New multi-level cell used in enterprise storage
STEC announced in December that its multi-level cell solid state drives will be used in IBM’s high-end and mid-range storage, signaling the first time an enterprise storage vendor the likes of IBM has used MLC rather than single level cell technology.
STEC’s ZeusIOPS SSDs will be used in IBM’s high-end DS8800 and DS8700 storage arrays and in its mid-range Storwize V7000 storage system. The ZeusIOPs MLC SSDs have either a 6Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or 4Gb Fibre Channel interface.
MLC has until now been associated with consumer flash devices, but has seen some inroads in the enterprise space. Intel, for example, chose enterprise MLC (eMLC) for its 25-nanometer ‘Lyndenville’, which will be introduced in the first part of 2011. And, Sandforce, one of the first manufacturers of SSD controllers, pinned its future on making controllers for MLC drives early on.
STEC uses its CellCare and Secure Array of Flash Element (SAFE) to improve the reliability and endurance of MLC. CellCare provides adaptive access, signal processing, error correcting codes and data management to improve reliability.
The STEC MLC-based SSDs will be available in capacities of up to 800GB and will be able to handle as many as 10 writes per day over five years without performance degradation.
Both the DS8800, DS8700 and Storwize V7000 use IBM’s System Storage Easy Tier software for placement of data on SSDs.
The use of STEC’s SLC-based drives has dominated enterprise storage until now, having been used in EMC’s Symmetrix DMX and Clariion, Compellent’s Storage Center and HP’s 3PAR Storage Systems.
