Intel presents ‘ruler’ form factor for server SSDs

Intel presents a new elongated form factor for SSDs. The company calls this form factor ‘ruler’. The elongated SSDs should allow up to a petabyte of storage space in a 1U server in the future.

According to Intel, the new form factor is the best way to increase storage capacity in servers. Details about the connection, dimensions and other specifications are not yet disclosed by Intel in its announcement. The ruler form factor SSDs will hit the market in the near future, according to Intel. There will be both Optane SSDs and regular SSDs with 3D Nand memory.

The elongated SSDs are intended for use in 1U servers and, according to Intel, such a server can be provided with 1PB of storage space in the future. To obtain the same storage capacity with HDDs, a 4U server is required, filled with, for example, one hundred 10TB HDDs.

Also, Intel announces Dual Port SSDs intended to add redundancy. According to TechGage, it is a double SATA connection. Intel claims that the new SSDs provide better performance than SAS SSDs. In the third quarter of this year, Dual Port SSDs will be launched in the DC D4500, D4502 and D4600 series.

Finally, Intel comes with new SATA SSDs for servers, which should serve as HDD replacements. The DC S4500 and S4600 series feature a new Intel-developed SATA controller and use 32-layer 3D Nand memory. These SSDs are available immediately and a 3.84TB variant should be released by the end of this year.