smart_optimus_1.8_sas_ssd.pngSMART Storage Systems, an innovative enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) technology provider, today announced the industry's first 1.8" Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) SSD with an extension to its Optimus product line. The new Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD is designed for applications that need industry-leading performance, capacity, endurance, and reliability where space constraints are a concern.

Designed for blade servers, caching and other high-density computing environments which typically have physical space constraints, the Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD delivers random read/write performance of 100K/45K IOPS and sustained read/write speeds of 500/500MB/s using the test methodology defined by the Storage Networking Industry Alliance's (SNIA) Solid State Storage Enterprise Test Specification with consistent performance throughout the five year warranty. The Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD is available in useable capacities of 200GB and 400GB. To operate reliably under mixed and write intensive workloads, the new Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD achieves 10 full drive writes per day for a period of five years while leveraging cost-effective consumer-grade MLC NAND Flash. Extending from the 2.5" to add a 1.8" form factor, the Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD provides enterprise organizations and OEMs with a single SSD platform that spans multiple enterprise applications that require different form factors while meeting their performance, capacity and endurance requirements at an affordable cost.

The new Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD leverages the Guardian™ Technology Platform to provide the endurance and feature set required for enterprise environments. A comprehensive suite of proprietary features, the Guardian Technology Platform is comprised of FlashGuard™, EverGuard™, and DataGuard™ technologies. FlashGuard, an innovative combination of Aggregated Flash Management and Advanced Signal Processing technologies, enables commercial MLC Flash to achieve higher endurance levels, making it suitable for the enterprise environment. DataGuard and EverGuard technologies ensure that data integrity and drive reliability are never compromised, satisfying the demanding reliability requirements of Tier-1 enterprise storage applications. Additionally, Optimus features full T10 DIF support and TCG enterprise encryption, resulting in an optimal blend of endurance, performance, reliability and value.

"Prior to the introduction of our Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD, enterprise organizations and OEMs that were dealing with confined physical spaces in storage appliances were forced to sacrifice performance, capacity or endurance when selecting an 1.8" SSD. They were also limited to only leveraging the SATA interface, which denies users the dual-port and T10-DIF support which is necessary in enterprise environments," said John Scaramuzzo, president at SMART Storage Systems. "The Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD puts an end to this compromise. With the 1.8" SAS form factor, dual port operation and T10 Data Integrity Feature (DIF) are now available to enterprises. Enterprise organizations and OEMs can now select a single SSD platform that meets their storage needs no matter what form factor their application requires."

The Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD will begin sampling to select customers in Q2 of 2013. For more information about Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD or SMART Storage Systems, please visit the company's website at http://www.smartstoragesys.com