Intel Releases Two New Data Center SSD Series

by Adam Armstrong May 2, 2017

written by Adam Armstrong May 2, 2017

Today Intel announced two new data center SSD series, the P4500 and P4600 series. Both the new series are built for cloud usage with Intel saying they are built to get more out of each server, minimizing service disruptions, and give customers the ability to efficiently manage at scale. The drives will come in two form factors, U.2 and AIC, and come in capacities up to 4TB.

The new drive series are a combination of a new Intel controller, firmware innovations, and Intel’s 3D NAND. The new drives are aimed at cloud and software-defined infrastructures to act as a caching agent. To this end, Intel does state that it will work well in combination with its Optane P4800x SSD, accelerating caching. Of the two drives, the P4500 is for capacity scaling and cost-effective read performance for mainstream storage while the P4600 has more endurance, better mixed workload performance, and improved QoS for caching.

Intel touts that its new SSDs come with 3.3x faster writes and 2x faster reads than their previous model, not to mention double the maximum capacity. While performance and capacity are always a concern in the data center, service disruption in a major concern. The most innovate service is no good if it does work. Intel’s new SSDs offer end-to-end data protection, consistent performance, and robust PLI. And the new drives help customers efficiently manage at scale through new firmware manageability features.

Key specifications:

Series: P4500 | P4600
Form Factor: U.2, AIC HHHL
Capacity:
- P4500: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
- P4600:
  - U.2: 1.6TB, 2TB, 3.2TB
  - AIC: 2TB, 4TB
Interface: PCIe 3.1 x4, NVMe 1.2
NAND: Intel 3D NAND, TLC
Performance
- P4500:
  - 64k Sequential Read/Write: up to 3290/1890 MB/s
  - 4k Random Read/Write: up to 710,000 / 68,000 IOPS
- P4600:
  - 64k Sequential Read/Write: up to 3280/2100 MB/s
  - 4k Random Read/Write: up to 702,500 / 257,000 IOPS
Warranty: 5-year