A homogeneous SAS environment has long been the gold standard for enterprise server and storage systems. With vertical integration expertise in flash technology, firmware and controller design, SATA simply cannot compete with SAS, falling short in terms of performance, robustness, and encryption options.
Paul Rowan, General Manager for the SSD unit at Toshiba Memory Europe, stated: “Designed with affordability and server applications in mind, the Toshiba RM5 vSAS series seeks to provide a cost effective and much higher performing solution to overcome the bottlenecks that are inherent with SATA today.”
Where SATA drives often use SAS expanders to scale out, the RM5 enables the use of native SAS from end to end, eliminating the need for protocol translation to SATA. Customers should therefore be able to take full advantage of SAS’s rich feature set.
Featuring Toshiba Memory’s BiCS FLASH TLC (three-bit per cell) 3D flash memory, the RM5 series will initially be available in capacities up to 7.68TB with a single 12GB port, SFF-8639 connector and in a 2.5” form factor. Sample shipments to OEM customers has started in limited quantities, and Toshiba will gradually increase shipments from the third calendar quarter of 2018.
