Fusion-io Unveils 1.65TB ioFX MLC PCIe SSD for Workstations

Fusion-io, Inc. announced that the ioFX workstation acceleration platform is available with 1.6TB of capacity, in addition to the original 420GB form factor.

The high capacity ioFX is for video editing, computer assisted design (CAD), 4K and stereoscopic production, as well as digital intermediate  finishing.

"Digital production is undergoing a resolution revolution as production moves to 4K and beyond, while production budgets and deadlines continue to tighten," said Vincent Brisebois, Fusion-io director of visual computing. "To overcome these opposing forces, the Fusion ioFX can help digital artists efficiently deliver creative work faster, even when faced with the most demanding production requirements. Fusion-io is proud to collaborate with industry leading software developers and hardware companies to deliver breakthrough acceleration for the tools used by professional artists worldwide."

Based on theusion ioMemory platform, the 1.6 TB ioFX improves workstation application performance. It removes traditional storage bottlenecks to allow high performance CPUs and graphics processing units to operate at their potential, enabling artists to composite, edit, playback and finish digital content with speed and efficiency. The ioFX is ideal for encoding, transcoding, particle simulations and working with large amounts of cached data.

Connecting via PCIe, the ioFX is also available in a 420GB capacity to provide artists with choice in selecting the capacity for their applications. To help professionals maximize the capabilities of applications for digital content creation, Fusion-io has worked with the entertainment hardware and software providers to optimize the ioFX for visual effects production.

"NVIDIA GPUs provide powerful performance to professional workstations, which is further boosted with the ioFX high speed memory platform," said Greg Estes, industry executive, media and entertainment, NVIDIA Corp. "ioFX dramatically increases the amount of high-resolution content that can be sent to NVIDIA Quadro graphics boards for processing at extremely high speeds, enabling better artist interactivity and, ultimately, better client satisfaction for our customers."

"ASSIMILATE SCRATCH has earned its reputation for high performance by delivering 4K performance to DI and post facilities since 2007," said Steve Bannerman, VP marketing, ASSIMILATE, Inc. "The combination of SCRATCH and the 1.6 TB ioFX offers studio-grade performance to a far broader range of artists, even those reviewing dailies on set. Higher capacity acceleration is an ideal way to ensure maximum efficiency, either in post or on location, where meeting tight schedules is essential to staying within budget."

"From accelerating 3D painting in MARI, to reviewing shots in HIERO, to compositing in NUKE, Fusion ioFX adds powerful acceleration that can enhance our applications," said Bruno Nicoletti, head of technology and founder at The Foundry. "All of our software is designed to remove as many technical barriers from production as possible, and Fusion-io acceleration takes that one step further with the ioFX integrated into artist workstations. As the amount of data artists work with in today’s high resolution formats continues to increase, the ioFX can help creatives spend more time manipulating their work with much more interactivity than before."

ioMemory software enables Fusion-io products to deliver performance through an OS architecture that cuts through the latency introduced by HDDs and SSDs. ioFX also includes Fusion ioSphere remote monitoring and management software, allowing IT teams to monitor and manage all Fusion-io solutions deployed throughout a studio from a single interface.

NAB 2013 attendees saw the ioFX in action at a number of leading Fusion-io software and hardware Technology Alliance Program member booths.

The 1.6 TB Fusion ioFX will be available in summer 2013. List price will be disclosed when the product is released. The 420GB ioFX is available from the company and its VARs for a list price of $1,995.