Home Enterprise Fusion-io Atomic Series PCIe Flash Drives Announced

Fusion-io Atomic Series PCIe Flash Drives Announced

by Brian Beeler

Fusion-io has launched their third-generation ioMemory platform. Collectively referred to as the Atomic Series, the family is comprised of two core products, the ioMemory PX600 and SX300. With the PX600 and SX300, Fusion-io has gone to a simple universal design that features a programmable FPGA and Fusion-io’s VSL (virtual storage layer) to manage the card and host integration respectively. The cards are then paired with 20nm MLC NAND to deliver high endurance for mixed workloads in the case of the PX600, or high performance and capacity for more read-centric workloads for the SX300. Previously Fusion-io has offered a variety of products with MLC and SLC NAND flavors and single or multiple controllers. With the new Atomic Series, Fusion-io is trying to make the decision tree easier to work through by offering two branches that are MLC-only with just a single controller and overall simplified design.


Fusion-io has launched their third-generation ioMemory platform. Collectively referred to as the Atomic Series, the family is comprised of two core products, the ioMemory PX600 and SX300. With the PX600 and SX300, Fusion-io has gone to a simple universal design that features a programmable FPGA and Fusion-io’s VSL (virtual storage layer) to manage the card and host integration respectively. The cards are then paired with 20nm MLC NAND to deliver high endurance for mixed workloads in the case of the PX600, or high performance and capacity for more read-centric workloads for the SX300. Previously Fusion-io has offered a variety of products with MLC and SLC NAND flavors and single or multiple controllers. With the new Atomic Series, Fusion-io is trying to make the decision tree easier to work through by offering two branches that are MLC-only with just a single controller and overall simplified design.


Fusion-io Atomic Series Family

ioMemory PX600

The ioMemory PX600 is the company's new workhorse, aimed at providing the highest transaction rate for high performance applications that tend toward mixed read/write workloads. The PX600 comes in 1TB, 1.3TB and 2.6TB capacities in half-height, half-length form factors and 5.2TB is a full-height, half-length form factor, the cards interface over PCIe 2.0 x8.


Fusion-io ioMemory PX600

The entire family of PX600 cards can handle read bandwidth of 2.7GB/s and 1.6GB/s write bandwidth in standard power mode (25W). Fusion-io also supports an optional high-performance mode that can amp up writes to 2.2GB/s in the 2.6TB card. The PX600 also handles 330,000 4K random read IOPS and 375,000 random write IOPS in the 2.6TB capacity.

Part of the value proposition with any mixed-workload flash product is the endurance. Fusion-io specs the cards at 12PBW, 16PBW, 32PBW and 64PBW for the 1TB, 1.3TB, 2.6TB and 5.2TB cards respectively. 

ioMemory SX300

The ioMemory SX300 is a lower cost, higher capacity option that is specifically optimized for read intensive workloads. Though less expensive, it is still a great performer with good endurance on a proven platform. The SX300 comes in 1.3TB, 1.6TB and 3.2TB capacities in low-profile form factors in addition to a 6.4TB full-height, half-length profile. Like the PX600, all cards interface over PCIe 2.0 x8.


Fusion-io ioMemory SX300 1.6TB

The entire line of SX300 cards can support read bandwidth of 2.6GB/s as well as 1.2GB/s write bandwidth for the 3.2TB and 6.4TB models in standard power mode (25W). In addition, the SX300 can handle 180,000 4K random read IOPS and 285,000 random write IOPS in the 6.4TB capacity.

Fusion-io specs the cards at 4PBW, 5.5PBW, 11PBW and 22PBW for the 1.25TB, 1.6TB, 3.2TB, and 6.4TB capacities respectively.

ioMemory Technology

Fusion-io continues to leverage their core technologies like Adaptive Flashback, which increases NAND die failure tolerances by keeping the drive online and data secure in the unlikely event of multiple NAND failures. In such an event, the ioMemory drives can remap and recover without going offline. The drive itself integrates with the host OS via Fusion-io's VSL (virtual storage layer) software providing native access to data stored on the ioMemory device. Fusion-io has also contributed heavily to the database software community by providing tools to allow native NAND access to applications like MySQL database to significantly improve performance over traditional block storage solutions. Support for that software tuning will continue to be available with the Atomic Series. All drives come with a five year warranty.

Availability

Fusion-io Atomic Series cards are available now through the partner network and OEMs.

Fusion ioMemory PX600 Review

Fusion ioMemory SX300 Review

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