STEC Unveils Ultra-low Latency Storage SSD

SAN FRANCISCO-Solid-state storage drive maker STEC on Sept. 20 introduced a new industrial-strength SSD aimed at enterprises deploying fast and/or continuous read/write workloads that include metadata logging, journaling and database indexing applications.
The announcement was made at Oracle OpenWorld here at the Moscone Center.
STEC’s ZeusRAM, which is currently being tested by several high-performance OEMs, will be launched later this fall in a 3.5-inch standard form factor using a native 6Gb SAS interface, said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manouch Moshayedi.
In testing, STEC’s new ZeusRAM SSDs have been benchmarked at speeds often below 23 microseconds, Moshayedi said. This ultra-low latency enables the new SSDs to provide network-attached and unified storage appliances high-speed access to both data and metadata, Moshayedi said.
ZeusRAM’s design utilizes not only NAND flash but also DRAM to provide power backup in the event of a host system’s power loss, Moshayedi said.
“Conventional storage systems relying solely on DRAM and hard disk drives have been inadequate in handling the explosive growth of data and sophisticated file systems,” Moshayedi said.
STEC is demonstrating the new drive at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 through Sept. 24.