P50960-001 HPE 15.36TB Gen4 NVMe High Performance Read Intensive SSD

HPE P50960-001 15.36TB Gen4 NVMe Read Intensive SSD

The HPE P50960-001 represents the pinnacle of enterprise storage technology, combining massive capacity with cutting-edge Gen4 NVMe performance. This 15.36TB 2.5-inch Small Form Factor (SFF) U.3 solid state drive is engineered specifically for read-intensive workloads in demanding data center environments. With its exceptional IOPS performance, low latency, and high endurance, this drive delivers the storage foundation necessary for modern enterprise applications, cloud infrastructure, and data-intensive computing tasks.

Features and Benefits

Unprecedented Storage Density

With 15.36TB of NAND flash storage in a standard 2.5-inch form factor, the P50960-001 offers exceptional storage density that enables organizations to maximize their rack space utilization. This high-capacity design reduces the physical footprint required for petabyte-scale storage deployments, resulting in lower power consumption, reduced cooling requirements, and simplified cable management compared to multiple lower-capacity drives.

Gen4 NVMe Performance

Leveraging the PCIe 4.0 interface, this SSD delivers significantly higher bandwidth compared to previous generation NVMe drives and traditional SAS/SATA SSDs. The Gen4 NVMe architecture provides double the per-lane bandwidth of PCIe 3.0, enabling sequential read speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 3,800 MB/s. This performance level ensures that storage never becomes the bottleneck in data-intensive applications.

Low Latency Operation

The P50960-001 achieves remarkably low latency figures, with read latency as low as 89 microseconds and write latency under 15 microseconds. This exceptional responsiveness is critical for latency-sensitive applications such as real-time analytics, financial trading systems, and high-frequency database operations where every microsecond counts.

High IOPS Performance

With random read performance of up to 1,000,000 IOPS and random write performance of up to 250,000 IOPS, this drive can handle the most demanding mixed workload environments. This makes it ideal for virtualization platforms, database servers, and other applications requiring high concurrent I/O operations.

Read-Intensive Workload Optimization

Specifically engineered for read-centric applications, the P50960-001 delivers exceptional performance in scenarios where read operations significantly outnumber writes. The drive's architecture, NAND flash management algorithms, and controller design are all optimized to maximize read efficiency while maintaining consistent write performance when needed.

Key Specifications

Form Factor and Interface

The drive utilizes the industry-standard 2.5-inch Small Form Factor (SFF) with a thickness of 15mm, ensuring compatibility with most enterprise servers and storage arrays. The U.3 interface provides universal compatibility with SAS, SATA, and NVMe backplanes, offering deployment flexibility across different infrastructure generations without requiring specialized hardware.

Endurance and Reliability

With an endurance rating of 12.3 Petabytes Written (PBW) over its warranty period, the P50960-001 offers substantial write tolerance despite its read-optimized design. This translates to approximately 0.45 drive writes per day (DWPD) over its 5-year warranty period, making it suitable for a wide range of enterprise workloads beyond purely read-intensive applications.

Advanced Error Correction

The drive incorporates sophisticated error correction technologies including LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) ECC and advanced RAID protection within the NAND architecture. These technologies work together to ensure data integrity and extend the usable life of the NAND flash cells, even as they approach their program/erase cycle limits.

Power Loss Protection

Enterprise-grade power loss protection circuits ensure that in-flight data is safely committed to non-volatile storage in the event of unexpected power failure. This prevents data corruption and maintains filesystem integrity, making the drive suitable for mission-critical applications where data consistency is paramount.

Environmental Specifications

The P50960-001 operates within a temperature range of 0°C to 70°C and can withstand operating altitudes up to 3,000 meters. With a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 2 million hours and an annualized failure rate (AFR) of 0.44%, this drive delivers the reliability expected in 24/7 enterprise environments.

Use Cases and Applications

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

The high sequential read performance and massive capacity of the P50960-001 make it ideal for data analytics platforms and business intelligence applications. These workloads typically involve scanning large datasets stored in data warehouses, where fast data access directly translates to quicker insights and decision-making capabilities.

Big Data Processing

For Hadoop, Spark, and other distributed computing frameworks, the drive's high IOPS and throughput enable faster data processing cycles. The ability to store large datasets on fewer drives simplifies cluster architecture while maintaining performance for both batch processing and real-time analytics workloads.

Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure

In virtualized environments, the P50960-001 delivers the consistent low latency required for high-density virtual machine deployments. The drive's performance characteristics make it suitable for hosting virtual machine images, supporting VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) implementations, and serving as shared storage for hyper-converged infrastructure solutions.

Database Servers

For database applications, particularly those with large read-working sets such as data warehouses, content management systems, and e-commerce platforms, the drive's high random read performance accelerates query processing and improves application responsiveness. The substantial capacity allows for larger databases to be stored entirely on flash storage rather than requiring tiering to slower storage media.

Content Delivery and Media Streaming

The combination of high capacity and exceptional read performance makes the P50960-001 well-suited for content delivery networks and media streaming applications. These use cases benefit from the drive's ability to serve large files to multiple concurrent users with minimal latency, improving the end-user experience for video streaming, software distribution, and gaming platforms.

Compatibility and Integration

HPE Server Compatibility

The P50960-001 is certified and optimized for use across HPE's server portfolio, including ProLiant DL, ML, and Apollo systems. The drive includes HPE-specific firmware that enables seamless integration with HPE management tools such as iLO (Integrated Lights-Out) and HPE OneView, providing comprehensive health monitoring, predictive analytics, and simplified maintenance.

Smart Array Controller Compatibility

When used with HPE Smart Array controllers, the drive benefits from advanced data protection features including hardware RAID support. This combination delivers both performance and data availability for business-critical applications requiring high uptime and data integrity.

Storage Array Integration

The drive is compatible with HPE storage arrays including the HPE Nimble Storage and HPE Alletra series. In these systems, the P50960-001 can be deployed as part of all-flash configurations that deliver both high performance and advanced data services such as snapshots, replication, and thin provisioning.

Performance Characteristics

Sequential Performance

The P50960-001 delivers exceptional sequential read performance of up to 7,000 MB/s, enabling rapid transfer of large files and datasets. Sequential write performance reaches up to 3,800 MB/s, ensuring that data ingestion and backup operations complete quickly without creating bottlenecks in data processing pipelines.

Random I/O Performance

With random read performance of up to 1,000,000 IOPS at queue depths typical of enterprise workloads, the drive excels in transactional applications and virtualized environments where multiple concurrent I/O operations are common. Random write performance of up to 250,000 IOPS ensures consistent performance during write-intensive operations such as database checkpoints and log writes.

Quality of Service (QoS)

The drive maintains consistent latency profiles even under heavy load, with 99.9% of I/O operations completing within predictable latency bounds. This quality of service is critical for multi-tenant environments and applications with service level agreements (SLAs) that specify performance requirements.

Mixed Workload Performance

While optimized for read-intensive workloads, the P50960-001 maintains strong performance in mixed read/write scenarios. In typical 70/30 read/write mixed workloads, the drive delivers consistent performance that meets the demands of general-purpose enterprise applications beyond purely read-centric use cases.

Data Security Features

Hardware Encryption

The P50960-001 includes hardware-based AES 256-bit encryption that protects data at rest without impacting performance. The encryption engine operates independently of the host CPU, ensuring that security does not come at the cost of reduced I/O performance or increased latency.

TCG Enterprise Compliance

The drive complies with TCG (Trusted Computing Group) Enterprise specifications, providing a standardized framework for security management across heterogeneous storage environments. This includes support for multiple security states, authentication mechanisms, and crypto-erase functionality for secure data sanitization.

Sanitization Methods

For secure decommissioning or repurposing, the drive supports multiple sanitization methods including crypto-erase (which renders encrypted data unrecoverable by deleting encryption keys) and block erase (which physically erases all user data from NAND flash). These methods provide flexible options for meeting data security and compliance requirements.

Environmental Considerations

Power Efficiency

Despite its high performance, the P50960-001 maintains excellent power efficiency with typical active power consumption of less than 15 watts. This efficiency translates to lower operating costs and reduced heat output compared to alternative storage technologies offering similar performance levels.

RoHS Compliance

The drive complies with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, limiting the use of specific hazardous materials in electronic products. This compliance demonstrates HPE's commitment to environmental responsibility throughout the product lifecycle.

Recyclability

At end-of-life, the P50960-001 can be returned through HPE's Technology Renewal Center, where components are either refurbished for reuse or responsibly recycled. This program helps organizations meet sustainability goals while ensuring secure disposal of retired IT assets.

Comparison with Alternative Technologies

SAS SSDs

Compared to SAS SSDs, the P50960-001 delivers significantly higher bandwidth and lower latency thanks to its NVMe architecture and PCIe 4.0 interface. While SAS SSDs remain viable for certain applications, NVMe drives like the P50960-001 provide superior performance for I/O-intensive workloads.

SATA SSDs

SATA SSDs are limited by the SATA interface to approximately 600 MB/s, making them unsuitable for performance-sensitive applications. The P50960-001 delivers more than 10x the sequential performance of SATA SSDs while offering similar capacity points in the same form factor.

PCIe Add-in-Card SSDs

While PCIe add-in-card SSDs offer similar performance characteristics, the P50960-001's 2.5-inch U.3 form factor provides greater deployment flexibility and higher storage density in standard server configurations. The hot-pluggable nature of the 2.5-inch form factor also simplifies maintenance and replacement compared to internal add-in-cards.