Samsung rolls out high-performance 2.5-in., 100GB solid-state drive

Computerworld - Samsung Electronics Co. announced today that it has developed a 2.5-in., 100GB solid-state disk (SSD) drive with enhanced performance for use in servers running applications such as video-on-demand, Internet data centers and online transaction processing.

Like other high-performance, enterprise-class flash drives, Samsung's SS805 SSD drive is being positioned as an alternative to traditional 15,000-rpm serial-attached SCSI (SAS) hard disk drives. Samsung said its new "performance-optimized" enterprise SSD can process IOPS (input/output per second) more than 10 times faster than the fastest SAS hard drive, with a sequential read rate of 230MB/sec. and a sequential write rate of 180MB/sec.

By comparison Intel Corp.'s X25-E enterprise-class SSD has a sustained sequential read rate of up to 250MB/sec. and a sustained sequential write rate of up to 170MB/sec. Intel's SSD, however, comes in 32GB and 64GB capacities.

As Intel did with its X25-E, Samsung boosted performance in its drive by using single-layer cell NAND flash memory, interleaving NAND flash chips, and using multiple parallel channels and optimized firmware. Intel's X25-E uses 10 parallel channels; Samsung uses eight. Parallel channels create multiple paths for data to move between NAND flash chips and the drive's controller, increasing internal throughput and performance.

"Our new enterprise SSD offers CIOs and IT managers the ability to greatly improve storage reliability and capacity while avoiding costly power and AC infrastructure upgrades in data centers at or near capacity," said Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Semiconductor Inc.

Samsung said the new drive comes with data encryption capability and can process as much as 100 times the number of IOPS per watt as a 15,000-rpm 2.5-in. SAS hard drive in applications where higher performance and lower-power consumption are both needed.

Samsung said its enterprise SSDs use 1.9 watts of power in active mode and 0.6 watts in idle mode, while typical 15,000-rpm hard drives consume between 8 watts and 15 watts in active mode and 1 watt to 2 watts in idle mode.

The Samsung SS805 drive also allows all data in the process of being stored within the SSD to be preserved in the event of a power outage. The drive is expected to be available sometime this quarter. Samsung did not immediately offer a retail price for the drive.

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