Texas Memory Systems Inc., a provider of storage solutions, announced Tuesday its RamSan-440, a new solid state disk (SSD) with high performance, high capacity for a RAM-based system, and a combination of features that help ensure availability of data to its users.
The RamSan-440 is a non-volatile RAM-based SSD to sustain up to 600,000 IOPS (input/outputs per second) and deliver up to 512 GB (gigabytes) of storage capacity in a 4U rack-mount chassis. The new SSD also uses RAIDed NAND Flash memory modules for data backup, and incorporates Texas Memory Systems' patented IO² (Instant-On Input-Output) technology.
Texas Memory’s RamSan line of solid state storage is used to accelerate enterprise applications like OLTP (Online transaction processing) databases, batch processes, and data warehouses. Founded in 1978, the company sells direct to large enterprise and government organizations. Its products are also available through OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and reseller partners. Texas Memory has its corporate headquarters located in Houston, Texas.
Solid state disks, like Texas Memory Systems' RamSan-440, allow organizations to manage high transaction volumes and larger numbers of concurrent users with fewer servers, less power, and without excessive application tuning, thus increasing performance while lowering cost and administration efforts. RamSan SSDs are used in the financial, telecom, e-commerce, and online-gaming industries, as well as government, military, and research organizations for online transaction processing, data warehousing, and batch processing.
Typically, solid state disks are deployed alongside traditional storage. For example, frequently accessed database tables and indexes may be stored on the RamSan, while less performance-sensitive database components remain on existing hard disk based storage. However, the growing size of mission-critical databases and the falling cost of solid state disks have increased demand for high-performance, high-capacity SSDs. The RamSan-440 meets this demand without sacrificing reliability or value.
The RamSan-440 uses DDR2 (double-data-rate) RAM to deliver 600,000 sustained random IOPS and over 4 GB/second (gigabytes-per-second) of sustained random read or write bandwidth, with latency of less than 15 microseconds. It is available in 256 GB and 512 GB configurations in a 4U chassis. The system can be SAN (storage area network)-attached or direct attached through up to eight 4 Gb/second (gigabit-per-second) Fibre Channel ports. Multiple RamSan-440s can be combined to scale performance and capacity.
The RamSan-440 uses RAID (redundant array of independent disks) protected Flash memory modules to back up the RAM-based data and ensure non-volatility for the system. In Active Backup mode, the RamSan-440 continuously backs up data to the internal redundant Flash modules without impacting system performance. The RamSan-440 can back up or restore the entire 512GB of data in just six minutes.
Texas Memory Systems' patented IO2 technology further improves system availability by making user or application-requested data instantly accessible after the system is powered on. Without IO2 type technology a half-terabyte of data could take up to two hours to be available from other RAM SSD products after a power outage. Additionally, the RamSan-440 SSD incorporates both IBM ChipKill technology and RAID protected RAM to protect against chip or board failures. By providing multiple layers of storage protection, the RamSan-440 offers enterprise users unparalleled levels of data protection and system reliability.
"IT managers are seeking faster application performance as they store and interact with larger pools of data within their data centers," said Jeff Janukowicz, research manager for solid state drives at IDC. "Vendors such as Texas Memory Systems offer innovative storage solutions based on solid state storage to achieve significant performance gains to meet these increasing demands. For performance-driven applications, IT managers many times place a priority on price-performance metrics over traditional price-capacity metrics in order to achieve their desired performance goals."
The RamSan-440 is currently available.
