Shared Flash array Vendor violin memory today announced 3 new products

Shared Flash array Vendor Violin Memory today announced the launch of 3 new products, compared to existing products, new products in both capacity and performance improvements.

The existing 3000 series of products from two 3U rack box, 3200 of the storage capacity of 10TB, the use of Single-stage unit Flash, can provide 220000 continuous write iops;3140 storage capacity of 40TB, using 2-bit multistage unit flash. This is a violin array of products that were available in the market before yesterday.

Now, violin has launched 3220, with a single level of unit capacity up to 20TB, with usable capacity of 16TB. Its continuous write data performance is 250000 IOPS, bandwidth is 1gb/s and time delay is 240 microseconds. It consists of 84 Vimms (violin cross-references Memory Modules) and 4 standby Vimms. Vimms used Toshiba's Flash chip, and Toshiba recently invested in violin. All components are equipped with spare parts to ensure the normal usage of the product.

Although the 6000 series products still use 3U rack boxes, they have a higher specification configuration. 6616 can provide up to 16TB of single unit flash memory, with usable storage capacity of 12TB. It is equipped with 64 Vimms and 4 standby Vimms, and its time delay is less than 200 milliseconds. Its continuous write data performance of up to 1 million IOPS, equipped with 8 Fibre Channel or 10GbitE interface, bandwidth is GB. With 10 6000 series products installed on a chassis, the total performance can reach 10 million IOPS, total bandwidth up to 40gb/s.

6232 uses the 2-bit multistage unit flash memory, the capacity is 32TB, the usable capacity is 22TB. It also uses 64 Vimms, with a performance of 500,000 IOPS, a time delay of 600 milliseconds, and a bandwidth of 2.4gb/s. Violin claims this is the fastest multilevel array in the market today.

Violin's idea is to cluster these arrays and replace the traditional hard drives in the main data store. Violin said that the 6000 series array product is a fully hot-pluggable platform, there is no single point of failure. The company's chief executive, Don Basile, says the 6000 series can provide customers with performance and reliability to help them build the latest virtualized data centers.

The 6000 series array is equipped with a standby memory channel, violin said. These controllers can virtualize flash memory and manage network connections within the 6000 family of products.

The 3000 series array is for application software and departmental uses that require raw performance and capacity. The 6000 series array is used primarily for enterprise data centers and primary data stores.

Competition with TMS

How do these new products compare to TMS's Ramsan?

The RamSan-630 is a 10TB 3U single unit flash array with a performance of 1 million IOPS, with a bandwidth of 10gb/s, with speed performance and bandwidth exceeding 3200 and 3220. RamSan-810 using 1U rack box, capacity of 10TB, the use of 2-bit enterprise-class multi-unit NAND flash. Its speed performance is 320,000 IOPS, the bandwidth is GB.

Violin does not have a direct competitor product, its 6232 uses 3U frame box, the capacity is 32TB, the speed performance is 500,000 IOPS, the bandwidth is 2.4gb/s. 3410 capacity of 40TB, using 3U rack box, capacity is 810 4 times times, its size, capacity and performance are different from 810.

Violin estimates that TMS uses a different approach to detect performance, and that, given this factor, violin's products are relatively superior in performance and value. "We need RAID protection for all modules to ensure that a module failure does not result in data loss," a violin spokesman said. Violin is using this method to detect the IOPS performance of a product, while TMS does not consider raid factors when testing. If you configure a RAID card in a TMS product, their performance, bandwidth, and capacity are reduced by half. Worse, customers need to take advantage of software RAID solutions or specialize in finding products that provide this functionality. This will reduce its IOPS performance to less than 200,000. A reliable 10TB system requires two Ramsan 810 and two RAID controllers, which have a footprint of 4 rack-mounted boxes. ”

According to violin, the product's sustainable I/O speeds vary depending on the read-write solution. TMS and the industry generally use the best I/O data. Under some solutions, violin says, 6232 delivers up to 1 million iops of performance and GB bandwidth.

Furthermore, the violin array products exceed the TMS Ramsan in addition to the single point of failure in the 6000 series array. "Our platform supports hot plug of all flash modules," violin said. In addition, all controllers in the 6000 series array also support hot-plug, which supports uninterrupted upgrades and 99.9999% normal usage. ”

Violin did not disclose price information for the 6000 series array, so we could not compare its products to the Ramsan of TMS. Overall, violin seems to improve the speed and capacity of the product, but it has not yet reached the level of raw capacity and performance compared to Ramsan products. Violin says it pays more attention to performance and normal usage in the product's actual application.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)