- Compression-based SSD takes PCIe Gen5 performance beyond conventional flash limits
- Extreme benchmark results depend on workloads that compress cleanly and predictably
- Roealsen6 R6101C trades fixed capacity assumptions for speed and efficiency
DapuStor is a Chinese startup that develops and manufactures very large and very fast enterprise-grade SSDs.
These include the 61.44TB DapuStor J5060 and the 7.68TB Roealsen6 R6101. The company’s latest drive is the 7.68 TB Roealsen6 R6101C SDD, which TweakTown reviewed and excited.
Testing showed the drive delivers record-breaking sequential and mixed workload performance when compression is enabled, and TweakTown wrote: “This is by far the fastest speed we’ve found on any PCIe Gen5 x4 SSD.”
Maximum sequential performance and mixed workload
Part of DapuStor’s Roealsen6 series, the new SSD is built around the company’s in-house DP800 controller and firmware. It uses a PCIe 5.0 interface and 3D eTLC NAND flash, while supporting the NVMe 2.0 protocol.
Unlike standard SSDs, the R6101C includes an application processor combined with a transparent hardware compression engine.
This allows data to be compressed before being written to flash memory, reducing the amount of physical storage accessed.
Performance and usable capacity depend, of course, on how compressible the data is. Users may prefer raw speed or effective capacity, although both are directly related to workload characteristics.
Under ideal conditions, the compression system can reach a ratio of up to 4:1. This allows a 7.68 TB drive to present several times its physical capacity to the host.
This echoes long-standing practices in tape storage, where LTO media lists native and compressed capabilities.
With a compression ratio of 2:1, TweakTown measured up to 14,200 MB/s sequential write and 15,050 MB/s sequential read. Both figures exceeded factory specifications.
Random writing tests also set records. The results reached around 1.27 million IOPS in 4K workloads with the same compression level.
The SSD consumes approximately 18W under load and uses a U.2 form factor. It has a 1 DWPD rating and is compatible with common enterprise platforms.
Compression-based SSDs aren’t new, of course, as ScaleFlux products are already on the market, but the new Roealsen6 adds another option for buyers.
TweakTown he rated it 99/100, although he noted that real-world results will depend on achieving compression levels that won’t apply to all data types.
Senior Hardware Editor Jon Coulter concluded: “DapuStor’s 7.68TB Roealsen6 R6101C has delivered the highest sequential performance and mixed workload performance we’ve ever found in any flash-based SSD.”
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