Diablo Technologies Introduces New Memory Channel Flash Architecture

Diablo Technologies, Inc. introduced Memory Channel Storage (MCS), a storage and system memory solution, resetting the bar for latency and throughput for enterprise applications.

Diablo
leveraged its experience in memory channel interfaces and protocols to
deliver a system architecture that directly attaches persistent memory
to the host processors of a server or storage array. This approach
utilizes the industry standard DIMM form factor and native CPU memory
interface, allowing MCS to be a drop-in replacement for standard RDIMMs.
The architecture delivers high, economical scaling with persistent
latencies approaching that of DRAM and linear scaling of throughput with
additional modules.

"Flash SSDs boost system performance, and
flash over PCIe is even faster, but the best performance will come from
flash on the memory channel," said Jim Handy, director, Objective Analysis. "Diablo is on the right path by providing a way to plug flash right into the DDR memory buses on today’s servers."

Configuring MCS as a traditional block storage device enables new performance levels for applications, all the while reducing latencies by more than 85% over PCIe-based SSDs
and 96% over SATA/SAS based SSDs. MCS latencies are not only lower than
any other flash based storage, but also provides deterministic
latencies with minimal variability, allowing applications to commit data
quickly and consistently.

In addition to block storage, MCS can also be configured to expand system memory from
gigabytes to terabytes, improving the performance of large in-memory
applications. This capability provides a 100x increase in accessible
memory and allows the entire application data set to reside in the CPU
memory space. This disruptive capability makes MCS well suited for
memcached, big data analytics, and other large in-memory applications.

"Performance
in storage and density in DRAM have massively fallen behind the curve
of CPU capability and growing data capacity needs, which ultimately
reduces application performance and increases TCO for users flash is the
key to a balanced compute architecture and massive application
acceleration," said Riccardo Badalone, CEO, Diablo. "The arrival
of MCS finally allows applications to leverage the benefits of flash
memory connected directly to the processor’s memory controllers, which
will ultimately change the cost/density/performance rules forever."

MCS is suited for applications critical to large enterprise
customers where high performance at deterministic, low latency is
required for efficiency, including:

Database / Cloud
Big Data Analytics
High Frequency Trading and Other Financial Applications
Server and Storage Virtualization and Consolidation
VDI

MCS
is compatible with any industry-standard DDR3 memory slot, allowing
deployment across the full spectrum of server and storage system
designs, chassis’ and form-factors. The architecture is attractive for
blade servers, where PCIe slots are severely limited in availability and
size, requiring costly and custom designs and reduced flash storage
capacity.