Diablo Technology promises a "transformational" storage and system memory solution with Memory Channel Storage (MCS) architecture-- a means of attaching flash storage to servers and storage arrays via memory channels.
In a few words, MCS uses the standard DDR-3 CPU interface and protocols to connect flash storage to the CPU instead of RAM. Thus it takes advantage of the fastest route to the CPU, and makes use of multiple parallel DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules) to avoid bottlenecks.
MCS components come in either 200 or 400GB capacities and fit into DIMM slots designed for 32GB of RAM.
The company claims MCS reduces latency by over -85% compared to PCI-E SSDs. It also allows the use of flash components as memory, creating an affordable means of arming servers with terabytes of memory.
However MCS implementation is not something for consumers or small enterprises as yet-- Diablo plans to sell software and a custom ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) to server and storage platform makers (such as Diablo customer and recent SanDisk acquisition SMART Storage Systems) who in turn will integrate the technology in their solutions.
