Intel's new 'ruler' SSD form factor enables up to 1PB of storage

Enterprise hardware products aren't the sexiest things around. Most of the time you'll struggle to stay awake reading the announcement. But not this time. Intel's newly unveiled "ruler" form factor for server SSDs is quite intriguing for a change.

Intel has moved away from the traditional design that we have come to expect in consumer and enterprise SSDs to a "long, skinny" shape that enables it to push the envelope in terms of storage capacity.

Upcoming SSDs, which use its 3D NAND technology, will enable enterprise users to fit up to 1PB of storage in a 1U server. This form factor will also be used for Optane SSDs, Intel says, with availability slated for the "near future."

Techgage says that, in order to offer that kind of capacity using 10TB HDDs, an enterprise would need a "fully loaded, 100-bay 4U server."

The ruler form factor offers a couple of other notable benefits. Intel says that it offers "the most storage capacity for a server, with the lowest required cooling and power needs."

There is not a whole lot of other information available at this stage, but we can expect Intel to reveal more in the coming period about the specs that the new "ruler" SSDs models can have.

This is not Intel's only SSD-related announcement. The company also unveiled a dual-port portfolio comprised of Optane and 3D NAND drives and an update to the SATA family of drives for data centers that's designed to replace existing HDDs.