However, saying that, the whitepaper explains that its using the ASIC.
Quote:
Thin de-duplication with HP 3PAR StoreServ ASIC
HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage employs purpose-built HP 3PAR ASIC at the heart of each controller node that feature
efficient, silicon-based mechanisms to drive inline deduplication. This implementation relies on the 3PAR ASIC to generate
and assign hash signatures to each unique incoming write request. HP 3PAR Express Indexing, a mechanism that
accelerates table lookups, is used for ultra-fast detection of duplicate write requests in order to prevent duplicate data
from being written.
When a new I/O request comes in, HP 3PAR Express Indexing performs instant metadata lookups in order to compare the
signatures of the incoming request to signatures of data already stored in the array. When a match is found, 3PAR
Express Indexing flags the duplicate request and prevents it from being written to the back end. Instead, a pointer is
added to the metadata table to reference the existing data blocks. To prevent any hash collision, HP 3PAR Thin
Deduplication software relies on the controller node ASICs to perform bit-to-bit comparison before any new write update
is marked as a duplicate.
With HP 3PAR Thin Deduplication software, the CPU-intensive jobs of calculating hash signatures for incoming data and
verifying reads are offloaded to the ASICs, freeing up processor cycles to deliver advanced data services and service I/O
requests. This hardware-assisted approach enables inline deduplication that carries multiple benefits, including increased
capacity efficiency, flash performance protection, and flash media lifespan extension.