Hitachi Flash Module Drive

Hitachi Flash Module Drive is the innovation product. It is intended to  use in  the systems of a corporate class of VSP (Virtual Storage Platform).

This solution - a basis of a paradigm of Hitachi Accelerated Flash Storage on  creation of the most effective  system in the class for the solution of the most important and  critical tasks with  high requirements to  performance.

Description

The solution combines in  itself chips the flash memory and  the specialized controller of Hitachi used for control of transactions on  chips and  implementation of advanced functionality. The controller allowed to implement a number of extremely useful functions which were already used in  other areas, but   had no implementation in  problems of disk data storage. For example,  the compression method at data writing in  real time allowing to store very effectively data was developed and implemented. One more interesting built-in function  is the mechanism of error correction  at the level of the controller (ECC) which was earlier widely adopted by production of modules of memory for the server hardware.

In terms of construction, the FMD module matches on  height and width  the standard disks LFF 3.5', however, it much more on  depth. The new form factor was specially developed  taking into account a possibility of the most effective use of space in a disk rack. When using normal disks and  the disks SSD in  normal disk constructs the most part of space in  a rack remains unused.   The new format of disk modules was also developed for ensuring the maximum density of storage without prejudice to cooling and heat release.

Installation

For installation of the modules FMD the special disk chassis installed in  racks which complete the VSP systems is used. The chassis has the size in  13U as well as  normal disk chassis for  VSP, however are provided by a number of essential differences from  them.  In particular, the space of 8U in size is used for installation of disk modules by four groups on  12  devices, and  size 5U is used for the organization of cable connections. Thus,  it is possible to install 48  modules FMD in each disk chassis. At the moment the capacity of the modules FMD is  1.6 TB, however    modules of 3.2 TB in size will become available in the near future.

 The VSP platform supports placement up to  192  modules in  4  disk chassis. Cumulative capacity of storage  in this case will be up to   300 TB when using   FMD of 1.6 TB in size and up to   600 TB when using   FMD of 3.2 TB in size.  In comparison with  normal SSD solid state drives with a capacity of 400 GB, new modules are capable to provide twice the big density of storage and  four times the high provided capacity.

Performance

Cumulative performance  of the VSP platform when using the maximum number of the modules FMD will exceed 1  million input-output operations  per second (IOPS). The disk module Flash Module Drive for  the VSP system is intended for the solution  of tasks, difficult, exacting to resources: performance improvements of the high-loaded databases, effective work of analytical services, cloud computing. Capacity of the modules FMD exceeds performance of SSD disks, at the same time the capacity of these modules is comparable with a capacity of disk storage modules of a form factor 3.5'.