FMS: Marvell Extends NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD Technology Portfolio

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. announced an expansion of its NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) portfolio.

The solutions include one powering the Toshiba Memory Corp. native NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD with the company’s NVMe-oF SSD converter controller, delivering a direct-to-Ethernet SSD. The second is a firm’s NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD controller, optimized to expedite SSD makers’ time to market and drive data center adoption of Ethernet Bunch of Flash (EBOF) architectures.

As data reaches exponential growth, demand for greater storage bandwidth and capacity within infrastructure is rising commensurately. Customers are grappling with the stress that these demands are creating on power consumption, design complexity and system costs. With the advent of NVMe and NVMe-oF, data centers are migrating from older, legacy protocols to methods of accessing storage media. By utilizing a simple, low power and compute-less Ethernet fabric instead of a traditional PCIe approach, data centers can optimize their infrastructure and make hardware investments far more cost-effectively in the face of increasing storage requirements.

The company’s first announced its Ethernet-based technology at last year’s FMS, and the technology is being advanced by multiple storage end users, server and storage system OEMs and SSD makers. The Toshiba Memory 2.5″ in-form factor Ethernet SSD is a product to integrate the firm’s NVMe-oF SSD converter controller technology. These SSDs can be used with the company’s Ethernet switch products, enabling optimal storage disaggregation, eliminating costly CPU and DRAM components and increasing overall data center storage performance.

“Today’s milestone continues our relationship with Marvell and reflects our shared vision of bringing to market innovative, Ethernet-based solutions to optimize scalability, flexibility and overall data center manageability,” said Alvaro Toledo, VP, SSD marketing and product planning, Toshiba Memory America. “Our 2.5-inch form factor, dual-ported 25GbE NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD demonstration built with BiCS flash 3D flash memory leverages Marvell’s NVMe-oF converter controller, and enables seamless capacity, scalability and outstanding performance.“

Building on market demand, the company unveiled an more highly integrated solution for the scalable, performance disaggregation of storage from compute with the NVMe-oF Ethernet controller. this solution will enable a new class of enterprise and data center SSDs that lower TCO. This NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD controller, 88SS5000, integrates with the firm’s data center Ethernet switches including the Prestera family of packet processors, bringing to market a next-gen infrastructure solution for moving, processing, storing and securing data.

“Our new NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD controller represents another industry first from Marvell and marks a key milestone in advancing our end-to-end Ethernet storage strategy,” said Nigel Alvares, VP, marketing, flash business unit, Marvell Semiconductor. “By integrating the powerful capabilities of our NVMe-oF Ethernet technology with our best-in-class SSD controller technology, our customers will benefit from substantial reductions in power, space and overall cost. We look forward to continued ecosystem collaboration for broad adoption of our disruptive EBOF architecture.”

“We’re excited to collaborate with Marvell on enabling their latest data center SSD controller innovation with our TLC, QLC and BiCS flash Gen. 4 devices,” said Hiroo Ohta, technology executive, Toshiba Memory Corporation. “The combination of our products will help illustrate the significant value proposition of NVMe-oF Ethernet SSDs for data centers.“

Resource:
Video: Marvell NVMe-oF SSD Converter Controller – 88SN2400

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August 5, 2019 | Press Release