OCZ Storage Solutions Z-Drive 6000 NVMe SSD on display at CES 2015

CES 2015 -OCZ Storage Solutions displayed the Z-Drive 6000 NVMe SSD in their suite at CES 2015. The Z-Drive 6000 sports speeds of 3,000 MB/s for sequential read and 2,000 MB/s for sequential write workloads. Random reads weigh in at an outstanding 700,000 IOPS, and random writes are equally impressive at 175,000 IOPS. The Z-Drive 6000 will provide 1-3 DWPD, which is becoming the standard for most datacenter SSDs, largely due to increased density. The Z-Drive 6000 utilizes the NVMe interface, covered in detail in our Defining NVMe article.

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The Z-Drive 6000 comes in capacities of 800GB, 1.6TB and 3.2TB in the small 2.5" 15mm form factor. The Z-Drive leverages the proven PMC-Sierra Princeton controller running OCZ-proprietary firmware. The Z-Drive 6000 is certified for NVMe specification 1.1b on the UNH-IOL integrator list. The drive also features all the normal enterprise trimmings, such as encryption and internal data redundancy.

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The end of the SSD reveals a row of open slots that take advantage of the native linear airflow patterns inside the server. 2.5" PCIe SSDs use ExpressBay, a multi-protocol externally accessible storage slot that supports 2.5" or 3.5" devices compatible with the SFF-8639 connector. Standard drive bays are limited to 9 Watts of power, but ExpressBay bumps that up to 25 Watts, which is also the limit for the Z-Drive 6000. The Z-Drive also features optional lower power states. ExpressBay also provides additional airflow to dissipaten more heat. The unique airflow implementation for the Z-Drive 6000 will help to keep the drive cool and avoid any thermal throttling issues.

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My poor photography skills are on display, but we note another set of slots for airflow underneath the SFF-8639 connector. SFF-8639 is a new connector that serves as the Swiss army knife of storage connections. SFF-8639 is a multifunction 6x unshielded connector defined by the SSD Form Factor Workgroup (SSD FFWG). SFF-8639 supports single port SATA, dual port SATA Express, dual port SAS, MultiLink SAS, and up to 4-port PCIe device configurations. The Z-Drive connects via a PCIe 3.0 x4 connection.

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General availability is scheduled for early this year. As always, head over to our IT/Datacenter section for the latest in competitive performance analysis of the leading enterprise storage products, including 2.5" PCIe SSDs.