Subsequent-gen E2 SSDs pack 1 petabyte of storage, sufficient for 11,000 4K motion pictures in a ruler-sized drive
One thing to look ahead to: A revolutionary new SSD type issue may quickly redefine high-density storage in information facilities by narrowing the capability hole between mechanical laborious drives and solid-state drives. Generally known as E2, this QLC flash-based drive is reportedly able to storing as much as 1 petabyte (1 million gigabytes) of information whereas delivering efficiency similar to that of a high-end SSD.
The following-generation drive is being collectively developed by the Storage Networking Trade Affiliation and the Open Compute Venture to retailer so-called “heat” information – data accessed much less often than sizzling information, however nonetheless requiring sooner learn/write speeds than conventional high-capacity mechanical storage options usually present.
Examples of heat information embrace software information, logs, analytics, and backups. Whereas these information varieties had been beforehand labeled as “chilly,” the calls for of recent AI functions, analytics pipelines, and different rising digital providers have elevated entry frequency, redefining them as “heat” and making laborious disk drives a much less optimum storage answer.
E2 SSDs will reportedly undertake the Knowledge Heart Customary Kind Issue “Ruler” specification, measuring 200mm in size, 76mm in peak, and 9.5mm in thickness. Every drive may retailer as much as 1 petabyte (PB) of information – roughly the equal of 11,000 4K motion pictures. A typical 2U rack server may accommodate as much as 40 of those drives, offering a powerful 40 PB of complete storage capability.
Preliminary specs point out that the drives might ship throughput of 8 – 10 MB/s per terabyte, translating to eight – 10 GB/s for a 1 PB mannequin. To make sure compatibility with next-generation server platforms, E2 SSDs will make the most of a PCIe 6.0 x4 interface working the NVMe protocol. Every drive will home a minimum of 64 NAND flash packages and will draw as much as 80 watts of energy beneath load.
SNIA and OCP rely a number of main information middle operators and SSD producers – together with Meta, Microsoft, Samsung, Micron, Pure Storage, and SanDisk – amongst their members. A few of these corporations have reportedly begun designing and prototyping drives primarily based on the brand new E2 SSD type issue.
As an illustration, Pure Storage unveiled a 300 terabyte E2 prototype in Could in the course of the OCP Storage Tech Discuss occasion, the place the corporate emphasised that the expertise would enable it to supply higher flexibility and scalability to its prospects.
The E2 type issue continues to be within the standardization part, that means its specs stay tentative and topic to alter. A clearer image is predicted to emerge later this summer season, when the official Revision 1.0 specs are scheduled for launch.
Picture credit score: Storage Overview
