HighPoint Launches New SSD7749M2 16x M.2 Port NVMe RAID AIC

[GFreeman]

HighPoint has unveiled the industry's first 16x M.2 Ports NVMe RAID AIC; the SSD7749M2. Featuring an unprecedented 16 independent M.2 device channels, and armed with HighPoint's proven PCIe Gen 4 Switch Architecture and NVMe cooling technology, SSD7749M2 RAID AICs are capable of delivering 28 GB/s of transfer throughput while supporting an astounding 128 TB of client-class NVMe storage; attributes that are particularly beneficial for AI driven workflows that require high-speed storage solutions capable of rapidly processing vast quantities of data. The compact, professional-grade PCIe AIC storage solution can be easily integrated into any x86 workstation or server platform capable of supporting modern dual-width GPUs, and is equipped with a comprehensive suite of management and monitoring tools designed to optimize and streamline the platforms NVMe storage ecosystem.

Advanced Architecture Maximizes Capacity and Performance
Innovative, dual-sided, vertically aligned M.2 loading trays can directly host up to sixteen 2280 form factor M.2 SSDs using only one side of the PCB. This unique architecture results in an impressively slim hardware footprint, with a form factor similar to that of a high-end dual-width GPU. The sixteen device channels can operate independently or concurrently, and enable the SSD7749M2 to support an astonishing 128 TB of M.2 storage, with the potential to scale up to 256 TB in the near future, all from a single PCIe slot!



To ensure each SSDs operates and perform optimally, the AIC incorporates HighPoint's proven x48 lane PCIe Switching Technology, which allocates a dedicated x16 lanes of upstream bandwidth (connection to the host platform), and x2 lanes of dedicated downstream bandwidth to each SSD. This enables the SSD7749M2 to optimize signal integrity, reduce latency and deliver an astonishing level of data throughput; upwards of 28 GB/s of real-world transfer performance! All of this results in a truly one-of-a-kind, feature-rich NVMe Storage solution, perfectly suited for data-intensive applications such as Healthcare Diagnostics, Scientific Research and Simulation, Deep Learning Model Training, AI-Powered Video and Image Processing, and AI-Powered Cybersecurity.

State-of-the-Art Three—Pronged Cooling Solution Enhances NVMe Reliability and Performance
One of the driving forces behind the SSD7749M2 industry-leading storage capacity and performance capability is HighPoint's advanced, three-pronged, dual-width NVMe cooling system, which leverages a full-length aluminium casing and heat sink, powerful low-decibel cooling fans, and a unique SSD mounting system to enhance reliability and stave off the threat of thermal throttling. The aluminium casing fully encloses the M.2 media and sensitive controller componentry, effectively sealing it away from the surrounding hardware environment. The innovative, tool less SSD loading system arranges M.2 media vertically to optimize airflow within the AIC. Three cooling fans; one mounted directly atop the integrated heatsink, and a pair installed into the side-mounted access hatch, work in unison to condense and circulate cool air throughout the casing, and eject waste heat through the ventilated PCIe bracket.

To compliment the hardware side of the equation, HighPoint has developed an intelligent temperature monitoring and alert system, which is integrated directly into the NVMe storage management & monitoring suite. Administrators can track the temperature and endurance (TBW/DWPD rating) of each hosted NVMe storage device in real-time via HighPoint's innovative SHI (storage health inspector) service, which can be used to configure warning thresholds based on each SSDs specifications and adjust the AIC's triple cooling fans to ensure hosted M.2 media perform optimally, even under the most demanding workflow. The service can be instructed to activate an audible warning alarm or contact one or more administrators via email if temperature thresholds are crossed.



Comprehensive NVMe Storage Management and Monitoring Suite
The SSD7749M2's comprehensive NVMe storage management and monitoring suite enables administrators to easily configure and maintain the platform's NVMe storage ecosystem with a few simple clicks and commands, from within and outside of the OS. RAID arrays will be recognized as single, physical disks, and can be configured and tailored for a variety of roles, such an application drive or virtual scratch disk, data archiving or even for hosting bootable OS's or virtualization platforms.

In addition, a simple and easy 1-click Log Collection solution has been integrated into our WebGUI and CLI management utilities to streamline the troubleshooting process and expedite the service/support process.

Advanced Gen 4 Data Security Suite
SSD7749M2 RAID AICs are protected by HighPoint's Gen 4 Data Security Suite, which includes SafeStorage, a state-of-the-art data encryption solution for OPAL SSC compliant SED drives and arrays. Stored data is automatically locked down whenever storage is unplugged from the AIC, effectively preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information should physical disks be misplaced or stolen. In addition, SSD7749M2 feature Hardware Secure Boot, which prevents unauthorized code, such as a rootkit or ransomware, from executing during the system's boot-up sequence.

Qualified with Major M.2 NVMe Product Lines
The SSD7749M2 has been fully qualified with major M.2 SSD series, such as Samsung's 990 PRO, and Phison E18 based 8 TB SSDs, such as the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus.



Shipping & Availability
HighPoint's 7749M2 series NVMe solutions will begin shipping towards the end of August 2024, and will be available worldwide direct from our E-Store and our approved Global Resale and Distribution partners.

• SSD7749M2 16-Channel 2280 M.2 PCIe Gen 4 x16 NVMe RAID AIC - MSRP USD$ 1999.00
• RocketAIC 7749M2W-B128T0-10 128 TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe AIC SSD (16x Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 8 TB M.2) MSRP USD$: TBD
• RocketAIC 7749M2W-A64T0-0F 64 TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe AIC SSD (16x Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB M.2) MSRP USD$: TBD

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[LabRat 891]

She's outta my league, but still gets me excited.

 

[msimax]

just in time for the new call of duty

 

[Patriot]

Neat, it is an 8x E1.s or, carriers to take 2 m.2 per 8/lane E1.s slot.

https://www.highpoint-tech.com/post/e1-s-form-factor-thickness

 

[csendesmark]

Impressive!
Sadly I will not have this, but still would be happy to see active cooling for the SSD-s too.

 

[Chrispy_]

Neat. $2000 for the controller and $5000 for 64TB of SSD is a ridiculously low price for 64TB of SSD that you can set up in a RAID10 as an SSD cache.

Slap all that in a $3000 16-bay Supermicro 3U with 16TB Ironwolf Pros or EXOS CMR disks for another $4800 and you have yourself a quarter-petabyte of storage that should be capable of saturating your 25GbE network, all for about $15K which is essentially nothing at all.

Hybrid arrays from the big boys are still in the six-digit price range if you want anything approaching that kind of capacity - and sure, they scale up more and come with management features that a homebrew server cannot hope to match, but for SMBs rather than large enterprise, $15K is amazing. So amazing that you can afford to buy two and distribute your SANs as redundant storage that offer failover.

Putting lots of NVMe drives in a regular server is nothing new, but usually you give up affordability or the total number of SAS bays to do so. having so many M.2 slots in a dual-slot card effectively opens up so many options for regular 2U 2.5" and 3U 3.5" chassis.

I'll be keeping my eyes open for a review on these - if their performance isn't woeful then they're pretty significant addition to the market.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Neat product but if you put non-enterprise drives in there are you going to burn up drive writes pretty fast? Samsung 990 Pro is only 0.3 TBW per day if I recall.

 

[Crackong]

What happens when one of those drives failed?
Since there are two drives in one caddy, I can't just pull the thing out and replace.
The whole machine has to be shut down.

Seems a bit counter intuitive as a semi-server product.

 

[LabRat 891]

Neat product but if you put non-enterprise drives in there are you going to burn up drive writes pretty fast? Samsung 990 Pro is only 0.3 TBW per day if I recall.

Depending on config, that's spread across the drives (8-16 between RAID1, RAID0, and RAID10. IIRC)

 

[_roman_]

This is an interesting design. I like it.

In a perfect world there would be changeable fan with standard connectors in standard sizes.

 

[TheDeeGee]

That's what NVME Gen6 will look like, a 2 slot card to cool the controller.

 

[Chrispy_]

Neat product but if you put non-enterprise drives in there are you going to burn up drive writes pretty fast? Samsung 990 Pro is only 0.3 TBW per day if I recall.

Depends entirely on the behaviour of the Highpoint controller. I'd hope in something of this calibre the controller has its own DRAM cache so that writes to the SSD array are at least big enough to fill entire pages on each SSD.

I'm using Samsung 970 EVOs in my cheapest, dirtiest QNAP rack NAS at the office as a RAID1 write cache and they're not being burnt up that quickly, despite that system writing around 20-30TB of deltas a week for the last couple of years.

My guess is that even the pretty basic software/hardware on that TS-1273AU-RP is smart enough to avoid unnecessary IOPS to the flash and minimise write amplification/pointless page rewrites that small block changes would normally entail if the exposed OS/file share were writing directly to the disk. The fact I require more RAM (about 4GB per TB of flash) as the SSD cache size increases implies that the NAS OS is allocating RAM as a storage tier above the flash tier to ease small write burdens on the flash - it's several orders of magnitude too much RAM to justify lookup tables alone.

 

[Sarajiel]

What happens when one of those drives failed?
Since there are two drives in one caddy, I can't just pull the thing out and replace.
The whole machine has to be shut down.

Seems a bit counter intuitive as a semi-server product.

M.2 drives don't actually support hot-swapping. It's an electrical limitation of the design, since it doesn't use different length goldfingers which would be required for it to work. The ground pins have to make physical contact first or you risk shorting the drive. I guess nobody considered hot-swapping an important feature for a device that was originally designed for laptops.

 

[TechLurker]

I'd love a version of this that could be accessed from the slot side, basically flipping the layout some. And just add the 40mm fans as a removable cover piece. Heck, make it a smaller 6x or 4x that can work even with PCIe x8 due to built-in bifurcation.

 

[Sarajiel]

I'd love a version of this that could be accessed from the slot side, basically flipping the layout some. And just add the 40mm fans as a removable cover piece. Heck, make it a smaller 6x or 4x that can work even with PCIe x8 due to built-in bifurcation.

As long as you have a PCIe slot that can handle the card mechanically, it should work at that slot's maximum speed since it doesn't use bifurcation, but a 48 lane PCIe switch. In theory, it should run in a x1 PCIe slot with full access to all SSDs.

There are 8x M.2 cards from both OWC and Sonnet intended for Mac Pros that are also supported on Windows and Linux. These cards use the same or a similar 48 lane switch. However, you manually have to remove the card from your system and the heatsinks on those cards to switch out the M.2s.
QNAP has a relatively cheap x8 PCIe Gen3 card that uses 4x M.2 SSDs via a 24 lane switch.

 

[Nhonho]

Featuring an unprecedented 16 independent M.2 device channels

I only saw 8 M.2 slots per card.

That's what NVME Gen6 will look like, a 2 slot card to cool the controller.

These PCIe SSD controllers need to be made in a 5 nm lithography (or smaller) in order to they don't heat up so much. I know that the 5 nm lithography is much more expensive than 12 nm, which is what most controllers are made in, but it is possible to manufacture many more controller dies per wafer in 5 nm lithography. So, the manufacturing cost of each 5 nm controller wouldn't be so absurdly higher than the cost of controllers made in 12 nm.

 

[nwgpcl]

Please be reminded that M.2 form-factor storage is for general users/enthusiasts, U.2/U.3 form-factor is for enterprises. Moreover 128TB SSD will launch soon.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/21505/western-digital-teases-128-tb-ssd-3d-qlc-for-enterprises

 

[LabRat 891]

Please be reminded that M.2 form-factor storage is for general users/enthusiasts, U.2/U.3 form-factor is for enterprises. Moreover 128TB SSD will launch soon.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/21505/western-digital-teases-128-tb-ssd-3d-qlc-for-enterprises

Correct.
EDSFF E1.S, E3.S, and E3.L form factors, too.