IBM Selects SanDisk

MILPITAS, Calif. -- SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today announced that IBM has selected SanDisk to provide a flash-based storage solution for recently-released blade servers. SanDisk’s SATA 5000 2.5-inch solid state drive (SSD) will be offered for data storage within the IBM BladeCenter® HS21 XM, featuring the latest in processing and power-management performance.

Blade computers – which integrate servers, storage, networking and applications into one system – offer a design point that helps reduce the proliferation of server “farms,” large IT staffs to manage them and wasted energy resources. IBM HS21 XM blades are packed with up to 32 gigabytes1 (GB) of random-access memory and up to eight I/O ports, helping to boost memory and processing performance while reducing energy costs as compared to traditional rack systems.

According to IDC, blade servers are the fastest growing sector of the overall server market, with revenues projected to surpass $11 billion by 20102.

IBM selected SanDisk’s SSD product based on its high levels of reliability and performance and low power consumption. Using the SSD, power savings with IBM BladeCenter HS21 XM can be up to 18 watts per blade, 252 watts per chassis and 1,512 watts per server rack3, which can help reduce energy costs.

SanDisk Corp.