PCIe SSD Solution Released by Smart Modular Technologies

SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. has collaborated with Marvell to develop SMART’s XceedIOPS PCIe solid-state storage solution, the first in a line of products that targets the growing storage market for enterprise applications.

Addressing the top two concerns in enterprise storage today, power and performance, the solid-state design of SMART’s XceedIOPS PCIe reduces overall data-center power loading while eliminating the bottlenecks created by differences between the processor bandwidth and performances in rotating storage devices. Featuring a full-height, half-length PCI card form factor, the XceedIOPS PCIe connects directly to any computer platform equipped with an eight-lane or higher PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 slot.

Performance, Reliability, and Flexibility
The XceedIOPS PCIe product achieves fast, reliable performance through industry-standard Flash and DRAM combined with Marvell’s PCIe controller devices. SMART’s innovative packaging, manufacturing, design, and test capabilities provide a highly reliable, cost-effective, and efficient solution. The new product exploits the 32Gb/s bandwidth of the PCIe interface (8x faster than 4Gb Fiber Channel and 5x faster than SATA 3.0) to deliver industry-leading 140,000 random small block IOPS performance. Offering up to 400GB of single-level cell (SLC) Flash-based solid-state storage, the new solution features exceptional reliability due to state-of-the-art Flash management algorithms and advanced wear-leveling techniques. OEMs that require more flexibility can take advantage of the fine granularity configurability of the XceedIOPS PCIe, which can be populated with two, four, or eight storage nodes with 24GB or 50GB addressable capacity per storage node. This flexibility allows OEMs to configure the optimal storage solution, trading off performance and cost in order to best satisfy the needs of a particular application.

In today’s market, enterprise and server-class data center applications that require more than 100,000 IOPS, such as multi-million record databases, social network services, and search engines, are becoming very common. In order to satisfy the operational requirements of these applications, hundreds of short-stroked, enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDDs) are often assembled in an expensive and power-hungry rack-based storage node. Now, the same workload can be fulfilled by a single SMART 400GB XceedIOPS PCIe with the additional benefits of reduced power consumption and higher reliability. For instance, to achieve 140,000 IOPS, a traditional design would require 466 HDDs. Operating at 15,000 RPM and 14.7W, this approach would then require 6850W, as compared to a single XceedIOPS PCIe, which requires 25W. As a result, OEMs selecting the XceedIOPS PCIe can realize a 200x power reduction.

Growing Market
The worldwide revenue forecast for enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) storage is expected to increase at a CAGR of 78% from 2009 to 2012, according to IDC. In addition, IDC projects that 2010 revenue for SSD sales will increase by 132% from 2009, up to $382 million.

"SMART and Marvell have collaborated on research and development, product technology, packaging, and logistical expertise to manufacture and deliver products that address the enterprise storage market," said Alan Gulachenski, SMART’s Vice President of Advanced Memory Solutions. "Marvell is the industry leader in data storage silicon solutions, and we lead the market in delivering innovative memory and solid-state storage products."

"This collaboration provides both companies with an excellent opportunity to better serve the changing needs of OEMs as they address the enterprise storage and computing marketplace," said Alan Armstrong Vice President of Marketing of the Storage Business Unit for Marvell Semiconductor. "Marvell’s vast experience and leadership in storage silicon products is enabling a solution that exceeds the requirements of today’s customers."

Through this new partnership, SMART will continue to leverage Marvell’s industry-leading storage controller chips for integration into solid-state storage products, while Marvell will benefit from SMART’s operational expertise, global footprint, customer relationships, customer support framework, and technical experience developing storage products. The companies expect to announce additional storage and memory products later this year.

Sampling in Q3, the XceedIOPS PCIe will be available in production volumes beginning in Q4. SMART will showcase its new XceedIOPS PCIe solid-state storage solution in the Marvell booth at the Computex Show to be held at the Nangang Exhibition Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, from June 2 – 6, 2009.