IO Accelerator
Encyclopedia
The 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.
The follow-on product, the PCIe IO Accelerator (full name HP StorageWorks PCIe IO Accelerator for Proliant Servers) is a standard PCIe form factor, and is supported in a variety of Proliant DL and ML servers.
×4 link, uses less than 9 watts, has bandwidth up to 800 MB/s and latency as low as 50 microseconds.
The PCIe adapter connects to the server using a PCI Express
Gen 1 ×4 link, Gen 1 ×8 link, or Gen 2 ×4 link, depending on model.
The IO Accelerator was initially offered in capacities of 80 GB, 160 GB, and 320 GB. The 320 GB model uses MLC NAND, whereas the other two models used SLC NAND. The 80 GB and 160 GB are now discontinued, and a new 640 GB model has been introduced. All current models use MLC NAND.
The PCIe IO Accelerator is now offered in 160 GB, 320 GB, 640 GB, and 1.28 TB capacities. It comes in two form factors: ioDrive or ioDrove Duo (two ioDrives on one PCIe card). The 160 GB is available in SLC NAND only, the 320 GB is available as either SLC Duo or MLC, and the 640 GB and 1.28 TB are both MLC Duo models.
Since the IO Accellerator is a Type-1 mezzanine card, the user can install up to 2 in a half-height blade server such as the BL460c, and up to 3 can be installed in a full-height blade server like the BL685c.
The PCIe IO Accelerator can be installed in most Proliant servers, and as many as 11 can be installed in one system (DL580).
. 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.
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.
The Medusa Labs performance testing was performed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 using the IOzone
benchmark tool.
media. Drivers are only available for Linux and Windows. Only 64-bit kernels (x86-64) are supported.
Solid-state drive
A solid-state drive , sometimes called a solid-state disk or electronic disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner of a traditional block i/o hard disk 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.
The follow-on product, the PCIe IO Accelerator (full name HP StorageWorks PCIe IO Accelerator for Proliant Servers) is a standard PCIe form factor, and is supported in a variety of Proliant DL and ML servers.
Specifications
The mezzanine adapter connects to the blade server using a PCI ExpressPCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
×4 link, uses less than 9 watts, has bandwidth up to 800 MB/s and latency as low as 50 microseconds.
The PCIe adapter connects to the server using a PCI Express
PCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
Gen 1 ×4 link, Gen 1 ×8 link, or Gen 2 ×4 link, depending on model.
The IO Accelerator was initially offered in capacities of 80 GB, 160 GB, and 320 GB. The 320 GB model uses MLC NAND, whereas the other two models used SLC NAND. The 80 GB and 160 GB are now discontinued, and a new 640 GB model has been introduced. All current models use MLC NAND.
The PCIe IO Accelerator is now offered in 160 GB, 320 GB, 640 GB, and 1.28 TB capacities. It comes in two form factors: ioDrive or ioDrove Duo (two ioDrives on one PCIe card). The 160 GB is available in SLC NAND only, the 320 GB is available as either SLC Duo or MLC, and the 640 GB and 1.28 TB are both MLC Duo models.
Since the IO Accellerator is a Type-1 mezzanine card, the user can install up to 2 in a half-height blade server such as the BL460c, and up to 3 can be installed in a full-height blade server like the BL685c.
The PCIe IO Accelerator can be installed in most Proliant servers, and as many as 11 can be installed in one system (DL580).
Architecture
The IO Accelerators contain technology obtained from the company Fusion-ioFusion-io
Fusion-io is a computer hardware and software systems company based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, that designs and manufactures what it calls a new memory tier based on NAND Flash memory technology...
. 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.
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 IOPSIOPSIOPS is a common performance measurement used to benchmark computer storage devices like hard disk drives , solid state drives , and storage area networks...
1k block size, queue depth 64 - 115,000 random-write IOPSIOPSIOPS is a common performance measurement used to benchmark computer storage devices like hard disk drives , solid state drives , and storage area networks...
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
IOzone
IOzone is a file system benchmark utility. Originally made by William Norcott, further enhanced by Don Capps. Source code is available. It does mmap file I/O and uses POSIX Threads.It won the 2007 Infoworld Bossie Awards for Best file I/O tool....
benchmark tool.
Limitations
The IO Accelerator currently cannot be used as bootBooting
In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...
media. Drivers are only available for Linux and Windows. Only 64-bit kernels (x86-64) are supported.