SandForce-based Solid State Drives Demonstrate Record Breaking Price-Performance on IBM POWER7 Systems

SARATOGA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SandForce ® Inc., the pioneer of SSD (Solid State Drive) Processors that enable standard NAND Flash deployment in enterprise and client computing applications, today announced a record performance benchmark of IBM (NYSE:IBM) POWER7™ systems with SandForce-based SSDs. The benchmark results showed dramatic improvements in processing efficiency and price/performance, using "multi-level cell" (MLC) flash technology.

“By dramatically lowering the cost structure and power envelope of enterprise server storage media while maintaining breakthrough performance and reliability, data centers worldwide are ultimately empowered to do more with less.”

MLC flash is a solid state technology traditionally used in consumer devices because it is dramatically more affordable than single level cell (SLC) flash. Many enterprise clients have found the cost of SLC flash to be prohibitive, while the reliability of the more affordable MLC flash was an issue for the enterprise. Unique DuraClass™ technology integrated in SandForce SSD Processors brings enterprise-class reliability to MLC flash so enterprises can now take advantage of the speed of SSDs at an affordable price.

An IBM POWER7 system with MLC SSDs based on SandForce Processors recently achieved an unprecedented 150,000 transactions per minute per CPU core running the TPC-C Online Transaction Processing benchmark -- nearly a 50% improvement in processing efficiency per core as compared to the next leading system. In addition, the benchmark delivers a 36% advantage in price/performance compared to the next leading system with the same number of CPU cores. This record setting performance showcases the ability of IBM Power Systems™ to deliver leadership performance for transactional workloads like smart utility grids.

IBM POWER7 is the first enterprise server in the industry to use SandForce SSD Processor technology. By bringing lower cost flash technology to the enterprise, POWER7 provides enterprise clients fast access to data so it can be more quickly analyzed for insight to provide competitive advantage.

“The record IBM TPC-C benchmark results demonstrate that SandForce and IBM are transforming enterprise server data storage with the enablement of cost-effective MLC flash as the storage media workhorse for highly scalable compute platforms,” said Thad Omura, Vice President of Marketing for SandForce. “By dramatically lowering the cost structure and power envelope of enterprise server storage media while maintaining breakthrough performance and reliability, data centers worldwide are ultimately empowered to do more with less.”

SandForce SSD Processors address the inherent endurance, reliability, and data retention issues associated with MLC flash memory, making it possible to build SSDs that deliver unprecedented performance and reliability over the life of the drive while reducing the cost compared to SLC.

Key Facts Behind the IBM POWER7 TPC-C Benchmark

TPC-C is an OLTP (online transaction processing) benchmark developed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). The TPC-C benchmark defines a rigorous standard for calculating performance and price/performance measured by transactions per minute (tpmC) and $/tpmC, respectively. More information is available at http://www.tpc.org/.

10.5TB of SSD capacity (total of fifty-six 177GB MLC SSDs that use SandForce SF-1500 SSD Processors)
IBM Power® 780, Eight-core, two-socket system with POWER7 technology, 4.14GHz per core
Highest total performance of any eight-core system: 1,200,011 tpmC which is 81% higher than the next leading system (661,475 tpmC)
Best price/performance of any eight-core system: $0.69 per tpmC, which is 36% lower than the next leading system ($1.08/tpmC)
Highest performance per CPU core of all systems benchmarked: 150,000 tpmC/CPU core which is nearly 50% higher than then next highest score (101,116 tpmC/CPU core)

About SandForce

SandForce is transforming data storage by pioneering the use of standard flash memory in enterprise and client computing applications with its innovative SSD (Solid State Drive) Processors. By delivering unprecedented reliability, performance, and energy efficiency, SSDs based on patent-pending SandForce DuraClass technology unleash the full potential for mass-market adoption of SSDs using standard NAND flash memory. Founded in 2006, SandForce is funded by leading venture capital investors and first tier storage companies. For more information, visit SandForce at www.sandforce.com.

SandForce and the SandForce logo are registered trademarks, and DuraClass, DuraWrite, and RAISE are trademarks of SandForce, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.