The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the national center of astronomical research in Japan, has begun its continuous, methodical celestial observations as early as in the latter part of the Edo era (1603-1868). In the beginning, the main task of the astronomical observatory was to observe the stars to determine longitude and latitude, calculate the calendar, and choose the correct time. In 1988, the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory was reorganized into the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, together with the Latitude Observatory in Mizusawa and others. For a time, the observatory was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Sciences, and Technology (MEXT), aiming to promote the development of astronomy, astrophysics, and the related fields of science. Today, NAOJ has the most advanced observing facilities in the world and contributes to capturing images of the Sgr A* black hole through collaboration with other members of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

Every day, the telescopes of NAOJ can capture many astronomical pictures, which have to be processed by special software before being saved for further research due to their large capacity and quantity. Hence, the storage device's performance is critical, for it can directly affect image processing and storage efficiency. After strenuous searching and comparing, NAOJ finally chose AccelStor's NeoSapphire P710 AFA. Taking into account its high-speed and efficient image IO requests, the technical team at AccelStor designed an all-flash solution with powerful performance for NAOJ. Powered by AccelStor's patented built-in flash management algorithm, NeoSapphire P710 can evenly distribute data to each SSD in the array. Instead of being cached for acceleration, data is directly written into the disk, simplifying the storage system while improving the service efficiency of business systems. Even in the most stringent 4KB random write application scenario, each node sustains an average of over 700K IOPS per second and provides over 1100K IOPS for 4KB random writes.

•  5x-8x Efficiency Rise of Image Processing

With the excellent image I/O performance, Acceltor's AFA helps NAOJ realize a 5x-8x efficiency rise in image processing.

•  Sustained High Performance, Ideal for Diverse Application Scenarios

With sustained and stable high performance, Acceltor's AFA brought new future possibilities to the medium and long-term planning of the NAOJ IT system. Soon after, NAOJ placed another order, and its IT director said that they would apply Acceltor's AFA in more application scenarios in a more systematic way.