IBM testing 4.1TB solid state disk array

While most consumer-grade SSD makers limit themselves to around 128GB IBM is shooting for the starts with its new 4.1 terabyte, high-speed solid state drive array targeted at the enterprise market.

IBM says its new SSD array, which is called Project Quicksilver, outperforms world's fastest disk solution by more than 250 percent! Big Blue coupled the disks to its storage virtualization technology to achieve a sustained data transfer rate of more than 1 million input/output per second (IOPS), with a response time of less than one millisecond.

Quicksilver not only improved performance by 250 percent but did this in less than 1/20th of the response time, while requiring only 1/5th of the floor space, and 55 percent of the power and cooling requirements.

Under the rubric Project Quicksilver, IBM coupled solid-state drives with its storage virtualization technology to achieve a sustained data transfer rate of more than 1 million input/output per second (IOPS), with a response time of less than one millisecond in a 4.1-terabyte rack of SSD storage. SSDs are being supplied by Fusion-io.

By comparison, Intel is commercially shipping SSDs (X25-E Extreme) that individually achieve random data reads of 35,000 IOPS and random writes of 3,300 IOPS. In a 3.8-terabyte storage array using 120 SSDs, Intel claims 4.2 million IOPS. IOPS is a crucial benchmark for large customers that process credit card information or run reservation systems, for example.

More details at CNET. IBM believes this SSD array might be commercialized within a year.