SanDisk Crams Its Own NAND Flash Into Latest Fusion-io PCIe Memory Releases
SanDisk has announced the release of third-generation Fusion ioDrive PCIe and Mezzanine flash cards, in doing so marking the first integration of SanDisk NAND flash and Virtual Storage Layer (VSL) software into the ioMemory product line since the company acquired Fusion-io in June 2014 for $1.1 billion.
Flash technology has moved significantly forward since the SanDisk's acquisition of Fusion, with smaller geometries and denser dies, all of which mean more flash capacity can now be placed on a PCIe flash card with performance raised and/or prices cut. Which explains why SanDisk is saying that their new products — built with SanDisk NAND — will offer a four times price performance improvement, hitting shelves at a list price reduction of up to 61% while featuring double the random read performance over the previous generation Fusion ioDrive 2/Atomic product (which were fitted with Micron MLC flash).
John Scaramuzzo, senior VP of SanDisk's enterprise storage solutions, said: "Combining the power of Fusion ioMemory technology with SanDisk’s vertically integrated NAND flash, our engineering talent and portfolio of SATA and SAS SSDs provides customers with an unparalleled combination of flexibility, performance, scalability, quality and value to help solve their data centre challenges."
Specifically, SanDisk's new product range is comprised of the SX350 and SX300 series (1.25TB to 6.4TB capacities, designed for mixed workloads, offering a good balance of write and read speeds), the PX600 Series (1TB to 5.2TB capacities that offer slightly higher performance mixed workload array), and the Mezzanine series (designed for performance gains in virtualized environments, resulting in faster data mining and better business intelligence). Also available are bundles of the new cards, along with the cards and the company's new FlashSoft caching software.
Though arguably the most recognizable name in flash memory, SanDisk has said that they will maintain the Fusion-io and FlashSoft brands as they garner huge amounts of respect in their specialist areas.
Flash technology has moved significantly forward since the SanDisk's acquisition of Fusion, with smaller geometries and denser dies, all of which mean more flash capacity can now be placed on a PCIe flash card with performance raised and/or prices cut. Which explains why SanDisk is saying that their new products — built with SanDisk NAND — will offer a four times price performance improvement, hitting shelves at a list price reduction of up to 61% while featuring double the random read performance over the previous generation Fusion ioDrive 2/Atomic product (which were fitted with Micron MLC flash).
Specifically, SanDisk's new product range is comprised of the SX350 and SX300 series (1.25TB to 6.4TB capacities, designed for mixed workloads, offering a good balance of write and read speeds), the PX600 Series (1TB to 5.2TB capacities that offer slightly higher performance mixed workload array), and the Mezzanine series (designed for performance gains in virtualized environments, resulting in faster data mining and better business intelligence). Also available are bundles of the new cards, along with the cards and the company's new FlashSoft caching software.
Though arguably the most recognizable name in flash memory, SanDisk has said that they will maintain the Fusion-io and FlashSoft brands as they garner huge amounts of respect in their specialist areas.
