Toshiba Introduces Enterprise-Class SSDs with 64-Layer 3D Flash Memory

Toshiba today unveiled the development of two new flagship enterprise solid state drive (SSD) solutions, the TMC PM5 12Gbit/s SAS series and the CM5 NVM Express (NVMe)1 series. Development is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. 

Both product lines are built with TMC’s latest 64 layer, 3-bit-per-cell enterprise-class TLC (triple-level cell) BiCS FLASH™2, making it possible for today’s demanding storage environments to expand the use of flash with cost-optimized 3D flash memory. With all-new, advanced features, the innovative CM5 and PM5 series raise the bar in performance capabilities and create new opportunities for businesses to leverage the power of flash storage.

Offering up to 30.72TB³ in a 2.5-inch form factor, the TMC PM5 series introduces a full range of endurance and capacity SAS SSDs enabling data centers to effectively address big data demands while streamlining storage deployments. With the industry’s first MultiLink SAS™⁴ architecture, the PM5 series is able to deliver the fastest performance the market⁵ has seen from a SAS-based SSD with up to 3,350 MB/s of sequential read and 2,720 MB/s of sequential write⁶ in MultiLink mode and up to 400,000 random read IOPS⁷ in narrow or MultiLink mode. The PM5 series’ 4-port MultiLink design is an additional technology to achieve high performance, close to PCI EXPRESS^® (PCIe^®)⁸ SSDs, enabling legacy infrastructures to increase productivity without having to be re-architected from the ground up. Furthermore, PM5 SSDs support multi-stream write technology, a feature that intelligently manages and groups data types to minimize write amplification and minimize garbage collection, translating into reduced latency, improved endurance, increased performance and Quality of Service (QoS).

As TMC’s next generation NVMe SSD, the dual-port PCIe Gen3 x4 CM5 is a full-featured enterprise SSD. Like the PM5, it also supports multi-stream write technology. It is NVMe over Fabric-ready with scatter-gather list (SGL) and controller memory buffer (CMB) features. The CMB feature uses a part of DRAM on the SSD as host-system memory, reducing DRAM used load of host-side and it enables high speed as a system. Utilizing TMC’s BiCS FLASH 64-layer technology, the CM5 series has excellent performance with up to 800,000 random read and 240,000 random write IOPS for the 5 DWPD⁹ (drive writes per day) model and up to 220,000 random write IOPS for the 3 DWPD model, both with a maximum power draw of 18W. Additionally, the CM5 is being used as a platform to demonstrate and to enable the ecosystem around the Persistent Memory Region (PMR) capability. PMR enables customers to augment system memory with DRAM on the SSD without the use of expensive non-volatile DIMMs (NV-DIMMs). This feature makes it possible for a single SSD solution to provide both high performance storage and persistent memory to meet system performance requirements, while significantly reducing costs by moving metadata operations, such as logging, journaling and application staging to the SSD.

“We are proud to be first to market with new enterprise flash innovations to further broaden our enterprise SSD portfolio and re-writing the rules for enterprise SSDs using 3D TLC FLASH,” said Steve Fingerhut, senior vice president and general manager of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., SSD business unit. “Toshiba’s customers demand more out of storage and Toshiba delivers enterprise solutions that fit application needs.”

“Broadcom and Toshiba have a long history of collaborating to maximize system performance and reliability for our server/storage OEMs and datacenter customers,” said Jas Tremblay, General Manager, Data Center Solutions Group at Broadcom. "Toshiba’s new PM5 SSD supporting MultiLink SAS enables system customers to experience the highest performance from the mature and reliable SAS ecosystem.”

PM5 12Gbit/s SAS SSDs will be available in capacities ranging from 400GB to 30.72TB with sanitize instant erase (SIE) and Trusted Computing Group (TCG). CM5 NVMe SSDs will offer capacities ranging from 800GB to 15.36TB with SIE and TCG. Both TLC-based product lines offer industry standard endurance ratings with 1, 3, and 5 DWPD options, and the PM5 has a 10 DWPD option available.