Based on standard PCIe architecture coupled with silicon-based NAND clustering storage technology, the High IOPS Adapters are optimized for System x racks and can be deployed in blades via the PCIe expansion units. These scalable designs come with both Single Level Cell (SLC) and MultiLevel Cell (MLC) technologies in standard PCIe form factors. While MLC offers a cost-effective alternative, SLC provides over 12X more endurance and up to 30% better performance over MLC.

These adapters use NAND flash memory as the basic building block of solid-state storage and contain no moving parts, thus they are less sensitive to issues associated with vibration, noise, and mechanical failure. These adapters are built as block devices on a PCIe bus with advanced wear-leveling, ECC, and N+1 chip-level redundancy providing unparalleled reliability and efficiency

Typical uses are applications with ultra-high performance I/O needs:

• Data-in-memory applications
• Medium to large databases
• Cache
• Video
• Data Warehousing
• Business Intelligence and analytics
• Decision support

IBM 640GB High IOPS MLC Adapter Features

Performance features:

• High performance - 230 times better IOPS. That means, for example, 97,014 IOPS at 4K block random reads versus 420 IOPS for a 15K RPM 146GB disk drive.
• Low latency of 50 μs - 1% of the latency of a 15K RPM 146GB disk drive.
• 600 MB/s random writes sustained

Reliability features:

• Predictable lifetime.
• Up to 25 years data retention
• N+1 redundancy built-in to ensure data protection
• 11-bit ECC protection
• Advance bad-block management algorithms enable taking blocks out of service when their failure rate becomes unacceptable.
• IBM High IOPS Launch Manager management suite.

Energy efficiency features:

• Low power consumption for performance: 9W delivering 100,000 IOPS versus 5.5W for 420 IOPS from a 15K RPM 146GB disk drive
• Only 57 kWh/yr at 100,000 IOPS sustained.