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One drive to rule them all and in the data centre bind them
It's a fancy-pants ruler-shaped form factor among Intel gubbins
Intel has updated its data centre SATA SSD products, dual-ported its Optane drives and introduced a "ruler" format for server Optane and 3D NAND drives.
The DC S4500 and S4600 use 3D TLC NAND and come in 2.5-inch x 7mm format. They use the 6Gbit/s SATA interface and feature a new Intel-developed controller and firmware.
Model | Capacity | R' Read IOPS | R' Write IOPS | Seq Read | Seq Write |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
DC S4500 | 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, 1.92TB, 3.84TB | to 72,000 | to 33,000 | to 500MB/sec | to 490MB/sec |
DC S4600 | 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, 1.92TB | to 72,000 | to 65,000 | to 500MB/sec | to 490MB/sec |
The difference is that the S4600 is optimised for more writes.
The endurance is one drive write per day (DWPD) for five years for the S4500 and three DWPD for five years for the S4600.

Intel DC S4500 and S4600 product
E8 is taking advantage of the dual-ported Optane drives, saying that it makes Optane suitable for use in applications needing high availability.

Forthcoming Intel 'ruler' format
The ruler format is said by Intel to enable more solid-state capacity inside thin server chassis, with it enabling up to 1PB of storage in a 1U server rack in the future. Both 3D NAND SSDs and Optane drives will appear, probably before the end of the year, in this ruler form factor. ®