Right now, the fastest interface that solid-state drives can use is PCI Express and it allows transfer rates of well over 1 GB/s. Or maybe we should say that was the fastest interface until now.
That's because Diablo Technologies has introduced solid-state drives that behave like DDR3 memory, being fashioned like DIMM slots.
It's not totally clear what they should be called. Diablo dubs them Memory Channel Storage (MCS), "a transformational new storage and system memory solution, resetting the bar for latency and throughput for enterprise applications."
The new storage devices rely on the native CPU memory interface for transfers.
They are, in essence, DRAM replacements without the problem of losing data once power is cut.
That's not all. They also reduce latencies by more than 85% over PCI-Express-based SSDs and 96% over SATA/SAS-based SSDs.
"Flash SSDs boost system performance, and flash over PCIe is even faster, but the best performance will come from flash on the memory channel," said Jim Handy, director at Objective Analysis.
"Diablo is on the right path by providing a way to plug flash right into the DDR memory buses on today's servers."
Minimal variability in latencies is another asset, as it allows applications to commit data quickly and consistently.
MCS can also be configured to expand system memory from gigabytes to terabytes, something impossible before now.
The increase in available memory of 100x might be hard for the CPU to handle, but there's always someone working on a way to make new ideas viable. Memcached, big data analytics, and other large in-memory applications should thrive on this.
"Performance in storage and density in DRAM have massively fallen behind the curve of CPU capability and growing data capacity needs, which ultimately reduces application performance and increases TCO for users. Flash is the key to a balanced compute architecture and massive application acceleration," said Riccardo Badalone, chief executive officer at Diablo.
"The arrival of MCS finally allows applications to leverage the benefits of flash memory connected directly to the processor's memory controllers, which will ultimately change the cost/density/performance rules forever."
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