Intel (News - Alert) is supercharging the data center market with its latest solid state storage product, featuring a blistering performance capability that’s perfect for big data crunching and virtualized processing environments.
The Intel SSD DC P3608 comes in three flavors, all boasting top-line performance: 1.6TB, 3.2TB and 4TB capacity. The 1.6TB and 4TB models have a sequential read-speed rating of 5Gbps, with 3Gbps and 2Gbps writes, respectively, according to Intel. The 3.2TB model’s sequential reads are rated for 4.5Gbps, with 2.6Gbps writes. They’re not cheap, either: they go for about $2.19 per gigabyte, which puts pricing between $3,509 for the 1.6TB model and $8,759 for the 4TB version.
Independent testing revealed that the 1.6TB version, at high queue depths, with random 4K transfers, had transfer speeds that actually exceeded Intel’s rated numbers in a few benchmarks.
The Forbes reviewer pointed out that the architecture of the drives are what sets them apart and allows them to turn in the newsworthy results.
“The Intel SSD DC P3608 is able to achieve these speeds because the card is outfitted with a PCI (News - Alert) Express x8 electrical connection (previous-gen PCIe drives from Intel had x4 connections) and dual, high-performance NVMe (Non Volatile Memory Express) controllers, which can be paired together in a RAID configuration,” the reviewer noted. “If you’re unfamiliar with the term, NVMe is the name of a modern interface, which is far more robust than SATA or SAS (News - Alert), and is optimized for fast, low-latency storage devices.”
Basically, this is a product that’s designed for high endurance in the data center, so Intel has over-provisioned it with excess NAND capacity. It could be a shot across the bow for the storage model going forward.
“After experiencing the P3608 first hand, I can’t wait to see what Intel is able to do when the first 3DXPoint-equipped Optane devices rolls off the line sometime next year,” the reviewer noted.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson