Micron Technology on Tuesday said that its 128Gb multi-level-cell (MLC) NAND flash was used to create a high-endurance, high-capacity compact enterprise storage system for big data, cloud computing, and virtualization applications. Micron's flash memory helped Skyera company to pack 44TB of solid-state storage into the size of a big pizza box.

"We are excited to be collaborating with Micron on this project. The capacity point achieved by our Skyhawk would not have been possible without Micron's 128Gb chip. Skyhawk will revolutionize the mainstream enterprise solid-state storage market by delivering next-generation performance and capacity at a price point equivalent to spinning disks. All that is possible because of our collaboration with Micron in bringing leading-edge NAND to the enterprise market," said Radoslav Danilak chief executive of Skyera.

Skyera's Skyhawk system uses more than 3000 Micron flash storage components to create a high-capacity, high-performance 44TB storage solution that fits into an industry standard 1U form factor. Skyhawk can consume up to 750W, but it delivers whopping 3.6GB/s of bandwidth as well as up to 1 million input/output operations per second. Micron's 20nm monolithic 128Gb device was the first in the industry to enable 1Tb of data storage in a single fingertip-size package (thanks to stacking of eight dies). It is currently in mass production and shipping to numerous customers for use in a variety of storage applications.

"With cloud applications creating tremendous demand for fast, efficient data centers, customers like Skyera are looking to Micron for innovative flash storage solutions that can deliver both performance and capacity. Skyera's implementation of our leading-edge NAND flash storage media is a perfect example of the impact that high-performance, high-capacity flash storage can have on the enterprise market," said Glen Hawk, vice president of Micron's NAND solutions group.

The demand for enterprise-capable NAND flash storage is also being driven by massive growth in big data applications. To meet the industry's demanding data access requirements, servers require high-performance, high-capacity storage that NAND flash delivers. Because it is exponentially faster and uses less power than hard drives, flash storage can also significantly reduce the footprint and power requirements for a given storage application.

Tags: Micron, 20nm, NAND, Flash, Skyera, Skyhawk