Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, IBM and Intel announce a working group to help OEMs add PCIe interfaces to SSD storage solutions.
The group hopes its efforts will create a standard that offers up to 2GB/sec throughput between SSD and processor. This is much faster than either SAS (6Gbit/sec) or SATA (3Gbit/sec) drives.
The new standard incorporates serial-attached SCSI, SATA and PCIe on the same drive chasses, so architecture changes to accommodate new hardware will not be needed. The form factor will build on the current 2.5" standard.
Intel technology initiatives director and working group member Jim Pappas says placing the PCIe connection pins directly onto a drive significantly reduces system overhead.
Current laptops, desktops and servers require an expansion card to use PCIe, creating an I/O bottleneck that the new standard can resolve. Administrators can now swap out SSDs with PCIe connections.
Standards work should be complete by end of 2011. However the group says OEMs could begin building new SSDs and systems using these specs by mid-2011.