Micron Reveals PCIe Enterprise I/O Accelerator

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Micron is working on its new PCIe I/O Accelerator for the enterprise environment.

Micron is soon rolling out its new P420m PCIe I/O accelerator, which is meant to improve the performance of enterprise servers, storage platform and appliances. The aim is to end the latency problems that arrive from alternative solutions, as its flash-based storage features near-zero seek times. It should with ease be able to process more than 3,200 web requests per second.

The unit is built using Micron's custom designed ASIC controller, as well as 25 nm MLC flash, a bit of DRAM, and advanced firmware and drivers.

"The P420m is a true workhorse—it delivers where performance matters most. Introduction of the P420m is a testament to our commitment to storage innovation for all levels of integration. We've expanded our portfolio to address the changing storage needs of today's data centers, regardless the workload," said Ed Doller, VP and GM of Micron's Enterprise SSD division.

The drive will come to the market in three versions: 350 GB, 700 GB, and 1.4 TB. Mass production is expected to commence in June. Micron's P420m drives will be showcased at EMC World in Las Vegas, May 6 through May 9, 2013.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • CarolKarine
    wait, so what does it do? and can I buy it?
    Reply
  • mchawk
    This helps servers in VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) environments to handle the humongous I/O needs. Lets try to picture this:
    -In VDI environments, employees doen't have a desktop to access emails, do spreadsheets, feed databases or whatever. They have thin clients;
    -Thin clients are devices that just connects your mouse, keyboard and monitor to the servers, which actually handles your desktop processing, storage and os;
    -Why? Because this way users can access their desktops from anywhere they want in any devide they want, as the desktops are hosted in (generally) a cluster of servers. Plus, it makes management easier.
    -Now imagine everyone arriving to work at morning. Hundreds of thousands of boot requests hammering the server cluster at the same time. Can you imagine the load on the storage system?
    Search also for FusionIO...
    And these puppies usually costs something like 20k plus
    Reply
  • CarolKarine
    thanks. I just want a real (not a sata or raid 0) PCIe SSD.
    Reply
  • aberkae
    I wonder how this compares to the wd enterprise hd that were just announced in terms of pricing.
    Performance wise its seams 700% better.
    Update: wd enterprise hd is 200 mb/s vs these 1.8g/s to 3g/s is more like a 9 to 15 times greater performance.
    Reply
  • CarolKarine
    but I'm sure you can get a WD enterprise drive so much cheaper. maybe 7 times cheaper.
    Reply
  • aberkae
    10759487 said:
    but I'm sure you can get a WD enterprise drive so much cheaper. maybe 7 times cheaper.
    900 gigs wd enterprise hd for $599 would mean $4200 for these I doubt that.
    Sorry I wrote 7x it's more like 9 to 15 times the performance depending on which one.

    Reply
  • CarolKarine
    eh. I really could see these being that much more expensive though. Fusion IO is about that, if I remember correctly.
    Reply
  • Cristian De Sio
    Too late Micron, good luck but i dont expect a better price-quality than a ocz revodrive...
    Reply