PCIe SSD For All Servers
Next up at SNW was the team from Virident. As we covered in a recent briefing note Virident makes a PCIe based solid state storage device.
There are a lot of unique features and capabilities of the Virident solution that we like and detailed in that brief. For example it can accept SSD in modules instead of hard wired SSD memory. The capability provides flexibility in deployment as well as a replaceable nature to the board. Another key advantage is that each module has its own flash controller, this gives them additional headroom in data intensive operations and predictability under write duress, something that many solid state devices can't handle.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
One thing that we did not cover in that briefing note is the universal nature of the Virident board. Many PCIe SSD cards are full height, full length or both. As you know many servers in the environment, especially 1U and 2U servers, don't have the space for this type of card. If they do they have to be side mounted. Side mounting of a large card covers up other existing PCIe slots and it may cause heat issues because airflow is restricted.
The Virident tachIOn is a power efficient half height card. This means that it will work in any PCIe slot in almost any server. The power efficiency means that you do not need to run an additional power connection to the card. Not only is power a concern in consumption of available power connections there is also the concern of running a high power drawing PCIe card in a slot that was not intended for that.
Storage Swiss Take
Virident continues to impress. The flexibility of the flash based modules and the efficiency of the card size makes it a more universal consideration for the real data center that is full of small form factor servers.
George Crump, Senior Analyst
SNW Briefing Note
It is April and that means that Storage Switzerland is once again at Storage Networking World (SNW). This spring we find SNW in Santa Clara, California, the home of much of the storage industry. As a result this year we have a record setting number of briefing meetings as well as a speaking session on solid state storage specmenship.
Virident is not a client of Storage Switzerland
