Radian Memory Systems released a very interesting product combining 12GB of NVRAM with 12TB of flash onto a single PCIe card. The Radian Memory RMS-325 has a variety of configuration options in terms of capacities and NAND types (MLC and TLC). One of the challenges using NV-DIMMs such as the Agigatech solution we tested is that one needs to differentiate between the NV-DIMM memory and the system’s main memory. One also has capacitor packs that sit off of each NV-DIMM device which requires space inside a chassis to fit. With the Radian Memory Systems RMS-325 these challenges are not present.
Radian Memory Systems RMS-325
The Radian Memory RMS-325 card is a half-height, half-length PCIe 3.0 x8 card. That form factor is important as it fits a variety of servers. The card has onboard capacitors and an active cooling solution onboard.
Although a lower performance bus than a system’s memory bus, the PCIe 3.0 x8 bus can take advantage of the lower latency NVRAM. In the event of a power failure, the onboard capacitors keep data safe while it is dumped to flash.
Capacities range from 4TB or 8TB of onboard MLC with 3TB, 6TB or 12TB of TLC NAND. These capacities are higher than many vendors currently offer (e.g. Intel’s current NVMe controller only scales to 2TB.)
Companies looking for high-performance storage may find this an easier-to-integrate option than traditional NV-DIMMs. We do not have pricing however we do expect a premium to current NVMe SSDs. With technology such as Intel’s 3D XPoint around the corner, we are about to see widespread adoption of lower latency and higher bandwidth solutions than traditional NVMe cards can handle. The RMS-325 is one example of how vendors are solving for even lower latenct on persistent memory than traditional NAND can offer.
See the Radian Memory website for more information on the RMS-325.
