SANTA CLARA, USA: Sun Microsystems introduced a flash-based storage array, Sun Storage F5100 flash array, that may be the highest-performing solid-state drive array to date, at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

The first enterprise server and storage company to bring fully-integrated Flash-based storage with flash-optimized software to the enterprise, Sun's new flash array is designed to accelerate Oracle and MySQL(TM) database workloads and optimise storage architectures for higher performance at lower cost.

The Sun F5100 features up to two terabytes of solid-state flash capacity and an unprecedented 1.6 million read and 1.2 million write IOPS performance in a single rack unit (1.75 inches) - yet consumes just 300 watts.

This storage array delivers 1.6 million IOPS of performance, which is comparable to 3,000 enterprise hard disk drives that span over 14 data centre racks and consume more than ten times the energy (40,000 watts).

Sun has achieved world-record performance of 12.8 gigabyte-per-second of I/O bandwidth from one Sun F5100 array. Each Sun F5100 array is one rack-unit in height and can be zoned and connected to up to 16 separate hosts so that a single F5100 can be used by more than one application environment.

Included unified management and monitoring software provides a single storage management window across a wide range of operating systems.

John Fowler, executive vice-president, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems, said: "Today's announcements build on Sun's strategy to lead a new storage hierarchy driven by flash technology to accelerate I/O throughput. No other vendor today is shipping fully-integrated flash-based hardware and software that leverages a world-class operating system to deliver breakthrough performance and value to our customers."