark
results on testing of the Pulsar can be found here.
The Pulsar.2 is aimed
specifically for data centers, unlike typical MLC solid-state drives built for
consumer applications. The Pulsar.2 holds up to 800GB and has built-in
intelligence, in that it is able to automatically detect and correct data
errors that could plague normal drive operations, Seagate said.
The Pulsar.2 SSD supports
both native 6G bps SAS and Serial ATA (SATA) 6G bps interfaces for primary and
secondary server storage.
"Most SSD suppliers
aren't fully aware of the needs of the enterprise," said Jim Handy of
Objective Analysis. "It isn't just a fast interface like SAS, Fibre
Channel or PCIe that they need, and it isn't just IOPS levels in the tens to
hundreds of thousands.
"Without data integrity
and reliability, an SSD is worthless to most enterprise users. Seagate's
undeniable leadership in the enterprise HDD market has given the company a deep
understanding of the necessity of data integrity and endurance."
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Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
