Western Digital’s New Powerhouse: A Deep Dive into the Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD
For those of you running demanding hyperscale datacenters or enterprise operations, storage performance is paramount. Western Digital’s recently released Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD promised a leap forward,but the company initially kept one key detail under wraps: the controller. Now, a recent teardown reveals the brains behind the operation – and it’s not an in-house design.
Instead, Western Digital is leveraging the expertise of Fadu, a South Korean firm specializing in enterprise-grade SSD solutions sence 2015.Let’s break down what this means for your storage infrastructure.
Unveiling the Fadu FC5161 Controller
The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD (link to WD product page) is built around Fadu’s FC5161 NVMe 2.0 controller. This isn’t just any controller; it’s packed with features geared towards the most demanding workloads. Here’s a closer look:
16 NAND Channels: Supports a blazing-fast ONFi 5.0 2400 MT/s interface.
Enterprise-Grade Capabilities: Includes OCP Cloud Spec 2.0, SR-IOV, and up to 512 namespaces for Zoned namespaces (ZNS) support.
Advanced Features: Offers flexible data placement, NVMe-MI 1.2, robust security, detailed telemetry, and crucial power loss protection.
these capabilities are notably absent in many off-the-shelf controllers – and were previously unavailable in western Digital’s own designs. As Storage Review’s detailed analysis confirms (link to Storage Review article), this collaboration brings meaningful advantages.
Performance That Matters
The Ultrastar DC SN861 doesn’t just have impressive specs; it delivers on them. You can expect:
Sequential Read Speeds: Up to 13.7 GB/s.
sequential Write Speeds: Up to 7.5 GB/s.
Random Read IOPS (4K): Up to 3.3 million.
Random Write IOPS (4K): Up to 0.8 million.
These drives are available in capacities ranging from 1.6 TB to 7.68 TB, with endurance ratings of one to three drive writes per day (DWPD) over five years. Furthermore, you can choose between U.2 and E1.S form factors.
Tailored for Your Needs: U.2 vs. E1.S
Western Digital understands that not all enterprise workloads are created equal. Therefore, they’ve optimized each form factor:
E1.S: Designed for cloud environments, supporting FDP and performance enhancements.
U.2: Geared towards high-performance enterprise tasks and emerging applications like artificial intelligence.
this targeted approach ensures you get the best possible performance for your* specific use case.
Efficiency and Scalability: The Power of every Watt
Beyond raw performance, the Ultrastar DC SN861 boasts an impressively low idle power consumption of just 5W. While 1W less than its predecessor, the SN840, may seem small, it adds up considerably when you consider the scale of hyperscale deployments. For large datacenters, every watt saved translates directly into lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
Availability and What to Expect
The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs are currently available to select customers, including major players like Meta. General availability is expanding. while pricing remains undisclosed, it will vary based on volume and configuration.
Ultimately, the Ultrastar DC SN861 represents a compelling combination