|
| Hyperstone
Launches CF SSD Controller |
Editor:- February
19, 2009 - Hyperstone
launched a controller
chip for oems designing industrial grade CF compatible SSDs.
The
F4 provides safe power-fail handling, error detection and correction and
static wear leveling. Data transfer rate to the attached
flash memory array (16
chips) is upto 80MB/s. Sustained R/W via the CF interface is upto 50MB/s and
40MB/s respectively. Alternatively oems can add a
SATA bridge, or
RAID controller for
other markets. |
 |
|
Viking Launches
SSD Backup Module for RAID Cache
Editor:- February 18, 2009 - Viking Modular Solutions
announced ArxCis-NV - a
flash SSD based
backup for cache memory in RAID
controllers.
"Current technology of backing DRAM modules with
batteries provides protection for approximately 72 hours and also brings a host
of battery related issues to IT managers. ArxCis-NV products help eliminate
these issues..." said Adrian Proctor, VP of Marketing for Viking Modular
Solutions.
The ArxCis-NV is a JEDEC edge compatible registered DRAM module
with ECC which can write to its associated embedded SSD at 80MB/s triggered
by a drop in rail power. The module hold-up power (typically 10 to 15 seconds,
depending upon DRAM density) is supplied by Supercapacitors, which only require
10 seconds to fully charge.
See also:-
memory channel
SSDs, flash backed
DRAM DIMMs
Seagate Still Waiting for Legal Costs Related to Cornice
Litigation
agrees to dismiss claims against STEC
Editor:-
February 18, 2009 -
a
report today on Law.com says Seagate is suing its
legal insurer for not paying in full the costs incurred in suing Cornice.
Cornice
would have failed in the small
form factor disk market anyway - even if it had won the case (which it
didn't) - because of the
price advantages of
flash memory compared to
low capacity
HDDs.
A year
ago Seagate's legal team fired a seemingly random warning shot at the SSD
market - when it started proceedings against
STEC.
Seagate today is in a
desperate market situation. It dominates segments of the hard disk market which
are rapidly going out of fashion. And it will most likely
fail the SSD
Challenge too.
When markets decline companies often switch the
focus of business development activities from their marketers to their
lawyers. But they still need to retain engineers to mine the gold (real or
imagined) in their patent portfolios - or to build defences - because the grey
suits can't do that on their own.
...Later:-
February
19, 2009 STEC announced the mutual dismissal of the patent infringement
lawsuit with Seagate Technology.
"This is an important development
in light of the mass adoption of SSDs," said Manouch Moshayedi, chairman
and CEO of STEC. "With Seagate having dropped its case against us, we
believe the uniqueness of SSD design relative to traditional HDD technologies
has been established. We have always contended that SSD does not borrow from
existing hard-drive technology but rather offers an all-together new approach to
storage. In addition, since STEC plays a major role in the proliferation of SSD
technology, we view the dismissal as a vindication of our technology. We have a
15-year history of SSD design and development, over which time we have amassed
strong SSD intellectual property. We have always maintained that the allegations
brought against us by Seagate were without merit. With this case behind us, we
can now optimize our resources to take full advantage of the market
opportunities at hand."
ATTO Ships 16 Port 6Gb/s SAS PCIe Adapters
Editor:-
February 18, 2009 - ATTO
Technology today announced availability of its first 16-port 6Gb/s
SAS PCIe Host
Adapters - the ExpressSAS H60F.
Throughput is up to 600MB/s per port.
OS compatibility includes Windows, Mac and Linux environments.
StorMagic Launches Virtual iSCSI SAN Manager
Editor:-
February 18, 2009 - StorMagic today
announced SvSAN - which helps small to mid-size organisations build a
cost-effective virtual iSCSI
SAN in just a few minutes.
The StorMagic SvSAN is designed to enable
the deployment of a high-availability shared storage solution for VMware ESX
environments for less than $2,000 allowing users to take advantage of enhanced
server virtualisation functions without the need to purchase expensive shared
storage. SvSAN supports upto 1,024 simultaneous sessions and 256 targets per
appliance. For a limited time end-users can obtain a promo key for a free copy
of SvSAN, with no expiration date.
Data Remanence vs Permanence - flash SSD's Jekyll & Hyde
Personality
Editor:- February 18, 2009 - continuing the
tradition of
educating users about factors which they might want to think about when using
SSDs in serious
applications - StorageSearch.com
will next week publish a new original article which looks at the flip sides of
Data Remanence versus Permanence in flash SSDs.
How erased is a flash
SSD when you over write the entire disk?
How long will the data in an
MLC flash SSD stay uncorrupted
- if you take care to manage
endurance
with world class wear leveling and write attenuation?
Stay
tuned for some revealing
answers.
COPAN Gets $18.5 million New Funding for Enterprise MAID
Editor:- February 17, 2009 - COPAN Systems
announced it has secured$18.5 million in new capital financing.
The
round was led by new investor Westbury Partners and includes participation from
existing COPAN Systems investors Austin Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners,
Firstmark Capital and Credit Suisse. The funding will help expand the company's
product development, sales, marketing and channel efforts globally and build on
its success in the enterprise data storage market.
"Increasing energy efficiency and reducing data center footprint
are fundamental goals in the technology decisions of every company and
government agency," said Mark Ward, president and CEO of COPAN Systems. "We've
enabled our customers to dramatically increase the amount of digital assets
stored online at a fraction of the cost of traditional disk storage vendor
solutions."
Sun Proposes Standardizing Tape Storage Encryption
Editor:-
February 17, 2009 - Sun
Microsystems today announced an open source initiative for removable
storage encryption in
Solaris environments.
This is based on the key manager which Sun
already uses in some of its
Tape Libraries.
Toshiba Hopes Fujitsu's HDD IP will Fast Track New Server SSDs
Editor:-
February 17, 2009 - it was confirmed today that Fujitsu plans to
transfer its hard disk drive business to Toshiba.
The
companies aim to complete the transaction in the first quarter of fiscal 2009.
Fujitsu will facilitate the transfer by bringing its HDD-related businesses and
functions together in a new company. Toshiba will acquire about an 80% stake in
this company and make it a Toshiba Group subsidiary. In order to promote a
smooth transfer, Fujitsu will continue to hold a stake of under 20% in the new
company for a certain period of time, after which it will become a wholly owned
subsidiary of Toshiba.
Toshiba anticipates this will ease its entry into the enterprise
HDD market where Fujitsu is currently a leader. Toshiba also plans to
marry its flash SSD technology with Fujitsu's HDD IP to spawn new
enterprise SSDs
.
DTS Launches Fastest 3.5" SATA flash SSD
Editor:-
- February 17, 2009 - DTS
today announced availability of the fastest 3.5" SATA SSD - the
Platinum HDD 2009 model.
Internally it has a 1GB
RAM SSD which operates
as a non volatile RAM cache for an internal
flash SSD (320GB
to 512GB). Aimed at server acceleration applications performance is 25,000 R/W
IOPS, read
speed is 250MB/s, and write speed is upto 240MB/s. DTS says the huge nv cache
also attenuates writes (the opposite of write amplification) - thereby reducing
flash wear by x10 to x400 compared to conventional flash SSDs.
Editor's
comments:- in my article
Predicting Future Flash
SSD Performance I noted how having a non volatile RAM cache is a key
architectural factor in flash SSD tune ups.
In the
rackmount SSD
segment the RamSan-500
from Texas Memory Systems
(launched September 2007) and in the
2.5" form factor
the ESSD from
Memoright are other
examples of this type of implementation.
DTS's original Platinum drive
(launched a year ago) was a hard
disk / RAM SSD hybrid. The new 2009 model benefits from the faster IOPS
performance which stems from embedding a flash SSD instead of HDD. It also
builds on the experience of refining the internal cache which
accelerates many types of server app - without any modification to the
application software. You just install it like a hard drive. DTS says it's
particularly good for VMware and similar multiple client environments. Their
website includes comparative benchmarks.
Petabyte NAS for Gas has Small Footprint
Editor:-
Landmark announced today the immediate availability of its PetroStor
disk storage platform, which provides petabytes of online capacity for users
with large seismic data sets in the oil and gas exploration markets.
Combining
enterprise-class storage from
NetApp with
real-time compression from Storewize,
the PetroStor costs less than $1,000 per terabyte. Landmark can help users
migrate their archives from tape to disk and also index files according to their
specific architecture, as well as incorporate metadata that makes users' files
easy to find in their ever-growing libraries of data.
"The
traditional tape model is
cumbersome and it restricts an organization's ability to make timely, informed
decisions," said Patrick Rogers, VP of Solutions Marketing at NetApp. "With
the PetroStor storage solution, customers can keep all their data on enterprise
disk storage - providing fast, efficient and reliable access to data and thereby
enhancing their decision-making process while also eliminating the financial and
operational burdens of tape." |
|
| |
 |
| . |
|
|
| . |
|
|
| . |
|
|
| . |
 |
| . |
| Flashbacks
from
Storage History |
|
1 year ago - Feb 2008 -
HD DVD
Retires Early - Toshiba pulled the plug on its HD DVD standard conceding
the
removable optical disk platform war to Blu-ray.
But as I said
many years earlier - web downloads of video content will eventually make
Blu-ray's victory irrelevant
2 years ago - Feb 2007 -
STEC Divests
RAM Business to Focus on SSDs - it seemed like a good move at the time, and
looks even better now, as commodity memory businesses (both RAM and flash) are
struggling to survive.
3 years ago - Feb 2006 -
HP Ousts Fiorina
- (HP effectively sacked its CEO). I commented that HP's marketing was
rubbish - for which she had to take full share of the blame.
...Later:- in March 2008 I read Carly
Fiorina's book - Tough Choices - and became more sympathetic to the problems
she had faced shaking up the neanderthals in HP's caves / tribal business
units.
5 years ago - Feb 2004 -
Cornice
Secures $51 Million in Venture Funding
- that was the start of a doomed effort to create a new
miniature hard disk
company.
...Later:-
Cornice was slammed by
patent suits from the hard disk barons.
But even without those
setbacks - they were barking up the wrong tree. This segment of the hard disk
market was the 1st to surrender to flash.
6 years ago - Feb 2003 -
world's first
terabyte class SSDs announced
Concurrent announcements from
Imperial Technology
and Texas Memory Systems
that you could buy such things (for around $2 million) were of great interest
to a small hard core of our readers who actually went out and bought them.
...Later:-
in January 2009 - pureSilicon
said it's sampling a terabyte flash SSD in
2.5" form factor.
Nevertheless the performance of those 2003 vintage SSDs (2 million IOPS) is
still hard to beat today.
8 years ago - Feb 2001 -
1st Mention ofSerial
ATA /SATA
A whole bunch of new storage interfaces were being
launched at around that time. SATA was the fastest to get adopted, and became
the most successful in the market. | |
| . |
 |
| . |
| . |
| |
|
| |
