Chapter 1: Introduction; Overview - Seagate Nytro XP6500-8A1536 User Manual

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1

Overview

This document provides general information and tells you how to use the Seagate® Nytro™ XP6500 Flash Accelerator
card. To configure, monitor, and maintain the card using the software tools provided, refer to the Seagate® Nytro™
XP6500 Software User Guide.
The Nytro XP6500 card addresses the move toward hyper-convergence where vast computing and storage resources
come together to process massive information loads from the cloud, big data, and hyperscale data centers.
The Nytro XP6500 card combines Flash technology with Seagate's industry-leading RAID-on-Chip (ROC)
implementation with the advantage of on-board Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). The Nytro XP6500 card
offers the lowest latency flash in the Nytro product portfolio providing consistent, low-response times, even under
heavy I/O loads. The Nytro XP6500 card provides shared writes and chaining of I/Os queued for back end to provide
benefits of serializing back-to-back writes when the back-end port is busy. The shared writes also permit serving write
hits more efficiently by reducing the back-end traffic for updates to same pages.
The Nytro XP6500 card's buffered fast-path provides ultra-low latency writes through a simple, semi-automatic store
(into DRAM) and forward mechanism. The Nytro XP6500 card includes a virtual drive (VD) with Write Back, no read
ahead, and direct IO policy. RAID 0 with Write Back mode and Write Through mode is supported with Direct I/O (DIO).
The Nytro XP6500 card includes an eight-lane PCI Express® (PCIe®) 3.0 host interface and ROC-based controller with a
DRAM buffer which provides consistent, ultra-low latency.
The following table shows characteristics of the Nytro XP6500 card models.
Table 1 Seagate Nytro XP6500 Card Characteristics Summary
Device Name Model Number
Nytro XP6500 XP6500-8A1536LP
Nytro XP6500 XP6500-8A1536FH
Nytro XP6500 XP6500-8A4096LP
Nytro XP6500 XP6500-8A4096FH
Features
High performance

DRAM buffer for ultra-low write latency and consistent latency over a wide range of I/OPs.
—
High bandwidth and high random-read I/OPs for enhanced system responsiveness and an improved user
—
experience.
Eight on-board Nytro Flash modules present themselves to the operating system as one drive.
—
6Gb/s Nytro Flash module interfaces.
—
TRIM feature support.
—
Cost-effective

Servers can use the Nytro XP6500 as a boot volume, eliminating the need for separate boot drives.
—
Supercaps remove the need for battery maintenance.
—
Ease-of-use

Seagate Nytro XP6500 Flash Accelerator Cards User Guide, Rev. B
Raw Capacity Connector
1536 GB X8 PCIe 3.0
1536 GB X8 PCIe 3.0
4096 GB X8 PCIe 3.0
4096 GB X8 PCIe 3.0
Flash Controller NAND Type
SF2582 Enterprise
Multi-Level Cell
(eMLC)
SF2582 eMLC
SF2582 MLC
SF2582 MLC
Overview
Card Style Controller
Half Height, Half SAS3108
Length (HHHL)
Full Height, Half SAS3108
Length (FHHL)
HHHL SAS3108
FHHL SAS3108
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