The Mercier Add-In-Card (AIC) To Be Demonstrated At The 2023 Flash Memory Summit
Unigen has announced the release of the Mercier Storage Accelerator AIC. The Inline Storage Accelerator supports two EDSFF (Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor) SSDs (Solid State Drives) on a single HHHL (Half-Height, Half-Length) AIC. Mercier is intended as an evaluation platform for businesses seeking enhanced system Quality-of-Service (QoS), comprehensive VM (Virtual Machine) infrastructure support and top-tier security, all while adding less than 5 microseconds of latency. Accompanied by the Mercier Management Graphical User Interface (MMG) for simplifying the VM and Security setup, Unigen’s Mercier provides a total solution for enterprise applications.
“Mercier represents one of the new directions for Unigen’s OEM business. We have been expanding our portfolio into new segments beyond our memory and storage products. The Mercier solution provides the next level of hardware service for our Enterprise Customers”, said Unigen Founder & CEO Paul Heng. “It’s important to look to what our clients need in the future and provide the security and HW excellence to increase the flexibility of the new data center platforms.”
“CNEX is proud to be working with Unigen on the Mercier Project which is based upon our Raven Storage Accelerator.” Said CEO of CNEX, Alan Armstrong. “By providing a HHHL add-in-card for our mutual clients, OEM’s and Data Centers can test our HW VM and Security features in their own production servers.”
“AIC has been chosen by Unigen to be part of the launch of the Mercier Storage Accelerator AIC due to our rock-solid server designs as well as our reputation as an innovator of new technologies.” said CT Sun, CTO and VP of Engineering at AIC. “Our Storage Server design perfectly matched the needs of Unigen, and we are delighted to demonstrate this new technology at FMS.”
“The Micron 7450 NVMe SSD consistently delivers latencies below 2 milliseconds which provides best-in-class QoS for scale-out data center workloads,” said George Khoury, senior director of Product Management and Planning in Micron’s Storage Business Unit. “Our dense 7.68TB E1.S SSD and leading security features supply the storage density and security required by innovative products like the Mercier Storage Accelerator AIC.”
The Mercier Storage Accelerator AIC provides consistent QoS Performance for VMs while reducing CPU overhead. Equipped with an advanced dedicated storage processor, Mercier achieves an impressive 5 micro-second latency, outperforming traditional CPU overhead, which can take hundreds of micro-seconds longer to accomplish the same tasks. Hardware-based rate limiting per VM improves QoS and enables performance metering. This all leads to less CPU overhead which allows for higher total system performance.
The Mercier features end-to-end data protection through its Storage Processor. It also has the latest security features with TCG SED/Opal and FIPS 140-3. This provides the type of confidence that reduces the need for more expensive SSDs with FIPS140-3 compliance which will be mandated for federal government systems and is also a required feature in the Open Compute specification.
The Mercier is available in a PCIe HHHL AIC format, with the flexibility to be redesigned to fit specific customer requirements, such as an interposer inside an enclosure, additional controllers on-board to connect to more SSDs, or a board with cables connecting to a backplane.
About Unigen
Unigen, founded in 1991, is an established global leader in the design and manufacture of original and custom SSD, DRAM, NVDIMM modules and Enterprise IO solutions. Headquartered in Newark, California, the company operates state of the art manufacturing facilities (ISO-9001/14001/13485 and IATF 16949) in the Silicon Valley Bay Area of California and near Hanoi Vietnam, along with 5 additional engineering and support facilities located around the globe. Unigen markets its products to both enterprise and client OEMs worldwide focused on embedded, industrial, networking, server, telecommunications, imaging, automotive and medical device industries. Unigen also offers best in class electronics manufacturing services (EMS), including new product introduction and volume production, supply chain management, assembly & test, TaaS (Test-as-a-Service) and post-sales support. Learn more about Unigen’s products and services at unigen.com.
