SCIENCE

Violin Memory has announced the Violin Memory 3140 Capacity Flash Memory Array, the first high capacity, cost-effective MLC Memory Array for the enterprise.

The Violin 3140 is a high capacity MLC based modular 3U Memory Array that delivers 40TB of flash, enabling significant datacenter consolidation. Compared to today's performance of hard disk drive (HDD) based arrays, the Violin 3140 provides five times greater rack density (500TB/rack) and performance with 1/5th the latency and power.

The aggregation of high capacity flash modules into a Memory Array enables increased datacenter infrastructure efficiency and cost savings through consolidation or elimination of HDDs, storage enclosures, CPUs, server memory and software licenses. The power, cooling and space reductions provided by Capacity Flash can halve the operating costs of the traditional datacenter. The enterprise-grade Violin 3140 scales to more than 500TB in a rack with performance of over two million Input/Outputs Per Second (IOPS). Equivalent HDD/SSD storage systems would need 5 racks (or more) of equipment.

The Violin 3140 shares a common platform with the high performance Violin 3200 including hardware-based flash RAID across hot-swappable memory modules to provide robust data protection and spike-free latency. The Violin 3200 with SLC Flash offers superior ROI with its application acceleration and server compression and is setting multiple TPC benchmark records. The Violin 3140 Capacity Flash Memory Array enables even higher ROI through infrastructure consolidation with lower cost, power and space requirements per terabyte.

"It is important to understand that while the solid state industry is famous for breaking new IOPS records, some customers instead need a more cost effective middle ground that delivers significantly better performance than 15K RPM drives at a similar price point," said George Crump, lead analyst at Storage Switzerland. "Capacity Flash has the potential to be that missing link -- the cost-effective 50K RPM drive."

"Through our partnership with Toshiba, Violin has brought to market an enterprise-grade MLC based storage array that is both significantly higher density and lower cost than traditional performance storage arrays," stated Don Basile, CEO of Violin Memory. "No longer will organizations need to choose between low cost HDDs and high performance SSDs. Violin Flash Memory Arrays can offer both lower $/GB and $/IOPS while dramatically reducing power and space requirements."

George Crump concurs. "Having a close relationship with a NAND supplier is one of the critical elements for multi-petabyte deliveries to the enterprise. Only by knowing in exacting details how the MLC chip works can the controller designer optimize price, performance and reliability."

The Violin 3140 is now available and priced at under $16 per GB and $3 per IOPS.