IBM Proposes 600GB 10,000rpm 6Gb SAS 2.5-inch Hybrid HDDs

IBM Corp. anonunced new flash hybrid SAS 2.5-inch HDDs for System x that add capacity offerings to the System x and BladeCenter family:

• 600GB 10K 6 Gbps SAS 2.5-inch G2HS Hybrid (00AD102)
• 600GB 10K 6 Gbps SAS 2.5-inch G2SS Hybrid (00AD107)

They are HDDs that incorporate and leverage NAND flash to accelerate performance.

The amount of information that is gathered and stored by businesses continues to grow exponentially. In addition to the demand for increased storage, there are increasing requirements to quickly and effectively store and access data. Today, conventional HDD drives and solid-state storage technology are utilized to achieve specific objectives within the data center. Conventional HDDs continue to be the most common storage media offering high density and basic performance in a cost-effective solution. Solid-state storage solutions enable businesses to achieve optimal IO through variable R/W capabilities for performance intensive applications and workloads.

IBM is now offering a new technology: hybrid drives. These drives combine a cache of NAND flash and conventional media to accelerate HDD drive performance – enabling higher IO performance while leveraging the capacity and cost of spinning media for primary storage. IBM is introducing 6Gb SAS 2.5-inch G2HS and G2SS hybrid drives – the first generation of hybrid drives from IBM.

Ideal for SMBs or the distributed large enterprise, IBM 600GB 10K 6 Gbps SAS 2.5-inch G2HS Hybrid (00AD102) and IBM 600GB 10K 6 Gbps SAS 2.5-inch G2SS Hybrid (00AD107) provide cost-effective performance and density in a small form factor HDD. In addition to the solid-state-based cache, these new drive offerings provide 6Gb hot-swap SAS capability for performance and HA System x environment. HDD functionality and 6Gb SAS performance of these new drives are enabled when used with IBM 6Gb System x servers and internal ServeRAID controllers.

When a ServeRAID controller, including M5014 (46M0916), M5015 (46M0829), M5016 (90Y4304), M1115 (81Y4448), M5110 (81Y4481), or M5120 (81Y4478), is installed, it offers internal RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, RAID-10, and RAID-50 and can also offer additional RAID-6 and RAID-60 functionality. ServeRAID M1015 (46M0831) provides internal RAID-0, RAID-1, and RAID-10. Intuitive Management is provided through the MegaRAID Management Suite (MSM), which offers a suite of applications and tools that includes a full spectrum of online RAID management and preboot setup utilities.

600GB performance characteristics include:
16GB NAND Flash.

• Drive-to-host interface that supports up to 6.0Gb/s burst rate.
• Drive media to buffer interface that supports sustained interface data transfers of up to 151MB/s average on the 600GB drives.
• Spindle speed of 10,000 rpm.
• Hot-swap and simple-swap capability.SAS interface.

Reliability

• SAS compliance enables these HDDs to connect directly to selected System x systems.
• S.M.A.R.T. allows software utilities to alert of certain impending drive failures so replacements can be made before a problem occurs.
• Testing through the ServerProven program instills confidence that your storage subsystem is compatible and will function reliably.

Warranty
One-year, customer replaceable unit, limited warranty

Key prerequisites
IBM System x system with SAS capability.

Planned availability date
June 19, 2013