The recently introduced Solid State Discs (SSDs) currently are available only in laptop computers mostly because of the lower energy consumption and the high speed performance. One of the main drawbacks of SSDs (besides prices) is that flash memories have a limited number of read/write operations; after that the chip becomes damaged and unusable.

However, SSDs are becoming available also for Enterprise usages. EMC announced the new Symmetrix DMX-4, the first enterprise infrastructure to incorporate flash-based disks into their arrays.

The flash drives for the Symmetrix DMX-4 system have been purpose built to EMC’s exacting specifications and use single-layer cell (SLC) flash technology combined with sophisticated controllers to achieve ultra fast read/write performance, high reliability and data integrity. They have been tested and qualified to withstand the intense workloads of high-end enterprise storage applications.

Because there are no mechanical components in flash drives, they require less power. In a storage array, flash drives can store a terabyte of data using 38 percent less energy than traditional mechanical disk drives. It would take 30 15,000 RPM Fibre Channel disk drives to deliver the same performance as a single flash drive, which translates into a dramatic 98 percent reduction in power consumption in a transaction-per-second comparison.

EMC plans to offer flash drives in 73 GB and 146 GB capacities for the Symmetrix DMX-4 platform beginning later in Q1 2008. No information about prices, but I'm sure that these are not exactly cheap solutions for everybody.

The official announce can be found here.