Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive

2018: Announcement

In November, 2018 Western Digital  entered the market of technologies of calculations in memory (in-memory computing), having provided the drive under the name Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive. It should attract to the companies which want to receive the maximum return from the servers without expensive increase in RAM.

The in-memory computing technology allows to process in real time huge data arrays, from here and high demand on such computing solutions. They are demanded among the companies whose work is connected with analytics, information processing, cloud services and high-performance computing.

name Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive

In a modern server architecture we have a set of processors, each of which has eight or large number of cores. What really limits is an amount of memory in a system. One of methods of the solution of this problem consists in use of additional DRAM memory, but exceeding of volume in 300 Gbytes will increase server expenses — the representative of Western Digital Eddie Ramirez reported the ZDNet edition.

Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive approaches solution different way — using fast solid state drives together with the innovation software. Devices expand possibilities of calculations in memory, supporting performance at the level of DRAM memory without additional costs.

After installation of such drive in the computer hardware which is built in by software creates virtual pools of memory on NVMe-devices. At the same time it is not about replacement of all RAM, and about increase in its volume in the ratio of about eight DRAM modules to one DC ME200.

Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive are compatible to the majority of servers with x86-Intel processors and are available in versions about 1, 2 and 4 Tbyte of memory. Use of such drives does not require any changes in the operating system, the equipment, a firmware or applications. Using Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive, clients can expect 74-94% of performance of RAM, but at significantly low price, claim in Western Digital.^[1]

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