Fusion IO's 100K IOPs SSD Goes to HP

Fusion-io has joined forces with Hewlett-Packard to create the HP StorageWorks IO Accelerator, using Fusion-io's ioMemory technology for BladeSystem c-Class servers.

Slated as the world's first extreme-performance solid-state storage adapter, the NAND flash-based IO Accelerator is specifically designed to compliment HP's BladeSystem c3000 and c7000 servers, or other blade server environments. According to Fusion-io, a single Type-1 mezzanine card offers more than 100,000 IOPs, 800MB/sec. read speeds, 600MB/sec. writes sustained throughput, with access latencies of less than 50µs. The card also requires a mere 6 watts of juice. According to the agreement, Fusion-io will serve as an OEM for HP, supplying the SSDs for HP's server division. 

“The HP BladeSystem is leading the industry as the platform of choice for an expanding range of IT workloads,” said David Bradford, CEO of Fusion-io. “We appreciate the opportunity to work with HP and adapt our unique, next-generation technology for HP’s blade servers. With Fusion’s ioMemory technology, customers can benefit from accelerated application performance while significantly improving their data center operational efficiencies.”

The cards will serve as an additional boost for HP BladeSystems when needed, whether it's to improve 3D rendering time or accelerate database performance. Most HP BladeSystem c-Class x86 blade servers can hold two or three IO Accelerator mezzanine cards at one time, with each card providing up to 320 GB of storage. The drives are expected to have a life span of around 15 years with a 5 TB write-and-erase rate per day. The IO Accelerator also supports RHEL 4 and 5, SLES 9 and 10, and Windows operating systems x86, x86-64 2003 and x86-64 2008.

"This device is targeted for markets and applications requiring high transaction rates and real-time data access that will benefit from application performance enhancement," said HP. "It offers the equivalent storage performance of multiple disks. The HP IO Accelerator brings high I/O performance and low latency access to storage, with the reliability of solid state."

The HP StorageWorks IO Accelerator 80GB is now available for $4,400. The 160GB ($7,700) and 320GB ($13,200) versions have an estimated ship date of March 13.