The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and the Open Compute Project (OCP), according to StorageReview, have developed a new form factor for solid-state drives, designated E2. Devices of this type will have a large capacity, reaching 1 PB. For comparison, Seagate has set a goal of increasing HDD capacity to 100 TB by 2030, while Pure Storage has already prepared a 150 TB SSD.
The E2 standard is being created for “warm” data storage. The devices of the new format will occupy an intermediate position between high-capacity HDDs and traditional enterprise SSDs. It is assumed that E2 products will provide an optimal balance of performance, density and cost when deploying large-scale data lakes for AI applications, analytics and other tasks that require huge amounts of information. This is planned to be achieved by using a large number of QLC NAND chips in a single drive.
Image source: OCP / Micron
The physical dimensions of the E2 drives are 200 mm in length, 76 mm in height and 9.5 mm in thickness. The EDSFF connector is used, which is also used in the E1 and E3 devices. It is noted that in terms of SSD height and connector location (27.7 mm from the bottom), the E2 format corresponds to the E3 standard, while the LED indicator placement is identical to the E1.
Image source: OCP / Meta✴
The new type of products is intended primarily for installation in high-density servers. In this case, a 2U system will be able to carry up to 40 E2 devices on board, which in total will provide up to 40 PB of storage space. The new standard provides for connection via a PCIe 6.0 or higher interface with four lanes.
Image source: OCP / Pure Storage
The declared data transfer rate can reach 10,000 MB/s per drive. Power consumption is up to 80 W: this means that in a server with 40 such drives, the data storage subsystem alone will require up to 3.2 kW of power. Thus, effective cooling will be required – most likely based on liquid systems.
The first version of the E2 specification will be ready this summer. Micron is making a significant contribution to the development of the standard, which will use it in its future SSDs. Pure Storage and Micron presented E2 prototypes during the OCP Storage Tech Talk. Proprietary SSD modules, somewhat reminiscent of E2, have already begun to slowly and selectively displace HDDs in Meta✴ data centers. Other hyperscalers are on the way.