Intel introduced the fastest SSD

With the growing market for enterprise-class SSDs, more manufacturers are presenting their solutions. So Intel recently released its fastest SSD-drive. The DC P3608 Series SSD is capable of transferring data at an impressive speed of up to 5 GB / s and boasts a 4TB drive in the lineup.



This series of SSDs has been specifically designed for enterprise and high-performance load computing. The first customers have already managed to test the new SSD-drives, among which we can distinguish the legendary company for the production of supercomputers Cray . According to the published statement of the company:

Intel SSDs are an outstanding solution for customers who work with high-performance computer systems. We, in turn, have extensive experience in using the latest technological solutions in our supercomputers, and the DC P3608 line of SSDs is another example of how we can solve the most complex problems of our customers together with Intel.

This series of SSDs has three models with a capacity of 1.6 TB, 3.2 TB and 4 TB, each of which is made in the HHHL AIC form factor (Half Height Half Length Add-in Card). The novelty was created according to an interesting scheme - SSD disks have two CH29AE41AB1 controllers with support for NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) protocol , which allows using twice as wide PCIe interface (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express). The controllers are coordinated by the PLX PEX 8718 switch . In the absence of RAID array settings, the operating system displays one SSD in the form of two disks, since half of the SSD memory is assigned to each controller.



SSDs use 20nm MLC NAND flash memory based on HET technology (High Endurance Technology) - this technology makes it possible to produce SSDs with improved wear resistance based on multilevel flash memory cells. As a buffer already in the younger model of the P3608 line, 4 GB of DDR3 memory is installed. The performance and speed data of the P3608 Series SSDs are presented in the table below.



Intel compared the solid state drives of its two lines - P3608 and P3700, and then provided the following results:

• maximum bandwidth
  
• request time for the most demanding I / O requests
  

As we can see, the P3608 Series SSDs outperform their "big brother" in terms of these indicators, which is to be expected. Intel supplies the DC P3608 Series SSD with a five-year warranty. P3608 SSDs are also designed for three full cycles of rewriting their volume daily (DWPD). As for the prices, they are staggering: a 1.6 TB model costs $ 3.009, a 3.2 TB model is priced at $ 7.009, and the flagship SSD of 4 TB has a good used car price tag of $ 8.759. Although it is worth adding that if you calculate, then the cost per GB of volume for the entire line will be the same - $ 2.19.