Violin Memory
Encyclopedia
Violin Memory is a private American company based in Mountain View, California
, that designs and manufactures enterprise flash memory
arrays that combine Toshiba NAND flash, DRAM
, distributed processing, and software to create solutions like Network-attached storage
(NAS), local clusters
, and QFabric data centers from Juniper Networks
.
The company was founded in 2005 by Jon Bennett and Donpaul Stephens who developed and patented the switched memory technology used in the Violin products.
, and Bell Labs
before he became the General Manager
at Vitesse Semiconductor. He founded Xebeo in 2000 and sold it to UT Starcom. In 2005 he identified the currently available storage and memory systems for high-performance computing were failing to meet the market requirements. This resulted in his co-founding of Violin Memory that same year.
Jon Bennett held various senior level architect and engineering positions at Fore Systems
, BBN Technologies, Xylan
, RiverDelta Networks, and Motorola
before joining Donpaul in co-founding Violin where he invented the Violin Switched Memory (VXM) technology.
Series A financing
valued over $10 million was raised in 2010. Two more rounds of financing
in 2011 raised an additional $75 million. The key corporate investors include Juniper Networks
and Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC). The key private equity firm
s include North Bridge Venture Partners and Rembrandt Venture Partners.
(SSD). It initially used DRAM and in November 2008 is was available with a combination of DRAM and single-level cell (SLC) flash memory (to help reduce the cost per gigabyte). It has three interface options: PCIe, Fibre Channel
, and Ethernet
. The faster DRAM version supports up to 504 GB of memory and was specified to sequentially read up to 1.7 GB/s and write up to 1.0 GB/s with small random transfer IOPS
over 3 million. The SLC version supports up to 4 TB of memory with 300,000 read IOPS and 200,000 write IOPS. Just over 3 years later in September 2010, the Violin 3140 was announced. It is a 3U rack-mount SSD using multi-level cell (MLC).
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
, that designs and manufactures enterprise flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
arrays that combine Toshiba NAND flash, DRAM
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
, distributed processing, and software to create solutions like Network-attached storage
Network-attached storage
Network-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...
(NAS), local clusters
Clustered file system
A clustered file system is a file system which is shared by being simultaneously mounted on multiple servers. There are several approaches to clustering, most of which do not employ a clustered file system...
, and QFabric data centers from Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks is an information technology and computer networking products multinational company, founded in 1996. It is head quartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. The company designs and sells high-performance Internet Protocol network products and services...
.
The company was founded in 2005 by Jon Bennett and Donpaul Stephens who developed and patented the switched memory technology used in the Violin products.
History and financing
Donpaul Stephens held various engineering positions at Fore Systems, Ascend CommunicationsAscend Communications
Ascend Communications was an Alameda, California-based manufacturer of communications equipment that was later purchased by Lucent Technologies in 1999....
, and Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
before he became the General Manager
General manager
General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...
at Vitesse Semiconductor. He founded Xebeo in 2000 and sold it to UT Starcom. In 2005 he identified the currently available storage and memory systems for high-performance computing were failing to meet the market requirements. This resulted in his co-founding of Violin Memory that same year.
Jon Bennett held various senior level architect and engineering positions at Fore Systems
FORE Systems
FORE Systems was a computer network switching equipment company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company is now part of Ericsson.-History:...
, BBN Technologies, Xylan
Xylan
Xylan is a generic term used to describe a wide variety of highly complex polysaccharides that are found in plant cell walls and some algae. Xylans are polysaccharides made from units of xylose ....
, RiverDelta Networks, and Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
before joining Donpaul in co-founding Violin where he invented the Violin Switched Memory (VXM) technology.
Series A financing
Venture round
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the primary stimuli for the development of new companies...
valued over $10 million was raised in 2010. Two more rounds of financing
Venture round
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the primary stimuli for the development of new companies...
in 2011 raised an additional $75 million. The key corporate investors include Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks is an information technology and computer networking products multinational company, founded in 1996. It is head quartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. The company designs and sells high-performance Internet Protocol network products and services...
and Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC). The key private equity firm
Private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment manager that makes investments in the private equity of operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital...
s include North Bridge Venture Partners and Rembrandt Venture Partners.
Products
In August 2007, Violin launched the Violin 1010 Memory Appliance, noted as the fastest 2U rack-mount solid-state driveSolid-state drive
A solid-state drive , sometimes called a solid-state disk or electronic disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner of a traditional block i/o hard disk drive...
(SSD). It initially used DRAM and in November 2008 is was available with a combination of DRAM and single-level cell (SLC) flash memory (to help reduce the cost per gigabyte). It has three interface options: PCIe, Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...
, and Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
. The faster DRAM version supports up to 504 GB of memory and was specified to sequentially read up to 1.7 GB/s and write up to 1.0 GB/s with small random transfer IOPS
IOPS
IOPS is a common performance measurement used to benchmark computer storage devices like hard disk drives , solid state drives , and storage area networks...
over 3 million. The SLC version supports up to 4 TB of memory with 300,000 read IOPS and 200,000 write IOPS. Just over 3 years later in September 2010, the Violin 3140 was announced. It is a 3U rack-mount SSD using multi-level cell (MLC).