Memory & Storage

New Enterprise-Class SSDs Brings NVMe Speed to the Data Center

The new Samsung 983 DCT solid state drives (SSDs) offer increased speed while lowering costs. Created to take the next step in SSD performance by offering faster NVMe SSD read/write speeds and higher capacity data storage, the 983 DCT also presents a new level of enterprise-class reliability, security and manageability.

The 983 DCT is part of the new Samsung Enterprise SSD lineup that also includes the Samsung 860 DCT, Samsung 883 DCT and Samsung 983 ZET drives. Each drive in this series provides sustained performance with superb reliability. The 983 DCT is also optimized for read-intensive applications, making it ideal for big data, real-time data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) applications and next generation delivery networks.

NVMe Speed, Enterprise Strength

The new 983 DCT SSDs are now available in both 2.5-in. NVMe U.2 and NVMe M.2 22110 (22x110mm) formats, with capacities of 960GB or 1920GB and a five-year warranty. The U.2 feature high NVMe speed with sequential read speeds of up to 3,000 megabytes per second (MB/s), sequential read speeds of up to 580,000 input/output operations per second (IOps) and random write speeds of up to 52,000 IOps with high Quality of Service (QoS) levels at 99.99 percent.

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Longevity is outstanding at 0.8 drive writes per day (DWPD) and reliability is likewise superb at two million hours mean time between failure (MTBF). The drives use the NVMe 1.2b specification, 64-layer V-NAND, with PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 lanes, and include 3GB of RAM for caching. The TCG/Opal security specification is also available.

Power and Protection

But it’s not just about the specs. These new drives also pile on the features, with a new Samsung Phoenix controller that was developed specifically for NVMe SSDs. The 983 DCT is safeguarded with end-to-end data protection to ensure consistency over the entire data transfer path, preventing data corruption in cases of power failure with an on-board tantalum capacitor for power loss protection. An advanced error correcting code (ECC) engine can detect signal discrepancies and fix them in real time, and data can be secured without performance degradation due to the 256-bit AES encryption engine.

The drives also come with the Samsung Enterprise SSD toolkit, which allows firmware updates to all the drives in the system at once, can securely erase all the SSDs before decommissioning or repurposing, and allows the user to adjust drive parameters including low-level formatting, TRIM, overprovisioning and health monitoring.

Other new features include dynamic thermal guard protection, which can throttle back performance if the drive overheats, allowing the drive to continue to function at a slower pace until the system temperature is reduced. Self-monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) allows the drives’ server to monitor the drive for reliability, including temperature, data errors and more. Power consumption is low, with active reads at 7.6 watts or less, active writes at 8.0 watts or less and idle power consumption at 2.6 watts for the M.2 SSDs, while running slightly higher for the U.2 models at 8.7 watts, 10.6 watts and 4.0 watts, respectively.

With superb performance, low power consumption, high capacities, excellent reliability, enterprise features and low cost, the new 983 DCT drives allow the enterprise data center administrator to easily upgrade existing servers to much higher speeds and capacities without added expense. And with full compatibility with the Samsung Enterprise SSD Toolkit, the drives can be managed as a group, saving growth-minded administrators more time.

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Logan Harbaugh

Logan Harbaugh is an IT consultant and reviewer. He has worked in IT for over 20 years, and was a senior contributing editor with InfoWorld Labs as well as a senior technology editor at Information Week Labs. He has written reviews of enterprise IT products including storage, network switches, operating systems, and more for many publications and websites, including Storage Magazine, TechTarget.com, StateTech, Information Week, PC Magazine and Internet.com. He is the author of two books on network troubleshooting.

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