IO Accelerator
| Connects to | Type 1 or 2 c-Class Mezzanine slot via:
|
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Hewlett-Packard |
| Introduced | March 2, 2009 |
| Type | Solid-state drive |
The IO Accelerator (full name HP StorageWorks IO Accelerator) is a type of Solid-state drive offered in a mezzanine card form factor for HP's BladeSystem c-Class servers. This product was announced by HP on March 2, 2009.
Specifications
The adapter connects to the blade server using a PCI Express ×4 link, uses less than 9 watts, has bandwidth up to 800 MB/s and latency as low as 50 microseconds.[1]
The IO Accelerator is initially offered in capacities of 80 GB, 160 GB, and 320 GB. The 320 GB model uses MLC NAND, whereas the other two models use SLC NAND.
Since this is a Type-1 mezzanine card, the user can install up to 2 in a half-height blade server such as the BL460c[2], and up to 3 can be installed in a full-height blade server like the BL685c[3].
Architecture
The IO Accelerator contains technology obtained from the startup company Fusion-io. HP is the first company to create a product based on Fusion-io's ioMemory architecture, and is also the first to make it available to blade servers.[4]
The adapter combines NAND flash memory (either SLC or MLC) with a custom controller chip (beneath the heat sink) that interfaces directly to the PCI Express fabric of the server. The card has 25 channels of NAND Flash that are accessed in parallel.
Performance
The IO Accelerator is functionally identical to the ioDrive, and shares the same performance characteristics, specifically:
- 140,000 random-read IOPS 1k block size, queue depth 64
- 115,000 random-write IOPS 2k block size, queue depth 8
- 760 MB/s read bandwidth
- 680 MB/s write bandwidth
The Medusa Labs performance testing was performed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 using the IOzone benchmark tool.[5]
Limitations
The IO Accelerator currently cannot be used as boot media. Drivers are only available for Linux and Windows. Only 64-bit kernels (x86-64) are supported.[6]
See also
References
- ^ http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/io_accelerator/index.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
- ^ http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliant-bl/c-class/460c/index.html
- ^ http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliant-bl/c-class/685c-g5/index.html
- ^ http://www.fusionio.com/PDFs/Pressrelease_Pressrelease_HP_Bladeserver.pdf
- ^ http://www.fusionio.com/PDFs/Medusa%20report.pdf
- ^ http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01680619/c01680619.pdf