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Micron is going deeper into enterprise data centre SSD arena with its launch of a SAS version of its P400M SATA interface solid state disk. The mixture is pretty much as before - apart from the 6-gig SAS interface.

The new P410M comes in 100, 200 and 400GB capacity points and uses the same 25nm NAND as the P400. It has the same endurance too - 10 full drive writes a day for five years - and the same NAND management firmware.

However its performance is not the same, with more random write operations per second and greater sequential data access speed. The table below provides the comparative details.

The P410M does random writes at up to 30,000 IOPS, compared to the P400's laggardly 17,000, making it much better suited to applications doing lots of random file or record writes. The sequential bandwidth offered by the P410M is fairly dramatically increased as well; up to 410MB/sec when reading instead of 350MB/sec and up to 345MB/sec writing compared to 300MB/sec. You'll notice from the table that the 100GB capacity P410Ms are slower when writing than the higher capacity models.

Because SAS is capable of being dual-ported, the effective IO rates are pushed higher again - SAS sprints where SATA jogs. EMC is qualifying this drive, possibly for use in its XtremIO networked flash array as well as in its storage arrays as a disk drive replacement.

The P410M comes in a 2.5-inch 7mm form factor and is currently in production for Micron's OEMs and other distribution channels. Micron, by the way, is nearer than ever before to completing its Elpida acquisition and thus building up its memory fabrication capacity. As part of a fab rationalisation exercise it's preparing to sell an Israeli fab. ®

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