Micron P320h PCIe SSD (700GB) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 15, 2012 3:00 AM ESTFinal Words
Update: Micron tells us that the P320h doesn't support NVMe, we are digging to understand how Micron's controller differs from the NVMe IDT controller with a similar part number.
For Micron's first PCIe SSD, the P320h performs very well. Random read and write performance are untouched by any non-SandForce architecture we've tested here. Average service times in our application based workload traces are also class leading, presumably as a result of the IDT controller and lightweight PCIe controller. Sequential performance is also very good and potentially even better under heavier workloads. The fact that there's no claimed performance difference between the 350GB and 700GB drives is good for users who don't have giant workload footprints. Overall it's an impressive step forward. The native PCIe architecture makes a lot of sense and will hopefully quickly supplant the current crop of SATA-RAID-on-a-PCIe-card solutions on the market today. Where things will get really interesting is when we start coupling multiple PCIe SSDs in a system.
The downsides to the P320h are obvious. By using 34nm SLC NAND Micron ensures wonderful endurance, but prices the solution out of the reach of many customers whose needs don't require such high endurance. Until Micron brings eMLC/MLC-HET NAND to the P320h, I suspect the more conventional PCIe SSDs (e.g. Intel's SSD 910) will remain better values. For the subset of users who require SLC endurance however, the P320h should definitely fit the bill.
The second downside is just as fundamental: the driver stack is still in its infancy. Although the ultimate goal is SATA-like compatibility with all systems, it will take some time to get there. Until that day comes, if you're considering the P320h you'll want to make sure that Micron has validated the drive on your platform.
PCIe is the future. I don't expect a smooth ride to get us there, but it's where solid state storage is headed - particularly in the enterprise market. The P320h is a good starting point, I'm eager to see where Micron takes it.
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Jaybus - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Any particular drive is going to be one or the other. Why make a single complex cotroller when you can make two targeted controllers?crackedwiseman - Monday, October 15, 2012 - link
Any chance we could see some power consumption numbers on the various PCI-E SSDs? It would be interesting to see if the higher levels of integration in the NVMe controller solution are reflected by power savings. Also, its a shame it's not PCI-E 3.0 certified (although I'm sure it will be, given time) - it's not that the extra bandwidth is necessary, but you could achieve the same bandwidth with fewer lanes.cosmotic - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
Where's the test results from something like an Areca 1882 filled with high-performance SSDs?N00dles71 - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
Its funny to see all the dreamers here wishing it booted so when they won the lotto they could have one to go with their quad chip triple SLI dream machine.Seriously though, the SLC makes it a good sell to the boss who is worried about it dying before its time. Versus SAS hard drives/SSDs you just pull the dead one out and swap in a new one. Not so easy with these cards if you don't have them mirrored. Add the current market cost of a 2nd one to the mirror it does make it a hard sell. You could rely on these running a bit too well so that failure becomes a massive concern. So far we only trust the HP ones to store data that can easily be restored or is our prime business of massive scale market data capture and therefore mostly useless after 30 minutes.
We have just started using the HP badged (Fusion) IO Accelerator and are well impressed with its performance. We would love to start using it in more servers but even with preferential HP pricing these are not cheap. If this thing was certified to run in Proliant DL 38x & 58x servers at $3000 I think the market just got tipped on its head. I can't see the competition getting much cheaper than around $8000 on the HP cards so Micron are either going to go in hard and disruptive or they might settle for a "cheaper" price closer to the competition to keep margins high. It would be a shame if they did, these devices are just about ready for a big push into the enterprise market that it is ripe for someone to come in and sweep it all up. We would have brought 4 times the number of cards versus the HP ones.
klmccaughey - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
This is the second Micron review you have done that there is no available product for. The last one was their new SSD drive which still hasn't appeared. I am in the UK. I wrote to them about the last review you did and they said that although Micron was their parent company, they has no information on when a product would or would not be available.I don't understand why they send you products for review, yet even months (nearly a year for the first one?) they aren't shipping the product.
I can understand proof of concept and all that, and I love this PCIE card, but it's all fantasy IT until we can actually get our hands on it :)
klmccaughey - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
I meant Crucial by the way - Crucial are still only on the M4 and no sign of any of the stuff they send you ending up on the shelf ;)snozzy - Tuesday, November 6, 2012 - link
Go to cdw.com and search for "micron p320". You can purchase the exact same card used in this review.You can also buy these parts though Dell in a 2.5" form factor along with a server. Go configure a R620/R720/R820 with the PCIe SSD option.