Lenovo, partners unveil solid state storage prototype for datacenter
Lenovo on Tuesday demonstrated a solid state drive for storage and server systems that's the size of a memory stick and can hold up to 8TB.
The company said its research and development team spent 18 months on the solid state drive (SSD) along with partners such as Seagate, NxGn Data, and Amphenol. Seagate provided the technology for the prototype, which was dubbed Project Spark.
At the Flash Memory Summit, Lenovo was aiming to show it can add value to the datacenter and move enterprises away from legacy systems. Lenovo's growth strategy largely revolves around boosting its datacenter footprint with servers, storage systems, and a bevy of partnerships with the likes of SAP, Juniper, Nutanix, and Red Hat.
According to Lenovo, the companies involved in the prototype will work on standards for datacenter SSDs and integrate the prototype into systems by mid-2017.
Lenovo's argument for the prototype and memory-stick-like footprints is that current drives need too much space in the datacenter. Project Spark -- 31.5 mm high by 112.5 mm deep and 5.5 mm thick -- can create more datacenter space and be more efficient.
Project Spark fits into a 1U rack and can allow hot swapping and enterprise features.