Overview - IBM 128 GB and 256 GB SATA 1.8-inch MLC Enterprise Value Solid-State drives

The IBM 128 GB and 256 GB SATA 1.8-inch MLC Enterprise Value Solid-State drives (SSDs) provide affordable, reliable, and performance-driven solid-state storage solutions for read-intensive applications. These drives present an opportunity to simplify your local storage infrastructure to help control overall maintenance and cooling costs, while considering remote storage solutions for end-to-end data availability.

The IBM 128 GB and 256 GB SATA 1.8-inch MLC Enterprise Value Solid-State drives (SSDs) employ cost-effective MLC NAND technology to provide an affordable, but performance-driven solution for read-intensive applications. These new SSDs are available as 1.8-inch options.

These SSDs use a single-chip controller with a SATA interface on the system side, and n-channels of Micron NAND flash internally. Packaged in a had disk replacement enclosure, these SSDs integrate easily into existing storage infrastructures. They are designed for applications that require high I/O performance in random read operations, such as Web serving, video serving, or content delivery.

These SSDs are covered under IBM warranty. These drives carry a one year limited warranty, or when installed in an IBM System x server these drives assume the system's base warranty. Solid-state devices do have finite numbers of write or P/E cycles, and are listed as Total Bytes Written (TBW). See the Limitations section for details.

Features and functions:

• 128 GB and 256 GB capacities to accommodate loading applications along with operating system loading
• 1.8-inch standard form factor that fits into a conventional disk drive bay or a unique eXFlash backplane in the server
• Fits into unique eXFlash backplane on several systems, to provide higher performance, capacity, and easy serviceability
• Uses industry-leading 25nm MLC
• Cost-effective MLC NAND technology with high read performance
• Enterprise Data protection to ensure NAND integrity
• MLC SATA drives specifically designed to fulfill customer needs in the Enterprise Value space
• Rigorous testing through the ServerProven program instills confidence that the storage subsystem is compatible with existing hardware, and will function reliably
• Leverages enterprise data path protection
• Energy savings with as little as 2.5 - 3.5 watt power consumption per drive
• Absence of moving parts reduces potential failure points in the server.
• One year limited warranty, or system warranty. See the Warranty section for details.
  

An IBM System x or IBM BladeCenter system with SATA capability

The 128 GB and 256 GB SATA 1.8-inch MLC Enterprise Value Solid-State drives offer a one year limited warranty.

An IBM part or feature installed during the initial installation of an IBM machine is subject to a full warranty effective on the date of installation of the machine. An IBM part or feature that replaces a previously installed part or feature assumes the remainder of the warranty period for the replaced part or feature. An IBM part or feature added to a machine without replacing a previously installed part or feature is subject to a full warranty effective on its date of installation. Unless specified otherwise, the warranty period, type of warranty service, and service level of a part or feature are the same as those for the machine in which it is installed.

The IBM 128 GB and 256 GB SATA 1.8-inch MLC Enterprise Value Solid-State drives are shipped as a single package. Other items are in zipped bags.

Contents of package:

• Solid-State drive
• Important Notices
• IBM Warranty Publication
• Solid-State drive Information Flyer

These Solid-State drives must be installed in selected IBM System x or IBM BladeCenter servers.

Height: 5.0 mm (0.197 in)
Width: 54.0 mm (2.13 in)
Depth: 78.5 mm (3.09 in)
Weight: 45 gm (0.10 lb)

All values are approximate.

Height: 32.0 mm (1.26 in)
Width: 226.0 mm (8.90 in)
Depth: 150.0 mm (5.90 in)
Weight: 150 gm (0.33 lb)

All values are approximate.

Temperature: 0 to 70 degrees C (32 to 158 degrees F)
Relative humidity: 8% to 85% (non-condensing)
Maximum altitude: 3,050 m (10,000 ft)

These Solid-State drives must be installed in selected IBM System x or IBM BladeCenter servers.

These Solid-State drives work with most operating systems. For more information, contact your IBM representative.

For latest compatibility information, visit
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/

Note: Some configurations might not be compatible.

Solid-state memory cells have an intrinsic, finite number of write cycles that each cell can incur. As a result, each solid state device has a maximum amount of write cycles that it can be subjected to, referred to as Total Bytes Written (TBW). IBM is not responsible for replacement of hardware that has reached the maximum guaranteed number of write cycles.

This limit can be revealed as the SSD drive failing to respond to system-generated commands or becoming incapable of being written to. It is important to distinguish these enterprise-value drives from the enterprise-level drives. Enterprise-level drives have much higher write endurance and as a result can withstand a greater number of writes over the lifetime of the device, when compared to enterprise-value drives. SSD write endurance is an important factor to consider because, unlike spinning disk media, NAND flash has a finite number of writes it will accept. SSD write endurance is typically measured by the number of program/erase cycles (P/E cycles), cycles that the drive incurs over its lifetime, which per device is listed as Total Bytes Written (TBW) in the device specification. This statistic can be used to give an estimate of the remaining life left for the drive, based on the workload that the drive will be subjected to.

The TBW value assigned to a solid-state device is the total bytes of written data (based on number of P/E cycles) that a drive can be guaranteed to complete. Reaching this limit does not cause the drive to immediately fail; it simply denotes the maximum number of writes that can be guaranteed. A solid-state device will not fail upon reaching the specified TBW. At some point, based on manufacturing variance margin, after surpassing the TBW value the drive will reach the end of life point. At this time the drive will go into a read-only mode.

As a result of the technology limitations of entry level solid-state devices, care must be taken to use them in write environments that will not exceed the TBW of the drive prior to the required life expectancy of the application.

As an example, assume an access pattern of 50% random data and 50% sequential data, with block size mixes of: 5% of the data is 4 KB block size, 5% of the data is 8 KB block size, 10% of the data is 16 KB block size, 35% of the data is 64 KB block size, and 35% of the data is 128 KB block size. For enterprise-value drives capable of 72 TB of lifetime writes, assuming an approximation of the workload stated above as being worse case, the drive workload must be limited to no more than 40 GB of writes per day to last 5 years and stay inside the 72 TBW limit. For the device to last 3 years, the drive write workload must be limited to no more then 65 GB of writes per day.

Additional information is available at:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/options/storage/solidstate/index.html