DDRdrive hits the ground running – PCI-E RAM-based SSD

Packaging / Specifications

Packaging

The DDRdrive comes extremely well packaged in a case that I’m convinced could withstand a fall from a very tall building, or being run over by a truck, or perhaps even a nuclear holocaust.  The case seals so well that it has an air bleeder valve to equalize pressure prior to opening.  Included is a driver CD and an AC adapter to supply the X1 with power when the primary system is powered down.



The DDRdrive concept is currently focusing on IOPS over throughput.  Parallelism is meant to be achieved by using multiple X1’s in a single system.  While future products may support PCI-E 2.0 and a greater number of lanes, their first publicly available product will stick with PCI-E 1x.

Specifications

Product:

• The DDRdrive X1’s breakthrough architecture integrates both DRAM and NAND to redefine solid-state storage. Singularly designed to  target IOPS intensive applications while setting a new standard in performance, power, and price. The DDRdrive X1 is “The drive for speed.”

Innovation:
The DDRdrive X1’s solid-state storage system features:

• DRAM / NAND Synthesis – A one-to-one correspondence between solid-state storage capacities. Combines the proven speed, reliability, and longevity of DRAM with the non-volatility of NAND. Removes the necessity and performance penalty of a NAND wear leveling implementation. Resolves the intractable random write limitations of a NAND only device with DRAM’s unsurpassed IOPS potential.
• High Performance IOPS Engine – An FPGA based solid-state storage accelerator, in-the-field upgradable and purpose-built to dominate IO operations. Achieves extremely low latency and exceptional IOPS execution.
• Custom Device Driver – Avoids unneeded and archaic protocol translation with a direct-to-hardware storage stack. Bypasses conventional device driver complexity and inefficiency with extensive end-to-end IOPS optimization.
• HBA / Storage Unification – Negates needless data transfers between otherwise physically separate devices, improving data integrity and increasing IOPS performance.

Performance:

• Random 512B Reads up to:300,000+ IOPS
• Random 512B Writes up to : 200,000+ IOPS
• Random 4KB Reads up to: 50,000+ IOPS
• Random 4KB Writes up to: 35,000+ IOPS
• Sustained Sequential Reads up to: 215+ MB/s
• Sustained Sequential Writes up to: 155+ MB/s

Device Driver Support:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Client/Server
• Microsoft Windows XP (32/64 bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista (32/64 bit)
• Microsoft Windows 7 Beta (32/64 bit)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (32/64 bit)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32/64 bit)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta
• Linux support is expected at a future date

Hardware Requirements:

• PCI Express v1.0a, v1.1, or v2.0 X1/X4/X8/X16 Slot *

* Double-wide slot clearance required.
PCI Express Full-Height Half-Length Form Factor

 Capacity:

• Primary Storage Capacity: 4GB DRAM
  
• Secondary Backup Capacity: 4GB SLC NAND
  

* Available Raw Storage – 4,160,749,568 bytes
Unavailable Redundant Storage – 134,217,728 bytes

Backup/Restore:

• Complete Drive Backup: DRAM to NAND in 60 Seconds.
• Complete Drive Restore: NAND to DRAM in 60 Seconds.
• Lifetime Number of Drive Backups: 100,000+

 Editors notes on the specs

• The ‘Redundant Storage’ above is due to conservative reservation of a portion of flash blocks.  Since the DDRdrive employs high grade SLC flash, and performs only sequential writes to it, the flash will likely outlive it’s rated 100k write cycles by a fair margin.  The reserved flash blocks carry over to the RAM capacity, since the on-board mechanism must be able to perform a 1:1 backup of all available data.
  
• While the DDRdrive’s RAM clearance prevents it from being installed adjacent to another full height board, we found it can coexist next to a half-height board without interference.