Generally solid state disks fall into two different categories based on the technologies that they use.
Type 1 devices typically have the following characteristics :-
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Non volatile nand flash memory |
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Physically small 2.5 or 3.5 inch disk drive form factor |
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Consume less than 10W of power (typical) |
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Generate very little heat |
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Have better random I/O access times than standard disk drives |
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Have lower sequential access times than standard disk drives (especially when writing) |
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Typically used in harsh environments like process control, avionics and military use |
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Have non enterprise class interfaces such as SATA or P-ATA |
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Very reliable |
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Require no maintenance |
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Lower cost than type 2 devices |
Type 2 devices typically have the following characteristics :-
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Volatile DRAM memory, backed up by conventional disk drives and battery backup. |
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Physically large rack mount units, typically ranging in size from 1U to 3U. |
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Consume large amounts of power, typically 250 – 500W. |
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Generate larger volume of heat |
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Have much better I/O access times than standard disk drives |
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Have better sequential access times than standard disk drives |
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Exclusively used for server acceleration to remove I/O bottle necks. |
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Have enterprise class FC-AL interfaces |
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Less reliable owing to complexity and disk drives that have moving parts. |
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Much higher cost than type 1 devices |
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Require periodic maintenance to replace batteries |
The Gnutek Maracite is unique. Being based on nand flash technology, it has the low power, non volatile and reliability features of type 1 drives but has been designed to achieve the performance features of type 2 DRAM based systems. |
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It is a 3.5 inch form factor drive but with an enterprise class fibre channel interface. Very high performance is achieved by controlling many nand flash devices simultaneously and independently via a large ECC protected DRAM buffer.
The result is that the Maracite is the worlds fastest 3.5 inch form factor disk drive.The Maracite only consumes 6 Watts and as it’s price is comparable with type 1 devices, it offers a major saving over DRAM based type 2 products. Although the Maracite is ideally suited to the performance market it is equally at home in the ruggedised market.
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