Intel Continues to Transform Storage With Innovative Designs and New SSD Form Factor – Flash Memory Summit 2017 Update

Intel is announcing updated data center offerings, including a new family of SATA SSDs for the data center, and new dual port Intel Optane™ SSDs and new dual port 3D NAND SSDs, as well as a new “ruler” form factor of SSD at Flash Memory Summit 2017 in Santa Clara, California.  These new Intel technologies and products further advance data center storage and their ability to meet the ever-growing challenges created by the ever-growing reliance on data.

Intel is calling its new SSD form factor the “ruler”, as it presents itself in a long, skinny shape that interfaces with PCIe card slots and provides non-volatile storage without shape and size constraints.  This new “ruler” form factor offers the most storage capacity for a server, and with the lowest power and cooling requirements.  Utilizing Intel 3D NAND enables up to 1PB in a 1U server, which is the equivalent of some 300,000 HD movies, equating to about 70 years of non-stop viewing.  Intel anticipates offering the “ruler” form factor for both Intel Optane SSDs and Intel 3D NAND SSDs.

According to Bill Leszinske, vice president of Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG) for Intel, “We are in the midst of an era of major data center transformation, driven by Intel.  These new “ruler” form factor SSDs and dual port SSDs are the latest in a long line of innovations we’ve brought to market to make storing and accessing data easier and faster, while delivering more value to customers.  Data drives everything we do – from financial decisions to virtual reality gaming, and from autonomous driving to machine learning – and Intel storage innovations like these ensure incredibly quick, reliable access to that data.”

Intel will now be offering both dual port Intel Optane SSDs and dual port Intel 3D NAND SSDs to provide critical redundancy and failover protection against multiple paths of failure for critical and high-availability usage scenarios.  Dual port SSDs replace SAS SSDs and HDDs, and provide more bandwidth and more IOPS than SAS SSDs.  Dual port Intel SSD DC D4500, D4502, and D4600 Series will be available in the 3^rd quarter of 2017.

Intel is also announcing the Intel SSD DC S4500 and S4600 series of SATA SSDs designed as HDD replacements for the data center.  The combination of Intel’s high-density 32-layer 3D NAND, and an Intel-developed controller and accompanying firmware create a storage solution that preserves legacy infrastructure, and enables a simple transition from hard disk drives to SSDs, while reducing storage costs, minimizing service disruptions and improving server efficiency.  These new data center SSDs are available today.

You can view the product page for the Intel SSD DC S4500 and S4600 series here.  You can visit Intel at Flash Memory Summit 2017 in Santa Clara, California from August 8^th through 10^th.  Intel is occupying booths #745 and #839.