Intel Announces DC P4500 and DC P4600 Data Center SSDs

Intel announces two 3D NAND SSDs for data centres, the DC P4500 Series and DC P4600 Series. At the same time, Intel reinforces their commitment to expanding the 3D NAND supply.

The latest additions to the Intel SSD Family are for Data Centres and they have been designed from the ground up for cloud storage solutions, including software-defined storage and converged infrastructure. The Intel SSD DC P4500 Series is optimised for reads while the Intel SSD DC P4600 Series is designed for mixed workloads.

Data Center Hardware

Both of the new drives use Intel’s own triple-level cell (TLC) 3D NAND. Intel didn’t specify what kind of controller the drives use, all that we know so far in that regard is that it is an “all-new Intel-developed controller” with unique firmware innovations.

Naturally, these two drives are NVMe drives and come with a performance to match. There will be half-heigh half-length (HHHL) PCIe add-in cards of the two drives, but there will be a 2.5-inch U.2 model of them too. The capacity options go all the way up to 4TB while we see impressive performance numbers of 3.3GB/s and over 700K IOPS.

The interface and features are the up to the newest standard with PCIe 3.1 x4, and NVMe 1.2. This includes support for NVMe Management interface (NVMeMI), end-to-end data protection, and ECC feature with an uncorrectable bit error rate of less than 1 sector per 10^17 bits. Intel backs the drives with a 5-year warranty.

Intel SSD DC P4500

With 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB options, the DC P4500 has the largest options of the two new drives. The series can deliver a sequential 64K performance up to 3290MB/s read and 1890MB/s write. The random 4K performance is rated up to 710K IOPS read and 68K IOPS write. As mentioned above, it is a read-oriented drive.

The random endurance rating is specified at 0.7 drive writes per day (DWPD) and the sequential workload endurance is rated at 4.62 DWPD. The power consumption is quite high when compared to consumer drives, but normal for a server drive. It is rated to a maximum of 10.9W reading and 19.8W writing.

Intel SSD DC P4600

The DC P4600 capacity options depend on the form factor. The U.2 models come as 1.6TB, 2TB, and 3.2TB while the add-in cards come in 2TB and 4TB options.

The sequential performance is rated at 3280 MB/s reading and 2100MB/s writing. The random performance comes in at 702500 IOPS reading and 257000 IOPS writing.

The endurance rating is higher for this drive and it has a 2.9 DWPD random rating and 4 DWPD sequential. The power consumption for reading is a little lower than the P4500 with 9.9W. On the other hand, when writing, the consumption goes up to 20.7W.

3D NAND Commitment

Back in October 2015, Intel announced an investment into Fab 68 in Dalian, China, and converted the facility to produce 3D NAND. That same facility is now being expanded, increasing Intel’s 3D NAND supply.