Data centers primarily use HDDs because they offer greater storage capacity than SSDs, but are not the best choice for data-related tasks. Artificial intelligencebeing much slower and consuming more electricity.
Micron has just introduced the perfect solution for AI-related tasks. We are talking about Micron SSD 6550 IONthe first SSD with 60 TB of storage with an interface PCIe 5.0×4.
This new storage unit is specifically designed for teams with AI inference and training workloads, where data is continually read and written and greater speed results in a reduction in the time needed to complete these process as well as saving on the electricity bill.
The fastest SSD on the market
This drive is available in E3.S format, a format commonly used in data centers that require a lot of storage very quickly. Micron uses technology 3D NAND 8th generation with 232 layers which combines high density storage, high performance and low power consumption.
According to the manufacturer, this device offers a speed of 12 GB/s read and write using only 20W of power. For customers who need higher performance, a model consuming 5 W more is also available. The idle power consumption of this unit is 4 W, which is 20% more efficient than other SSD drives of the same capacity from other manufacturers.
Álvaro Toledo, vice president and general manager of Micron’s data center storage group, says:
The Micron 6550 ION is a game changer in high-capacity storage solutions to meet the insatiable capacity and power demands of AI workloads.
Again, based on information provided by this manufacturer, this new unit represents a 147% performance improvement in NVIDIA Magnum IO GPUDirect storage operations. Additionally, it is 30% more efficient in Unet3D deep learning transfer tasks with a size of 4 KB. It consumes 209% less power than commercially available models and performs point-of-point tasks. AI learning control 151% faster.
Due to its format, a single rack equipped with Micron 6550 ION units can accommodate up to 44.2 inrepresenting a 67% increase in density over traditional 2U racks with 26.5 PB of storage.
This is a product aimed at large data centers, so we do not know the price. If we take into account that 8TB of PCIe 4.0 storage costs over 1,000 dollars, we can get a rough idea of what the unit could cost, and to which we must add that it is not sold in racks, not individually. units.
