Supermicro and Fusion-io team up to deliver new SuperServers
Fusion-io's been in the flash memory game for some time, but until now it has been known primarily for screamingly fast PCI Express-mounted flash storage solutions with wallet-crushing prices. Those drives are primarily aimed at the enterprise market, so it seems logical for the company to now enter into an OEM agreement with Supermicro to make NAND Flash servers. The aptly, if not modestly, named SuperServers can perform over 2.2 million sequential I/O operations per second (IOPS) and over 1.4 million random IOPS -- for comparison, the OCZ SSDs we saw at CES are an order of magnitude slower in IOPS, and they aren't exactly sluggish. Supermicro also claims that the new servers speed up enterprise applications by ten times while using only one-tenth of the power. Impressive numbers to be sure, but we shudder to think of how much the SuperServers will cost. A second mortgage for a server's a sound financial decision, right? PR's after the break.
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Supermicro and Fusion-io Enter into OEM Relationship to offer Supermicro Customers Unparalleled Performance and Reliability While Reducing Energy Consumption
SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI), a leader in application-optimized, high-performance server and storage solutions, today is announcing that a 1U SuperServer (SYS-6016GT-TF) running on the flash-based, server-attached ioDrive Octal from Fusion-io has achieved in excess of 2.2 million sequential IOPS, and in excess of 1.4 million random IOPS, offering supercharged performance in Supermicro's new SuperServer® line. The 1U SuperServer® being tested can be equipped with either 10G Ethernet or 40G Infiniband for networking or external storage connectivity.
The achievement comes as the two companies enter into a new Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partnership. Fusion-io and Supermicro are teaming to offer Fusion Powered SuperServers® that significantly accelerate data intensive real-time applications, transactional databases and heavy workloads.
"Supermicro has worked closely with Fusion-io and fine-tuned our SuperServer® solution to obtain significant performance improvements over current SAS or SATA implementations," said Wally Liaw, Senior Vice President of International Sales for Supermicro. "Adding these Fusion-io accelerated SuperServers® to our extensive portfolio of high-efficiency memory and IO products provides our customers with SAN-like performance in smaller and more efficient form factors."
The initial agreement between the two companies covers three Supermicro SuperServer® models, bringing Fusion's ioMemory technology to 1U, 2U and 4U form factors. Supermicro will offer Fusion-io's ioDrive Duo and ioDrive Octal to its customers. By integrating the ioDrive Octal directly into a SuperServer®, enterprise applications are accelerated up to 10 times and beyond, while simultaneously reducing power-per-IOP up to 10 times.
"The solutions developed by Supermicro and Fusion-io bring both performance and reliability to NAND Flash, giving Supermicro customers a mission-critical advantage over their competitors," said Jim Dawson, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Fusion-io. "Architected to take advantage of the power of NAND Flash when it acts like memory instead of constraining it to operate like a disk, the Fusion Powered SuperServers® eliminate unnecessary complexity while dramatically improving performance and reliability. The result is flash-based performance that rivals DRAM, with data speeds dramatically exceeding even SSD-based storage arrays."
The ioDrive product line, available through the Supermicro solution in capacities up to 5.12 TB in the ioDrive Octal, offers Fusion-io's revolutionary new solid-state ioMemory tier to dramatically increase bandwidth and application performance, reduce latency, and simplify IT infrastructure, while slashing capital and operating costs. Supermicro SuperServers® integrated with ioMemory allows companies to rethink the way they architect data systems to unleash the true potential of their highest performance applications. Using less hardware, less power, and less administration, Fusion-io customers can realize performance gains of several magnitudes, immediately delivering unprecedented return on investment.
Three initial SuperServer models, covering 1U, 2U and 4U form factors are available with Fusion-io drives:
1U: SYS-6016GT-TF
2U: SYS-6026TT-GTRF
4U: SYS-7046A-HRF+
Supermicro Server Building Block Solutions® offer exceptional flexibility and outstanding feature advantages. For more information on Supermicro's complete line of server and workstation solutions go to www.Supermicro.com.
