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Texas Memory Systems RamSan-70 Beats Fusion-io and Virident in New Independent Test

Swiss National Supercomputing Centre's comparison of PCIe SLC Flash Cards finds the 'Gorilla' delivers highest IOPS value ever measured by lab

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

"The RamSan-70 provided by far the best IOPS result we have ever measured at CSCS with a peak of more than 300,000 IOPS."

HOUSTON, Texas – September 27, 2011 – Texas Memory Systems Inc. (TMS), maker of the World’s Fastest Storage®, today announced the results of independent testing conducted by the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Manno, Switzerland, showing that the company’s standard-configuration RamSan-70 (450 GB) "Gorilla" PCIe card performs better than comparable devices and alternative high-speed hard disk drives in enterprise-class environments.

The September 2011 CSCS report entitled "Comparison of PCIe SLC Flash cards" by analysts Hussein N. El-Harake and Thomas Schoenemeyer, summarizes the benchmark testing performed on the RamSan-70, which replicates previous testing on the performance of cards built by Fusion-io and Virident.  Using two open-source benchmark tests to perform bandwidth and IOPS measurements, the tests, carried out in August 2011, proved that the RamSan-70's performance compared to SATA drives or other PCIe devices is "outstanding."

"The RamSan-70 provided by far the best IOPS result we have ever measured at CSCS with a peak of more than 300,000 IOPS at 4K for (the) FIO (benchmark test), which is consistent to the expected value," reads the report.  "(It) delivers a very stable IO bandwidth over a wide range of block sizes, which is a clear differentiator to the (Fusion-io and Virident) cards tested in the previous study."

The RamSan-70 is available in two configurations, starting at 450 GB of usable (SLC) NAND Flash capacity, which was used by CSCS in its independent testing.  Adding a mezzanine card, another 450 GB for a total of 900 GB of usable Flash capacity, delivers 600,000 random read IOPS.  The 900 GB RamSan-70 is the highest capacity SLC-based PCIe Flash card on the market and performs at twice the speed of the tested version that set the lab's performance record.  Users can start with 450 GB and 300,000 IOPS board and add the mezzanine card later when more capacity and performance is needed.

The RamSan-70 handles all Flash management functions without impacting the host CPU. It incorporates patented Variable Stripe RAID™ (VSR™) technology that increases MTBF and endurance.  When a Flash device fails on a Virident unit, the Flash device must be replaced. When a Flash device fails on the RamSan-70, VSR automatically bypasses the failing device without requiring any downtime.  Other RamSan-70 features include proprietary enterprise-level reliability features which include chip-level RAID and an advanced ECC algorithm that corrects more errors than required by the manufacturer.

The Series-7 Flash Controller™ is field-upgradable, ensuring that Texas Memory Systems customers will always have the best performance and latest features. The Series-7 Flash Controller, combined with Toshiba 32nm SLC Flash, provides the enterprise-level performance and reliability customers expect from The World's Best Flash Storage™.

“It wouldn't surprise anyone if they heard me say that when speed and performance are critical to the success of a company's business, there is no better solution on the market today than the RamSan-70,” said Holly Frost, CEO of Texas Memory Systems. “But to have those claims backed up by independent testing by a respected organization like the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, we are able to validate the hard work we've undertaken to achieve our results.  We went head-to-head against Fusion-io and Virident and we came out on top.  Add in our exceptional service, and there's no reason to turn to anyone other than Texas Memory Systems.”

Designed specifically for the OEM market, the RamSan-70 is the ideal in-server storage solution for data warehousing, enterprise resource planning (ERP), sophisticated data acquisition, scientific computing, and web content.  Additional information about the Gorilla is available at http://RamSan.com/Gorilla.

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About Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS)

Founded in 1991, CSCS, the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, develops and promotes technical and scientific services for the Swiss research community in the fields of high-performance computing. CSCS enables world-class scientific research by pioneering, operating and supporting leading-edge supercomputing technologies. The centre collaborates with domestic and foreign researchers, and carries out its own research in scientific computing. Located at Manno near Lugano, in the southern, Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, CSCS is an autonomous unit of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich).

About Texas Memory Systems

Texas Memory Systems (www.ramsan.com) designs and builds solid state storage systems for accelerating essential enterprise applications. The award-winning RamSan® product line, known as The World’s Fastest Storage®, delivers fast, reliable, and economical solutions to a broad base of enterprise and government clients worldwide. Founded in 1978, Texas Memory Systems continues to architect and engineer the future of solid state storage.

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