Toshiba keeps pumping out solid-state drives (SSDs), catering to enterprises’ growing appetite for application performance-enhancing flash storage in their data centers.
The company’s latest tactic involves stuff 15 nanometer MLC NAND flash chips into its new HK4 Series drives, a first for Toshiba’s enterprise SSD portfolio. Providing low-latency data transfers and featuring 6 gigabits per second SATA interfaces, the read-intensive versions of the SSD — denoted by the addition of an ‘R’ in their model numbers (HK4R) — were designed to tackle workloads that include Web and file servers, media streaming and intermediary “warm” storage data services. HK4R SSDs are available in capacities ranging from 240 gigabytes (GB) to a 1.92 terabytes (TB).
Compared to the one drive wipe per day limit on HK4R SSDs, the value-endurance versions of the drive (HK4E) are rated for up to three full wipes a day. Topping out at 1.6 TB, Toshiba claims the new HK4E SSDs excel at mixed-workload applications.
Another first for Toshiba’s SATA SSDs: optional Trusted Computing Group (TCG) enterprise encryption. Scheduled to ship in April, the secure HK4 SSDs guard against unauthorized access to data stored on the drives by adhering to the TCG’s self-encrypting drive standard.
Jeremy Werner, vice president of SSD and storage solutions marketing at Toshiba, said the new HK4 Series drives are “designed to meet the needs of our customers who are looking for a SATA SSD with low operating power, excellent quality of service, high capacity and with encryption,” in a statement. “Knowing that security and encryption is a priority for our customers, we are thrilled to release a SATA SSD that meets those needs.”
Combating the specter of data loss, Toshiba equipped the drives with the company’s own Quadruple Swing-By Code (QSBC) error-correction code. QSBC technology is an efficient, layered approach to ECC that adjusts to wear and degradation of NAND chips and extends the useful life of the SSDs. Incidentally, HK4 SSDs are covered by a five-year warranty.
The new SSDs arrive on the heels of recently-announced SAS-based Dell PowerEdge servers outfitted with Toshiba’s PX04S SSDs.
The read-intensive drives help Dell’s hardware hit a rating of 340,000 random read input/output operations per second (IOPS), according to the companies. Calling Toshiba “a long-time and trusted supplier” of SAS SSDs, the company’s “PX04S SSDs offer excellent performance and value for Dell PowerEdge server customers,” Brian Payne, executive director of Dell PowerEdge product management, in prepared remarks.
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Infostor. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
