With the high-performance NVMe protocol and Micron's proprietary XPERT data loss protection algorithms for enterprise customers, Micron's new 9100 Series and 7100 Series PCI-E NVMe drives give data center professionals the ability to achieve ultra-now latencies at up to 10 times the performance of traditional SATA enterprise SSDs.

Micron's 9100 drives are the company's new enterprise flagship lineup and use PCI-Express 3.0 featuring the high-speed NVMe interface protocol. They are now shipping to partners and will be available in HHHL and U.2 form factors. The Austin, Texas based storage giant is claiming that a single 9100 PCI-E NVMe SSD will run 25 times faster than an array of twenty four 15,000 RPM HDDs.

Meanwhile, the 7100 PCI-E NVMe SSD drives are slightly more cost-friendly and also use PCI-Express 3.0 featuring the high-speed NVMe interface protocol. These drives run using half as many watts as standard high-performance NVMe drives and are optimized for read-centric and mixed-use workloads.They are also now shipping to partners and will be available in the M.2 form factor and the 7mm thin U.2 form factor with slightly higher sequential write speeds on the latter.


Micron 9100 PCI-E NVMe SSDs now sampling in HHHL and U.2 formats

Micron's 9100 PCI-E 3.0 NVMe SSD lineup comes in five storage capacities and both HHHL and U.2 form factors (800GB, 1.20TB, 1.60TB, 2.40TB and 3.20TB).




Both HHHL and U.2 form factors feature the same performance specs for each part number - the 800GB model (2.1GB/s reads, 650MB/s writes, 540K read IOPS and 55K write IOPS), the 1.20TB model (2.8GB/s reads, 1.3GB/s writes, 700K read IOPS and 180K write IOPS), the 1.60TB model (same specs as 1.20TB model but with 100K write IOPS), the 2.40TB model (3.0GB/s reads, 2.0GB/s writes, 750K read IOPS and 300K write IOPS) and the 3.20TB model (same specs as 2.40TB model but with 160K write IOPS).



Micron 9100 PCI-E NVMe SSD specifications for HHHL and U.2 models (larger image here).

In terms of idle power consumption, all of the above mentioned drives are rated under 7 watts. In terms of active power consumption, the 800GB drive consumes up to 16 watts, the 1.20 and 1.60TB models consume up to 21 watts, and the 2.40TB and 3.20TB models consume under 27 watts. Micron says that 25 watt and 20 watt power-limiting configuration settings are also available.




Micron 7100 PCI-E NVMe SSDs now sampling in M.2 and U.2 formats

Meanwhile, the Micron 7100 PCI-E 3.0 NVMe SSD lineup comes in four storage capacities in the M.2 form factor (400GB, 480GB, 800GB and 960GB) and six storage capacities in the U.2 form factor (400GB, 480GB, 800GB, 960GB, 1.60TB and 1.92TB).



In the M.2 form factor, we are looking at four storage capacities with varying sequential read/write and IOPS performance - a 400GB model (2.40GB/s reads, 475MB/s writes, 180K read IOPS, 25K write IOPS), a 480GB model (same specs as 400GB model but with 10K write IOPS), an 800GB model (2.50GB/s reads, 600MB/s writes, 220K read IOPS, 33K write IOPS), and a 960GB model (2.50GB/s reads, 600MB/s writes, 220K read IOPS, 12K write IOPS).



Micron 7100 PCI-E NVMe SSD specifications for M.2 and U.2 models (Larger image here).

In the U.2 form factor, there are six storage capacities with noticeably higher sequential write performance on some models than their M.2 counterparts - a 400GB model (2.40GB/s reads, 500MB/s writes, 180K read IOPS, 25K write IOPS), a 480GB model (2.40GB/s reads, 475MB/s writes, a 480GB model (same specs as 400GB but with 10K write IOPS), an 800GB model (2.50GB/s reads, 900MB/s writes, 220K read IOPS, 33K write IOPS), a 960GB model (same specs as 800GB model but with 12K write IOPS), a 1.60TB model (2.50GB/s reads, 900MB/s writes, 235K read IOPS, 40K write IOPS) and a 1.92TB model (same specs as 1.60TB model but with 15K write IOPS).

In terms of idle power consumption, all of the above mentioned drive are rated under 3.7 watts. In terms of active power consumption, the M.2 form factor drives run anywhere between 5 and 7 watts (8.25W maximum) while the U.2 form factor drives run anywhere between 6 and 9 watts (12.W maximum).



All of the Micron 9100 and 7100 PCI-E NVMe drives include power loss protection using the company's proprietary XPERT algorithms (eXtended Performance and Enhanced Reliability Technology) for enterprise-grade reliability.

"It is estimated that the world creates approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every single day," said Kristin Bordner in the company's product announcement webcast invitation.

These are staggering numbers. It is clear that big data is not just a passing trend; it is absolutely a strategic imperative for businesses today. Every decision a company makes is data-driven. However, this is creating a tremendous amount of stress on the underlying infrastructure in the data center."

Of course, Micron is targeting very specific data center applications with these drives, including hyperscale and private clouds, virtualized environments and any other storage environments where total cost of ownership (TCO) is a top priority. While we don't have any information on pricing at this point, we expect the company will make an announcement once the partner sampling period ends later this quarter.