SSDs feature BiCS FLASH 64-layer 3D flash memory

“Demand for flash storage in data centres continues to grow rapidly – with capacity shipped into the enterprise expected to increase at a 58% CAGR through 2021,” said Jeff Janukowicz, IDC Research Vice President for Solid State Drives and Enabling Technologies.

“In order for hyperscale, virtualisation, automation/orchestration and software-defined storage applications to thrive, cloud data centres must meet specific workload requirements. Toshiba’s latest data centre SSDs are designed to help customers address these demanding environments and realise the most value from their flash storage.”

The new line-up of SSDs utilises Toshiba’s next-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory, which is based on the company’s industry-leading 64-layer architecture and uses 3-bit-per-cell (triple-level cell, TLC) technology.

Additionally, the CD5, XD5 and HK6-DC SSD families are designed with end-to-end vertical integration to deliver quality and reliability. TME’s PCIe NVMe SSDs are designed for multiple data centre workload profiles.

The CD5 Series supports capacities ranging from 960GB to 7,680GB1 in a U.2 form factor, delivering 500,000/35,000 random read/write IOPS and up to 3,140/1,980MB/s sequential read/write performance within a 9-14W power envelope.

The XD5 Series is a small footprint M.2 22110 form factor SSD that supports capacities up to 3.84TB and delivers up to 2,600/890MB/s sequential read/write performance in a 7W power envelope.

These SSDs are optimised for low latency and performance consistency in read-intensive workloads, and targeted at Open Compute Platform (OCP) and hyper-scale/cloud applications.

The HK6-DC Series is a 6Gbit/s SATA SSD and is available in 960GB, 1.92TB and 3.84TB capacities. This read-intensive, latency optimised SSD delivers up to 85,000 random read IOPS and up to 550MB/s sequential read performance.

These performance numbers are more than 400 times better than those of a 15,000 rpm higher performance hard disk drive (HDD). They also represent continued improvements over previous generation SATA SSDs.

"High reliability, efficient power consumption and the ability to deliver consistent application performance are key requirements for modern data centres," said Paul Rowan, General Manager for the SSD business unit of Toshiba Memory Europe.

“These demands are catered for by our new line-up of BiCS FLASH-based NVMe and SATA SSDs and make them an excellent choice for storage solutions in cloud environments.”

Toshiba’s new data centre SSDs feature power loss protection and support cryptographic erase support for secure removal of data. They also utilise AES 256-bit data to encrypt data securely without the performance impact associated with software-based solutions. Designed to provide excellent IO consistency, Toshiba’s new SSDs include a five-year limited warranty.