SMART unveils Optimus 1.8-inch SAS SSD

Storage firm SMART is to become the first to market with a 1.8-inch SAS SSD. The Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD has been specially designed for use in blade servers, caching, and other high-density computing environments.

The Optimus SAS SSD makes use of MLC NAND flash which is capable of read/write speeds of 100K/45K random IOPS, and 500/500 MB/s sustained transfer rates. The drive comes in 200GB and 400GB capacities, and they are rated for ten complete drive writes per day for five years.

The drive also utilizes the company's proprietary Guardian technology, offering full data path protection to safeguard user data from corruption along all data paths in the drive. Protection against the loss of data at the page and block levels is provided by the drive's unique redundancy feature called F.R.A.M.E. (Flexible Redundant Array of Memory Elements).

Finally, to ensure the highest possible reliability and data integrity, the drive architecture includes a high-reliability backup power circuitry to maintain power to the flash in the event of unplanned power failures.

SMART put data reliabiliuty at one unrecoverable error in 10¹⁷ bits read.

In order to keep the data stored on it safe, the drive also features support for dual-port and T10 DIF operation, and TCG encryption using 256-bit AES. 

The Optimus 1.8-inch SAS SSD will begin sampling to select customers in Q2 of 2013.