New Standard for High Speed and Scalability: EDSFF or GEN Z Connectors

We know that computer systems have been built on the paradigm that the CPU-memory pair is fast while network and storage are slow. To translate memory commands into network and storage commands and vice versa, over the years, the components developed their own language and interfaces that require layers of software. Until now, the speed of the CPU memory pair relative to network and storage was such that these software layers had minimal impact on system performance.

Plus, with data center operators' requirement for faster access to massive amounts of data than ever before, the choice of storage technologies and associated infrastructure has become a critical consideration when IT departments design and implement their next-generation data centers. Some decisions need to be made to deliver fast results to enterprise customers as storage technologies continue to increase in both performance and capacity. You can look at the GEN Z fabric or EDSFF connectors to eliminate existing system bottlenecks and significantly improve system efficiency and performance.

Industry Landscape Drive By An Ever-Changing Set of Use Cases

Poised by an ever-changing set of use cases, server designers are faced with a myriad of new requirements. Classical servers are now finding their way into a broad spectrum of environments as they are driven by new technologies. From high-density data centers to smaller distributed edge deployments, these servers can be located anywhere. Plus, advancement in CPU, memory, accelerator, and networking is also pushing the limits of the server storage architecture.

A few years back when the industry realized that the 2.5-inch disk drive form factor was nearing its limits. Then GEN Z members set out to develop a high-volume universal connector capable of spanning multiple market segments. In keeping up with this goal, the Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) group was formed to explore the needs of the industry and architect a new set of form factors that address the needs of future enterprise architectural requirements.

The architecture should provide flexibility and scalability by allowing the addition or removal of resources, or the replacement of such resources as newer versions or newer technologies become available.

What is giving a home to new technologies?

If you have been working in enterprise-grade for a while you would know that a form factor provides the fundamental volumetric innovation- any new storage technology has to start there to make adoption easy. To adapt to optimizations in performance easily or capacity, new server and storage systems designs are becoming more use case-specific and require data storage.

Plus, the 2.5-inch drive formats have become limited with the advancements of IoT and IIoT technologies like machine to machine communications, continuous real-time video and audio capture, coupled with faster communication protocols and robust interfaces. To keep technological pace with new server demands, storage media based on these legacy hard drive formats are challenged, as well as future servers based on PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 technologies.

For flash memory packaging or optimized flash memory channels, the 2.5-inch form factor originated with hard disk drives is not optimal. The power of both the flash memory and interface increase as performance scales to exercise all of the flash memory and activate all of the dies. For this, a form factor is needed that can scale power, PCIe speed increases, and a wider PCIe width to enable input and output operations per second performance.

Because of this, the storage industry continues to churn out solid-state disk innovations that increase storage density, flexibility, and performance for highly efficient data centers.

The emergence of a new form factor for SSDs was recently created, the Enterprise & Data Center SSD Form Factor, more commonly known as EDSFF connectors or adapters.

Note that: The EDSFF connector only supports PCIe signals, so this connector only works with NVMe SSDs. It will not work with SAS or SATA drives. Standardization is crucial for a more rapid adoption of this new storage technology, enabling storage vendors to work with system suppliers seamlessly and deliver high-performing products to end-user.

EDSFF SSDs, without a doubt, is a good match for high-performance applications, but that is not their only use-case. They yield many benefits when compared to existing form factors. Designed to enable higher-density servers and storage systems, the EDSFF form factors offer greater application flexibility when compared to 2.5-inch form factors. This is largely due to their advanced connector and back plane design.

Sponsor Ads

• Ad Space Available - Rent it Now!

Report this Page

Created on Aug 5th 2022 06:44. Viewed 172 times.

Share on APSense

Comments