Smart Modular SSDs Chosen by IBM for eX5 Servers

SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. announced that IBM Corp. is using the SMART XceedIOPS 1.8" SATA SSD in its eX5 server family.

IBM’s eXFlash feature, a next-generation, enterprise-grade flash storage technology, replaces hundreds of disk drives and thousands of cables and wires, and can provide more than a 20x improvement in transaction performance over traditional disk drives. Current eX5 servers include the SMART XceedIOPS SATA 1.8" 50GB SSD for system boot functions and the XceedIOPS SATA 1.8" 200GB SSD for storage. Each eX5 server can support up to twenty-four XceedIOPS SATA 1.8" SSDs, resulting in power and footprint savings as compared to the use of an array of hard disks.

SMART demonstrated its XceedIOPS SATA 1.8" SSD in an IBM eX5 server equipped with the eXFlash feature at the Storage Networking World (SNW) conference.

Manufactured using enterprise-grade multi-level cell (E-MLC) NAND flash technology, SMART’s XceedIOPS SATA SSD provides endurance, ensuring a minimum five-year lifetime. The XceedIOPS SATA SSD also features PowerGuard technology, SMART’s proprietary technology for backup power protection and reliability in the event of power failure, providing improved performance as compared to the super-capacitor designs used by traditional SSDs.

"IBM’s new SATA SSDs deliver high levels of reliability and performance as well as a small footprint to IBM’s eXFlash storage system," said Alex Yost, Vice President of System x and BladeCenter Servers, IBM. "This enhances the innovation and client value of our eX5 servers."

The SMART XceedIOPS 1.8" SATA SSD is available with capacity ranging from 50 to 400GB, supporting a wide range of computing needs. Maximizing the bandwidth limits of the SATA 3Gb interface, the XceedIOPS SATA 1.8" SSDs deliver up to 250MB/s sequential read/write speeds and up to 30,000 random input/output operations per second (IOPS). Designed with error-correction technologies, these SSDs provide a solution for applications that require endurance, data integrity, and capacity at low cost.

"We are very pleased that the XceedIOPS SSD was selected for this Tier-1 enterprise application and that it is part of this impressive, forward-looking design by IBM," said John Scaramuzzo, SMART’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Storage Business Unit. "The IBM eX5 enterprise server line is an ideal application for our XceedIOPS SSD, which delivers high-performance enterprise-grade storage. Each eXFlash replaces 80 JBODs, each of which includes multiple disks and other components that all require cabling. This new implementation can result in lowering storage costs by 97%."

SMART’s XceedIOPS 1.8" SATA SSD is in mass production and is available in volume quantities. It is also shipping in volume in the IBM eX5 servers.