The new, as-yet-unnamed drive combines a high-performance PCIe interface in a hot-swappable 2.5-inch card that gives data center administrators some new high-speed options for storage servers.
In
its first news since the tragic death of CEO Steve Appleton in a plane crash
Feb. 3, Micron Technology on March 6 launched what it called the first 2.5-inch
enterprise solid-state drive based on a PCIe interface.
The
new, as-yet-unnamed drive combines a high-performance PCIe interface in a
hot-swappable 2.5-inch card that gives data center administrators some new
high-speed options for storage servers.
Intel
introduced PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) in 2004. It is a
computer expansion-card standard based on point-to-point serial links rather
than a shared parallel bus architecture, and is designed to replace the older
PCI, PCI-X and AGP standards.
PCIe-based
flash storage has the ability to bypass traditional storage overhead by reducing
latencies, increasing throughput and enabling efficient processing of massive
quantities of data.
Because
the 2.5-inch form factor allows PCIe SSDs to be integrated into the front end
of the server (like traditional data storage drives), users can easily service
the drive or scale performance without having to power down the server. This is
an important consideration for data center managers, especially those
responsible for hundreds or thousands of servers.
Will Be an Option in New Dell Servers
The
new SSD has been selected as an optional storage tier in Dell's new PowerEdge
12th-generation servers. These servers use a front-accessible backplane design
that can hold 2.5-inch SATA, SAS and PCIe drives, allowing the user a variety
of storage choices in a server or rack of servers.
The
new device uses Micron's P320h PCIe SSD design and is based on a
custom-developed controller. The 2.5-inch PCIe SSD also complements the P320h
HHHL card form factor, which provides power for high-performance, high-reliability
storage systems required for cloud applications, such as video streaming and
virtual networks.
Micron
is currently in production with the P320h HHHL card and is sampling the
2.5-inch PCIe for selected customers. The SSD is expected to go GA by
this fall.
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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
