First, NAND based SSDs arrived in SATA, SAS, and PCIe form factors, almost a decade ago. In 2015, NVMe became widely available, in various shapes and sizes, including U.2 (looks like a thick metal 2.5" laptop drive), and HHHL (Half Height Half Length) PCIe cards, aka AIC (Add In Card)s. With the recent release of Intel xeon Scalable Processors (Purley), we have new servers that include NVMe cards in those hot-swap 2.5" drive bays, such as the 2U Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd, for example.
But what if you're working within the constraints of a 1U server design? In advance of the Intel Flash Memory Summit running from August 8-10 in Santa Clara CA last week, a bunch of announcements were already made on August 7, including:
“Ruler” form factor for Intel® SSDs, an all-new solid state drive form factor enabling up to 1PB of storage in a 1U server rack in the future.
The world’s most advanced dual port portfolio: Intel® Optane™ technology dual port SSDs and Intel® 3D NAND dual port SSDs for mission-critical applications.
An updated SATA family of SSDs for data center, targeted at HDD replacement.
Intel Further Delivers on Storage Transformation with New SSD Form Factor and Innovative Designs
‘Ruler’ Form Factor for Intel SSDs
Credit - Intel Corporation.
The new “ruler” form factor, so-called for its long, skinny shape, shifts storage from the legacy 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors that follow traditional hard disk drives, and the add-in card form factor, which takes advantage of PCIe card slots, and delivers on the promise of non-volatile storage technologies to eliminate constraints on shape and size. The new form factor delivers the most storage capacity for a server, with the lowest required cooling and power needs. The next-generation “ruler” form factor SSDs using Intel® 3D NAND technology will enable up to 1PB in a 1U server – enough storage for 300,000 HD movies, or about 70 years of nonstop entertainment. Both Intel Optane SSDs and Intel® 3D NAND SSDs in the “ruler” form factor will come to market in the near future.
... Dual Port SSDs
Dual port Intel Optane SSDs and Intel® 3D NAND SSDs offer critical redundancy and failover, protecting against multiple paths to failure for mission-critical and high-availability applications. Dual port SSDs replace SAS SSDs and HDDs and, with new storage technologies, deliver more IOPS, more bandwidth and lower latency than SAS SSDs. Dual port Intel® SSD DC D4500, D4502 and D4600 Series will be available starting in 2017’s third quarter.
SATA SSDs for Data Centers
Credit - Intel Corporation.
The Intel® SSD DC S4500 and S4600 Series combine a new Intel-developed SATA controller, innovative SATA firmware and the industry’s highest density 32-layer 3D NAND. These storage-inspired SSDs preserve legacy infrastructure, ensuring a simple transition from hard disk drives to SSDs, while enabling data centers to reduce storage cost, increase server efficiency and minimize service disruptions. The new members of the second-generation Intel®3D NAND SSD family are available now.
It would seem that M.2 NVMe "gumstick" has the best shot at sticking around for a while, tucking into a little slot right there on compact Intel NUC and Xeon D motherboards, along with even smaller form-factor devices like laptops. I would hope to see standardization on ejectable PCIe media, but I won't be holding my breath, with server vendors intent on a variety of proprietary drive carrier styles
If a consumer version of the 2.5" DC S4600 3.8TB arrives, and if prices drop low enough, that would be an appealing alternative to the rather common 4TB to 10TB spinning 3.5" drives that have fallen so far in price lately. So far, the only S4600 Series that has surfaced on Amazon is the 960GB, listing a "Date First Available" of August 11, 2017. The 1.9TB S4500 is also on Amazon now.
Page 6 of the presentation deck below couldn't make it more clear that Intel wishes for the Ruler to conquer the U.2 form-factor. Such a victory would remove those U.2 drive carriers from server designs, a loss I figure OEMs would mourn more than server owners.
...
So the form of early SSDs had nothing to do with what makes a good SSD. Instead, that design came from an older technology. Form factors did change, though. They eventually evolved into the M.2 design in 2010 and the PCIe/U.2 in 2012. (Fun fact: That’s my hand in the Wikipedia entry!)
The majority of big cloud providers are using the U.2, and the rest are using the M.2. These form factors got the job done at the time, but they weren’t optimized for newer types of non-volatile memory. For example, M.2 designs targeted light, thin notebooks. Cloud providers have embraced PCIe-based SSDs in a big way over the last couple years, in both the U.2 and M.2 form factors. But, it’s time for a change. ...
FORM FACTOR INNOVATION "RULER" FORM FACTOR FOR INTEL® SSDs
Jonmichael Hands, Roger Corell
Intel Non-volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG)
August 2017 by Jonmichael Hands, Roger Corell, Intel Non-volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG)
These systems still work great for many even 9+ years later, mine included, even with (unsupported) vSphere 8 and Windows 11 Version 21H2. But unless you added the optional TPM module, it may be the end of the line as far as repurposing them for running the latest Windows 11 Version 24H2 and beyond.
After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop SuperServer bundles in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. Bare bones system sales continued for years longer.
What's next in 2025? I don't yet have my answer for my home lab, especially now that VCF certification is required to keep non-production home lab licenses going, even as a vExpert and VMUG Advantage EVALExperience customer.
As for a SuperServer follow-on, the Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh slightly better in 2024, and hopefully Xeon 6 (Granite Rapids-D) much better in 2025 featuring PCIe Gen5, MCRDIMMs, and 100GbE networking, wow! Feb. 27 2025 update update looks promising, but pricey. Infortunately, it's become clear to me that Supermicro is less focuses on the mini-tower form factor these days.
As for the CPU industry, it's unfortunate that Pat Gelsinger was apparently ousted from Intel's helm in these challenging times, but I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when he was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.
These systems still work great for many even 9+ years later, mine included, even with (unsupported) vSphere 8 and Windows 11 Version 21H2. But unless you added the optional TPM module, it may be the end of the line as far as repurposing them for running the latest Windows 11 Version 24H2 and beyond.