Western Digital’s Enterprise SSDs Now Certified for NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 System, Empowering AI in Compute-Intensive Settings

Western Digital Corp. has announced that its PCIe Gen5 DC SN861 E1.S enterprise-class NVMe SSDs have received certification to support the nVidia GB200 NVL72 rack-scale system. As the demand for AI, ML, and large language models continues to grow, companies are faced with the challenge of managing increasing data generation and consumption while quickly deriving value from this data. Western Digital’s enterprise SSD, compatible with the GB200 NVL72 system, addresses the needs of the AI market by providing high-speed accelerated computing combined with low Latency for compute-intensive AI environments.

The NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 system offers a reference architecture that allows manufacturers to build over 100 system design configurations while maintaining consistency in design and performance. By certifying the DC SN861 SSD to support this system, Western Digital eliminates the guesswork in the design process and enables faster time to market for accelerated computing applications.

Rob Soderbery, EVP and GM of Flash Business at Western Digital, highlights the importance of storage in the AI technology stack, stating that the DC SN861 SSD provides customers with a high-performance storage solution for AI workloads. Mark Taylor, Sr. Data Center Product Manager at NVIDIA, emphasizes the need for storage systems with sufficient capacity and performance to support the computational loads and speeds required for large AI models.

In June, Western Digital introduced the AI Data Cycle framework, which helps customers plan and develop storage infrastructures optimized for AI workloads at scale. The DC SN861 SSD is designed to support various stages of the AI data cycle, including AI model training, interface & prompting, and AI inference engine stages. With capacities up to 16TB, the SSD offers industry-leading random read performance, power efficiency, and ultra-low latency for LLM training, inferencing, and AI service deployment. The increased PCIe Gen5 bandwidth addresses the growing demands of the AI market for high-speed accelerated computing with low latency.

Overall, Western Digital’s DC SN861 E1.S enterprise SSD provides a comprehensive storage solution for AI workloads, offering a rich feature set, including NVMe 2.0 and OCP 2.0 support, 1 and 3 DWPD, and a 5-year limited warranty.

Background Information

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About nVidia: NVIDIA has firmly established itself as a leader in the realm of client computing, continuously pushing the boundaries of innovation in graphics and AI technologies. With a deep commitment to enhancing user experiences, NVIDIA's client computing business focuses on delivering cutting-edge solutions that power everything from gaming and creative workloads to enterprise applications. Renowned for its GeForce graphics cards, the company has redefined high-performance gaming, setting industry standards for realistic visuals, fluid frame rates, and immersive experiences. Complementing its gaming prowess, NVIDIA's Quadro and NVIDIA RTX graphics cards cater to professionals in design, content creation, and scientific fields, enabling real-time ray tracing and AI-driven workflows that elevate productivity and creativity to unprecedented heights. By seamlessly integrating graphics, AI, and software, NVIDIA continues to shape the landscape of client computing, fostering innovation and immersive interactions in a rapidly evolving digital world.

  

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About Western Digital: Western Digital, established in 1970, is a prominent data storage solutions provider known for its wide range of hard drives and solid-state drives. Catering to various applications, from personal computers to enterprise storage systems, Western Digital emphasizes data management and security. With a reputation for reliability and innovative solutions, the company has been pivotal in shaping the storage industry. Their products are trusted by individuals, businesses, and data centers worldwide

  

Technology Explained

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Latency: Technology latency is the time it takes for a computer system to respond to a request. It is an important factor in the performance of computer systems, as it affects the speed and efficiency of data processing. In the computer industry, latency is a major factor in the performance of computer networks, storage systems, and other computer systems. Low latency is essential for applications that require fast response times, such as online gaming, streaming media, and real-time data processing. High latency can cause delays in data processing, resulting in slow response times and poor performance. To reduce latency, computer systems use various techniques such as caching, load balancing, and parallel processing. By reducing latency, computer systems can provide faster response times and improved performance.

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LLM: A Large Language Model (LLM) is a highly advanced artificial intelligence system, often based on complex architectures like GPT-3.5, designed to comprehend and produce human-like text on a massive scale. LLMs possess exceptional capabilities in various natural language understanding and generation tasks, including answering questions, generating creative content, and delivering context-aware responses to textual inputs. These models undergo extensive training on vast datasets to grasp the nuances of language, making them invaluable tools for applications like chatbots, content generation, and language translation.

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NVMe: Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a newly developed technology that has been gaining traction in the computer industry. This technology is a standard interface which allows for high-speed storage and retrieval of data from solid state drives (SSDs). NVMe is designed to increase the speed of data transfers in storage systems by enabling a direct connection to PCI Express (PCIe) bus, resulting in significantly faster access times compared to traditional interface protocols such SSDs. NVMe is particularly useful for applications that require lightning-fast access to large amounts of high-value data. NVMe-based SSDs are being widely adopted in the computer industry and are being employed to power data centers, high-end workstations, and gaming machines to support lightning-fast data processing and retrieval, which unlocks possibilities for machine learning, real-time analytics, edge computing, and other cutting-edge applications. NVMe is proving to be an invaluable tool in the field of computing, offering immense

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PCIe: PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for connecting components such as graphics cards, sound cards, and network cards to a motherboard. It is the most widely used interface in the computer industry today, and is used in both desktop and laptop computers. PCIe is capable of providing up to 16 times the bandwidth of the older PCI standard, allowing for faster data transfer speeds and improved performance. It is also used in a variety of other applications, such as storage, networking, and communications. PCIe is an essential component of modern computing, and its applications are only expected to grow in the future.

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PCIe Gen5: PCIe Gen5, or PCI Express Generation 5, is the latest technology advancement in the computer industry. It is the first major upgrade to the current PCIe standard. Compared to PCIe Gen3, PCIe Gen5 increases bandwidth throughput that is almost double, resulting in faster data transfer speeds. This means that it can provide higher data transfer rates for output devices like graphics cards, network cards, RAID controllers, and sound cards. It also supports faster NVMe storage devices, allowing for a smoother gaming experience. PCIe Gen5 can also support multiple concurrent data streams and is backward compatible with older PCIe slots. In the computer industry, PCIe Gen5 allows for faster data transfer, improved graphics quality, faster memory access, and higher GPU performance, making the technology ideal for gaming and server builds.

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SSD: A Solid State Drive (SSD) is a modern data storage device that employs flash memory technology to store data electronically. Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), SSDs have no moving parts, resulting in significantly faster read and write speeds. This leads to quicker boot times, faster application loading, and smoother overall system performance. SSDs are known for their durability, shock resistance, and energy efficiency, making them ideal for laptops, ultrabooks, and other portable devices. They come in various form factors, including 2.5-inch, M.2, and PCIe cards, and are favored for their reliability, quiet operation, and reduced heat generation