OCZ Technology today announced the release of Z-Drive Revision 4 (R4) PCI Express (PCIe) storage solutions designed to accelerate enterprise applications.
The Z-Drive R4 product line features OCZ?s second generation proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0, allowing data centers to rely on a PCIe-based SSD as their primary tier one storage solution.
"Objective Analysis forecasts that the PCIe interface will become dominant in the enterprise SSD market in 2012, with unit shipments greater than the combined shipments of its SAS and Fibre Channel counterparts," said SSD analyst Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. "This is because the PCIe interface puts less drag on the NAND-to-processor communication channel than do standard HDD interfaces. By 2015, Objective Analysis expects well over two million PCIe SSDs to ship, a number larger than all of the SATA SSDs that shipped in 2010."
VCA 2.0 is a multifaceted virtualization layer and interfaces with the OCZ SuperScale Storage Controller which combines processing and full DMA (direct memory access) cores, as well as internal PCIe, SATA and SAS physical interfaces. When coupled with VCA 2.0 technology, the SuperScale Controller manages critical internal functions such as OCZ?s intelligent Complex Command Queuing Structure (CCQS) with queue balancing algorithms. This combination leads to superior performance aggregation and results in higher throughput and reduced burden on the host CPU.
A single SuperScale controller equipped Z-Drive R4 is capable of transferring up to 2800 megabytes per second (MB/s) and completing over 500,000 input-output operations per second (IOPS), while a dual SuperScale controller card reaches an astounding 5600 MB/s and 1.2 million IOPS.
The Z-Drive R4 also features power fail protection, differentiating the drive from software-based solutions where in-flight data resides in host DRAM and the flash translation layer, thus resulting in loss of data during power interruption. In addition, VCA enables user-selectable data recovery and non-stop modes with IntegRecover technology ensuring enterprise-class data integrity. Furthermore, the Z-Drive R4 installation in enterprise computing environments is seamless because OCZ VCA 2.0 supports the industry-standard SCSI command set over a PCIe interface. Other features include consolidated SMART support, increased NAND flash life due to OCZ?s lower write amplification and TRIM/SCSI Unmap Support.
The Z-Drive R4 is available in two standard configurations: a half height version designed for space constrained 1U servers and multi-node rackmount servers, and a full height version. Both configurations support single-level cell (SLC) or multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory with reduced write amplification to extend drive life more than three times the manufacturer?s rating of the NAND, according to OCZ.
OCZ Z-Drive R4 C Series PCI-Express SSD
CM88 (Full-Height) Specifications
- Available in 800GB, 1.6TB, and 3.2TB configurations
- MLC NAND Flash
- PCI Express Gen. 2 x8
- PCIe full height, 3/4 length compliant
- OCZ SuperScale Storage Controller
N- AND Controller: 8 x SSD Processors
- Dimensions (L x W x H): 242 x 98.4 x 17.14 mm
- Weight: 262g
- Power Consumption: 23W Idle, 26W Active
- Operating Temp: 0°C ~ 70°C
- Storage Temp: -45°C ~ 85°C
Max Performance
Read: Up to 2800MB/s
Write: Up to 2800MB/s
Random 8k Write: 275,000 IOPS
Random 4k Write: 410,000 IOPS
Max IOPS: 500,000
CM84 (Half-Height) Specifications
- Available in 300GB, 600GB, and 1.2TB configurations
- MLC NAND Flash
- PCI Express Gen. 2 x8
- PCIe half height, half length compliant
- OCZ SuperScale Storage Controller
- NAND Controller: 4 x SSD Processors
- Dimensions (L x W x H): 168.55 x 68.91 x 17.14 mm
- Weight: 119g
- Power Consumption: 14.5W Idle, 16W Active
Operating Temp: 0°C ~ 70°C
- Storage Temp: -45°C ~ 85°C
Max Performance
Read: Up to 2000MB/s
Write: Up to 2000MB/s
Random 8k Write: 160,000 IOPS
Random 4k Write: 250,000 IOPS
Max IOPS: 260,000
OCZ Z-Drive R4 R Series PCI-Express SSD
RM88 (Full-Height) Specifications
- Available in 800GB, 1.6TB, and 3.2TB configurations
- MLC NAND Flash
- PCI Express Gen. 2 x8
- PCIe full height, 3/4 length compliant
- OCZ SuperScale Storage Controller
- NAND Controller: 8 x SSD Processors
- Dimensions (L x W x H): 242 x 98.4 x 17.14 mm
- Weight: 283g
- Power Consumption: 23W Idle, 26W Active
- Operating Temp: 0°C ~ 70°C
- Storage Temp: -45°C ~ 85°C
Max Performance
Read: Up to 2800MB/s
Write: Up to 2800MB/s
Random 8k Write: 275,000 IOPS
Random 4k Write: 410,000 IOPS
Max IOPS: 500,000
RM84 (Half-Height) Specifications
- Available in 300GB, 600GB, and 1.2TB configurations
- MLC NAND Flash
- PCI Express Gen. 2 x8
- PCIe half height, half length compliant
- OCZ SuperScale Storage Controller
- NAND Controller: 4 x SSD Processors
- Dimensions (L x W x H): 168.55 x 68.91 x 17.14 mm
- Weight: 131g
- Power Consumption: 14.5W Idle, 16W Active
- Operating Temp: 0°C ~ 70°C
- Storage Temp: -45°C ~ 85°C
Max Performance
Read: Up to 2000MB/s
Write: Up to 2000MB/s
Random 8k Write: 160,000 IOPS
Random 4k Write: 250,000 IOPS
Max IOPS: 260,000
Additional Specifications
- OCZ VCA 2.0 Technology
- TRIM/SCSI unmap (requires OS support)
- Encryption: 128-bit & 256-bit AES-compliant
- ECC Recovery
- SMART support
- MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
- 3-Year Warranty
- Compatible with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Linux Red Hat Enterprise 6.1