Thunderstorm is a PCIe flash storage card that provides: 1) Fast parallel access to flash memory for up to 80 Gbps throughput and 10x faster boot times compared to SAS. 2) Compatibility without requiring driver software and support for open standards and virtualization. 3) An economical solution without vendor lock-in and with field serviceable flash modules.

1. `
Fast
Parallel access to flash memory
Highest throughput (up to 80 Gbps)
Boots at least 10x faster
I/O Switch Thunderstorm connects flash
memory directly to the PCI-Express (PCIe) bus
in parallel, bypassing conventional disk
controllers.
Thunderstorm increases solid state drive (SSD)
throughput up to 667% compared to 12 Gbps
Serial Attached SCSI v2 (SAS-2).
Compatible
No driver software
Support for open standards
Hypervisor and Big Data ready
I/O Switch Thunderstorm requires no driver
software. Legacy proprietary package products are
not bootable and require driver software to make
storage available to server operating systems.
Thunderstorm maximizes interoperability by
providing standard block device access to flash
memory. Thunderstorm can boot hypervisors and
supports PCIe pass-through in virtual machines
(delivering full PCIe SSD performance).
Thunderstorm has been tested or deployed with
hundreds of applications, virtualization and cloud
platforms, as well as big data solutions such as
Hadoop, Mongo DB and Cassandra.
Economical
No vendor lock-in
Field serviceable flash modules
Expandable and upgradeable
I/O Switch Thunderstorm is the most cost
effective solution. By removing the need for
special software, Thunderstorm eliminates
licensing and maintenance costs compared to
other products.
Investing in SSDs instead of rotating disks
boosts server performance and reduces power
consumption. However, SSDs are not
maintenance free. Thunderstorm field
serviceable modules make maintenance and
upgrades easy.
Thunderstorm is future proof because SSD
modules can be upgraded. The same
Thunderstorm cards can deliver higher
performance and capacity as flash memory
technology continues to improve.
Product Highlights
True parallel access to
flash memory
Up to 667% faster than
12 Gbps SAS-2
Up to 80 Gbps (8 GB/s)
throughput per card
Boot any OS or hypervisor
at least 10x faster
Modular, expandable and
upgradeable
Field serviceable flash
modules
No driver software
No vendor lock-in
Virtualization
Thunderstorm works with all
major hypervisors both as a
boot device and via PCIe pass-
through with virtual machines.
Big Data
Thunderstorm is a proven
solution for Hadoop, HBase,
Mongo DB and Cassandra, as
well as for major Big Data
Analytics platforms.
Open Compute Ready
Designed for efficient scalable
computing, Thunderstorm
reduces operational complexity
while maximizing compliance
with industry standards to
ensure interoperability.
I/O Switch Thunderstorm – Ultimate I/O Acceleration
I/O Switch Technologies, Inc.
1669 Hollenbeck Ave 2-128
Sunnyvale, California 94087
United States
+1 (408) 215-6943 phone
+1 (408) 663-6646 fax
info@io-switch.com
http://www.io-switch.com/
Servers boot at least 10x faster using Thunderstorm, which is a native PCIe solution. PCIe provides a
universal interface for large-scale flash memory deployment in today’s servers.
PCIe Gen 3 is more than 13x faster than SAS-2. The bandwidth of the SAS-2 bus is limited to a
maximum of 12 Gbps (1.2 GB/s) but PCIe Gen 3 provides up to 160 Gbps (16 GB/s).
One Thunderstorm card with 4 parallel SSDs can deliver up to 80 Gbps (8 GB/s). Two Thunderstorm
cards with a total of 8 parallel SSDs can saturate the PCIe bus.

2. If you are using legacy PCIe SSD cards from the usual
suspects, you are the victim of wasted CPU cycles and
RAM and of unnecessary operational complexity.
I/O Switch is offering special pricing and free technical
consulting to help you switch to faster and more
economical standards-based server data access
acceleration.
To take advantage of this offer, call I/O Switch today at +1
(408) 215-6943 or email wanted@io-switch.com.
I/O S witch Solutions
I/O Switch Thunderstorm is
designed to meet the
demanding requirements of
cloud service providers using
big data solutions, virtualization
and cloud storage.
Why Thunderstorm?
Driven by Moore’s Law,
virtualization, cloud computing
and big data, the need for
server data access
acceleration is growing rapidly.
As the number of processor
cores continues to grow
exponentially, storage
input/output (I/O) bottlenecks
remain the critical pain point for
big data, virtualization and
cloud platforms.
About I/O S witch
I/O Switch is a developer of
data center technologies for
parallel storage access. The
company is focused on storage
solutions that scale horizontally
without bottlenecks to meet the
needs of cloud service
providers. I/O Switch is
committed to reducing
operational complexity while
maximizing standards
compliance and
interoperability.
Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)
Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) API
PCI-Express (PCIe) Gen 3
SSD Enhanced Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.)
SSD Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
SSD TRIM support
Turn in Legacy SSD Cards!
Standards Compliance
512 GB 1 TB 2 TB
NAND Type Multi Level Cell Multi Level Cell Multi Level Cell
Read Bandwidth MB/s (1MB) up to 2,960 2,960 2,960
Write Bandwidth MB/s (1MB) up to 1,320 1,320 1,320
Random Read IOPS (512 bytes) up to 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,360,000
Random Write IOPS (512 bytes) up to 2,400,000 2,400,000 2,400,000
Random Read IOPS (4K) QD32 up to 380,000 380,000 420,000
Random Write IOPS (4K) QD32 up to 300,000 300,000 300,000
Read Access Latency 120 µs 120 µs 120 µs
Write Access Latency 49 µs 49 µs 49 µs
TBW (typical) 591 1,182 2,360
Max Weight (oz) 8.8 8.8 8.8
Form Factor Full-height, half-length
Technical Services
Solution design
Installation and configuration
Application analysis and tuning
Maintenance and upgrade
Technical support
I/O Switch Technologies, Inc.
1669 Hollenbeck Ave 2-128
Sunnyvale, California 94087
United States
+1 (408) 215-6943 phone
+1 (408) 663-6646 fax
info@io-switch.com
http://www.io-switch.com/
I/O Switch Technologies, Inc.
1669 Hollenbeck Ave 2-128
Sunnyvale, California 94087
United States
+1 (408) 215-6943 phone
+1 (408) 663-6646 fax
info@io-switch.com
http://www.io-switch.com/
Thunderstorm Options
Certifications
Conformité Européenne (CE)
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Component Recognition UL60950-1
Taiwan Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) Electromagnetic
Compatibility (EMC) CNS 13438 Class B
Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)
Environmental Specifications
Min Max
Ambient Temperature (controlled environment) Operational 0°C 70°C
Non-operational -40°C 85°C
Humidity % (measured without condensing) Operational 5% 95%
Non-operational 5% 95%
Power Requirements 3.3V (+/- 5%) 3.135V 3.465V
Air Flow Passive Cooling n/a n/a