SCIENCE

Virident Systems has announced the availability of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 support for its PCI Express-based tachIOn solid-state storage family. Windows Server applications and users will now be able to take full advantage of the tachIOn solution to deliver sustained high performance, low latency data access for I/O intensive applications with enterprise class reliability and lifetime.

The widening performance gap between multi-core servers and storage has focused attention on Flash-based SSDs. However, until now, such SSDs have not delivered consistently high or predictable performance and suffered from reliability problems. This degrades the quality of service for large-scale or mission-critical applications and increasing the costs while forcing users to replace their SSDs early. tachIOn eclipses the competition as it is designed to last for years rather than months, and delivers a sustained performance level that is 2-10x higher, even for random I/O. tachIOn includes end-to-end error correction, advanced capacity management, and global wear-leveling to assure durability and consistent performance.

“The benefits of tachIOn – predictable high-performance, enterprise-class reliability and modularity – are now available to the Windows Server community for use with SQL Server and other Windows-based I/O intensive applications," said Shridar Subramanian, vice president product marketing. "Windows users in the Financial, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing communities can now deploy tachIOn for their I/O intensive applications, reduce costs and power while scaling within their current data center footprint."

The tachIOn drive is available in a compact, low-profile form factor, and usable capacities of 200, 300 and 400 Gbytes, making it the highest density card in the market. Its modular design adds flexibility, lowers costs, and eases future field-upgrades. General availability of Microsoft Windows support is scheduled for fourth quarter 2010.