NVM Express Work Group Incorporates

WAKEFIELD, Mass., March 25, 2014 – The NVM Express Work Group, developer of the NVM Express specification for accessing solid-state disks (SSDs) on a PCI Express (PCIe) bus, today announced its incorporation as the NVM Express Organization. The work group's transition to an incorporated industry association indicates the member companies' commitment to continue delivering technology and high-quality specifications that meet the needs of a rapidly changing storage market.

"Incorporation as an organization shows the maturation of NVM Express, while still providing the flexibility required to deliver storage solutions for this and the next generation of PCIe-based storage solutions," said Scott Tracy, vice president, Storage Software at Oracle. "From its inception, the NVM Express Work Group has been committed to fostering quality and interoperability in products that will carry the storage industry into the next decade. We look forward to continuing this charter as an incorporated organization."

NVM Express is a standardized register interface, command and feature set for PCIe-based storage solutions, such as Solid-State Drives (SSDs) architected specifically for non-volatile memory. NVM Express is optimized for high performance and low latency, scaling from client to enterprise segments. The NVM Express Organization is currently developing revision 1.2 of the base specification, which adds new capabilities. In addition, the organization is also standardizing in-band and out-of-band management of PCI Express SSDs (e.g., LEDs, thermal control, etc.). These specifications are targeted for release in the second half of 2014.

"Our transformation to an incorporated NVM Express Organization shows our members' dedication to the future of this technology," said Ed Doller, vice president and chief memory systems architect for Micron's storage business segment. "The new organizational structure is long-term, self-sustaining and it empowers the NVM Express community to build robust specifications for PCIe SSDs and future generations of storage. The NVM Express Organization will continue to maintain and develop specifications, and promote and market the benefits of NVM Express."

The new organization will continue to be led by the current Promoters: Cisco Systems, Inc.; Dell, Inc.; EMC Corp.; HGST Inc., a Western Digital Co.; Intel Corp.; LSI Corp.; Micron Technology, Inc.; NetApp, Inc.; Oracle; PMC-Sierra, Inc.; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; SanDisk Corp. and Seagate Technology, Inc. The NVM Express Organization incorporated in Delaware and has applied for non-profit status. Information on NVM Express is available at www.nvmexpress.org.

About NVM Express

NVM Express is an optimized, high performance, scalable host controller interface with a streamlined register interface and command set designed for enterprise and client systems that use PCI Express storage solutions. NVM Express reduces latency, providing faster performance, with support for security and end-to-end data protection. Version 1.0 of the specification was released in March 2011, and Version 1.1 was published in October 2012.

About the NVM Express Organization

The NVM Express Organization was formed as the NVM Express Work Group to define a new storage interface protocol, NVM Express, to enable the full performance potential provided by non-volatile memory storage technology as embodied in PCI Express solid state drives, in a standards-based approach to enable broad ecosystem adoption.

Organizations interested in participating in the development and promotion of NVM Express, are invited to become Contributors to the new NVM Express Organization. Additional information is at www.nvmexpress.org.