Flashtec NVRAM Drives Achieve 10 Million IOPS, Establishing a New Memory Tier for Hyperscale Data Centers and Enterprise Storage

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — August 5, 2014 — PMC® (Nasdaq: PMCS), the semiconductor and software solutions innovator transforming networks that connect, move and store big data, today established a new ultra-fast storage class memory tier to accelerate critical applications in scale-out storage and all-flash arrays. The PMC Flashtec™ NVRAM Drives combine the speed and endurance of DRAM with the persistency of NAND flash to deliver ten times higher performance than the fastest Solid State Drive (SSD), at more than 10 million I/Os per second (IOPS), with sub-microsecond latency. Leveraging PCI Express® (PCIe®) 3.0, the Flashtec NVRAM Drives connect directly to the host to optimize CPU utilization and maximize overall system performance. The latest member of PMC’s enterprise-class Flashtec portfolio of controllers and drives, the new solutions are based on the industry-standard NVMe interface to enable plug-and-play PCIe connectivity, which decreases time to market in data center and enterprise storage deployments.

PMC Flashtec NVRAM Drive family achieves 10 million IOPS, establishing a new storage class memory tier for hyperscale data centers and enterprise storage (Photo: Business Wire)

“Native PCIe-based solutions are a major disruption to the SSD market because they provide a direct link between the CPU and flash, breaking the traditional performance scale,” said Derek Dicker, vice president of the NVM Solutions Group at PMC. “The PMC Flashtec family sets a new benchmark for storage performance, and our standards-based architecture allows our customers to get their storage solutions to market much sooner with differentiated features tuned for cost, performance and endurance.”

The new Flashtec NVRAM Drives have DRAM endurance to boost overall performance of mission-critical applications, opening up bottlenecks in the system without compromising reliability or system uptime. The drives can be used as both a persistent memory extension mapped directly to the host, delivering more than 10 million IOPS for small, random access transactions, and as an NVMe block device for efficient DMA transactions, reaching more than one million random read 4KB IOPS.

The small form factor drives fit into virtually any server, using only one low-profile PCIe socket to enable high-density rack solutions. An in-box NVMe driver eases integration with no need for custom development to proprietary interfaces and applications. Designed with a Super Capacitor Module that operates for five years without maintenance or replacement, the Flashtec NVRAM Drives offer a significant cost of ownership improvement compared to solutions that require an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Removing the UPS from the system also frees up valuable rack space.

“Enterprise data centers for cloud computing and business-critical applications require high performance and quick access to data,” said Jeff Janukowicz, research director for Solid State Drives at IDC. “PCIe storage has emerged as a key technology to deliver on these requirements in next-generation data centers, driven by the availability of high-performance, standards-based solutions like the PMC Flashtec products. Providing enterprise-class features and the highest performance puts PMC in position to capitalize on the tremendous growth of NAND flash based products for the data center.”

Standards-based Architecture Accelerates Deployment of PCIe-Attached Storage

The Flashtec NVRAM Drive family is based on PMC’s NVMe controllers, which provide the highest capacity, performance and reliability to store the world’s critical data. PMC’s controllers enable SSDs with up to 8TB of storage and performance of up to 875,000 random read 4KB IOPS, two times greater capacity and performance than other controllers. Dual port functionality delivers high availability for enterprise-class application support, redundancy and sustained reliability. Designed to support the industry-standard NVMe protocol and device drivers, PMC’s controller family enables widespread deployment of PCIe-based SSDs in cloud data centers and the enterprise. In addition to supporting the PCIe 3.0 host interface for maximum throughput and multiple NAND vendors, the controllers are fully programmable, enabling customers to meet total-cost-of-ownership targets and differentiate their solutions with custom firmware.

The Flashtec NVRAM Drives are available in the following models: