SSD is used widely nowadays since it boosts up the speed of an aging computer. Now, Intel released a new 3D NAND solid-state drive, called the ‘ruler’ SSD. Let’s get to know about it.
As SSD becomes more and more popular due to its fast boot up speed, Intel also released the new 3D NAND solid-state drive ‘ruler’ form factor storage, known as Intel ‘ruler’ SSD, in order to serve for data-center servers. A large number of people are prone to replace their traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) with a new SSD since upgrading to an SSD is said to be one of the best ways to speed up an aging PC.
As the chip giant, Intel has first set out this form factor about a year ago, on the basis of Enterprise & Datacenter Storage Form Factor (EDSFF) standard. Hence, the cooling costs can be controlled well by the server makers; besides, they offer a more efficient format than the classic SSDs in the 2.5-inch size.
Intel ‘ruler’ SSD & Classis SSD
If the server makers can line up 32 of these 32TB Intel rulers together, they can put up to one petabyte (PB) or a thousand terabytes (TB) of data into 1U server racks easily.
In the past, the 2.5-inch square SSD drives are popular among decades and they are still classical at present. The traditional SSD is inherited from and designed for disk-based storage, but Intel now has long and skinny sticks; all thanks to flash.
Intel said its new ruler-shaped Intel SSD DC P4500 is the world’s densest SSD; it is 12 inches by 1.5 inches, which is a third of an inch thick. Intel also said that one of the key advantages of this ruler SSD over the disk is that: the ruler is cooler, so the companies’ demand for air conditioning can be reduced greatly.
Outstanding features of ‘Ruler’ SSD
The new shape of a ruler SSD allows it to optimize the performance, involving the following aspects:
- High storage density.
- Low cooling cost.
- More power for data centers.
Intel said that the slim and long format demands half the airflow in order to keep them cool. And the new 3D NAND SSD only takes up a 10th of the power when compared to the traditional SSD format hardware. Obviously, it is only about five percent of the size of disk-based storage.
To put it in a simple way, the cooling edge is enabled by the ruler design so as to allow the air to flow directly to the processors, which are located at the rear of a machine.
What Are the Giants Doing
Samsung’s take on this by announcing its Next Generation Small Form Factor (NGSFF) SSD standard in last year and it wants to replace the M.2 SSD standard. Apart from this, Samsung said that it could fit up to 576 terabytes (TB) in a 1U rack, and it is proud of this.
In the meantime, the enterprise storage vendor Supermicro released a 1U server with space for 36 of Samsung’s NGSFF non-volatile memory express (NVMe) SSDs in January and said that it could support up to 288 terabytes (TB) per system.
Simultaneously, the cloud giants IBM, Microsoft, and Tencent (the internet behemoth located in Shenzhen and the owner of China’s version of WhatsApp & WeChat) have adopted its ruler SSDs. According to Intel, their purpose of doing so is to support their own cloud and data-center operations.
A new form factor itself isn’t all that exciting, typically. But because the ruler impacts everything about server design and helps increase performance and reach new levels of density, it’s a big deal.-said Wayne Allen, director of data center storage pathfinding, Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group