Editor:- May 30, 2012 - GridIron Systems
describes the setup required to exceed 1 million (4kB) IOPS in a 40x MySQL
environment with mirroring - all in a single cabinet (including servers) using
its FlashCube
SSD systems (upto 80TB in this configuration), and some 10GbE and 16GbFC
fabric switches in a new
whitepaper
(pdf)
published
today.
"In large-scale MySQL environments it's not uncommon to see
hundreds or even thousands of database servers," said Dennis Martin,
President of Demartek
(which tested this configuration). "This reference architecture opens a
new, more efficient architectural approach for serving increasing numbers of
users and database queries per cabinet."
Apacer launches 256GB mSATA SSD for Ultrabooks
Editor:-
May 30, 2012 - Apacer
today launched a new
small (50.8 x 29.8mm)
mSATA SSD aimed at the
Ultrabook
market with upto 256GB (MLC) capacity and R/W speed upto 470/200MB/s and 50K
IOPS.
welcome to the new alchemy - converting SSD software to gold
Editor:- May 29, 2012 - a new blog today on StorageSearch.com
asks - where
are we now with SSD software?
For
over 30 years
the SSD market operated in a software near vacuum. Why did it take so long
for the systems software industry to do anything useful with SSDs?
And
why are seemingly insignificant little SSD software companies today being
gobbled up at prices which seem to have no connection to what they could ever
earn from license sales? ...click to read the
new article
NEVEX offers free trial of $5K value Linux caching software
Editor:-
May 29, 2012 - NEVEX
says it's offering the 1st 30 people who trial its
SSD ASAP / caching
software for Linux - the option to keep the production version free.
I
spoke a few minutes ago to Nigel Miller,
VP Business Development, NEVEX - to test if his phone number is correct -
because that's the response mechanism.
I asked how much can some one
save by taking up the offer?
He said the regular price will be $5,000
per cached terabyte.
I also said it was unusual in the web industry to
have nothing on their web site about this - and he said they wanted a quick and
easy way to talk to people. He also said that if you are one of the early
responders you will get good access to their technical support people. As time
is of the essence here's the number if you're interested:- +1 647-393-2200
GreenBytes gets $12 million in Series B funding
Editor:-
May 29, 2012 - GreenBytes
today
announced
it has raised an additional $12 million in Series B funding from Generation
Investment Management LLP with participation from Battery Ventures and
GreenBytes management which the company will use to expand sales and
marketing.
Editor's comments:- GreenBytes' systems are
iSCSI compatble
SSD ASAPs which
include both SSD and HDD drives.
The company's
GO OS (Globally Optimized
Operating System) provides performance at a level which I would characterize
as being at the slow end of
fast-enough enterprise
SSD storage (around 70K
IOPS) but
with deduplication,
compression and other optimizations enabled they offer 60TB of virtual storage
in a 3U rack .
OCZ unveils another 2.5" SATA3 SSD - Agility 4
Editor:-
May 29, 2012 - we've had "Intel inside",
and "SandForce driven"
- and now a new one which I hadn't seen before (although it may have been
around for a while) is "Indilinx infused" - which appears on the case
of a new 2.5" SATA
3 SSD unveiled
today by OCZ
- called the
the
Agility 4.
Unfortunately the branding message and content isn't
followed through (or updated) consistently yet. So whereas - Indilinx infused
- appears in the bottom left hand corner of the
Indilinx home page - when you click to
see more info - what you see is all about the Everest 1 - rather than the
Everest 2 controller which is the actual chip used in the new Agility 4.
The
Everest has a regular
RAM cache architecture - rather than the skinny type used in the
LSI/SandForce design.
That's the main attribute from which any performance differences stem. See
also:- SSD controllers,
Branding Strategies
in the SSD Market
KingSpec enters the PCIe SSD market
Editor:- May 25,
2012 - KingSpec
will show its first PCIe
SSD in 2 weeks time at Computex
2012 in Taipei.
If you measure the start of the
PCIe SSDs market by
when volume customer shipments began - then
2012 is the 6th year
of this market.
But instead of seeing market consolidation the huge
demand for PCIe SSDs means that more vendors then ever before are entering this
market - and offering a range of
bewilderingly
different concepts about exact functionality, performance and cost.
RunCore's new consumer SSD video - phone to purge
Editor:-
May 22, 2012 - sometimes if I'm watching a movie I realize it's going to be
bad - but in a way which is nevertheless all too fascinating to watch. How bad
it will get? Look! - see it's getting worse - but still taking itself
seriously. So - instead of zapping it like I should - I stay transfixed.
Such bad movies are an artform.
What about promotional videos though?
- on the subject of SSDs...
Mostly these are just time wasting. But
today - in the "so dreadful I kept watching it nearly right to the end"
category was a
new video
on YouTube from RunCore about its Xapear SSD.
RunCore was the first
company to haul "phone to
purge capability"
over the cost
chasm which divides military
SSDs over to the
consumer SSD market
- which it did 2
years ago - and the new video is simply about their latest model which
combines RFID with the phone zap technology in an external USB connected SSD.
As a security
concept I was convinced the idea had merit - when I first wrote about it 2
years ago. So I wasn't keen to see another new video about the same topic. But
I'm glad I did - because it's an artform. ...click to
watch video
Seagate to acquire LaCie
Editor:- May 22, 2012 -
just when you thought there were no
hard drive makers left
to be acquired...
Seagate
announced today that it plans to acquire a controlling interest in LaCie .
new guide - 2.5" PCIe SSDs
Editor:- May 21,
2012 - StorageSearch.com
today published a new article introducing the market for
2.5" PCIe SSDs
.
Although some aspects of this new market are predictable - if
you're already familiar with
PCIe SSDs and
SAS SSDs - the new SSD
delivery package also opens up new possibilities which can sit above and below
pre-existing 2.5"SSDs in price as well as performance. And the new 2.5"
PCIe SSDs will also introduce and showcase new types of functionality which
haven't been been feasible before at the SSD drive level.
...read the
article
Buffalo puts MRAM into SSD cache
Editor:- May 21,
2012 - Buffalo
Technology is using a
hybrid
nvm approach in a new
design of SSD - according to a report in Tom's
Hardware - which says the company will use
MRAM
in its cache.
Editor's comments:- this was anticipated in my
2008 article - the Flash
SSD Performance Roadmap.
The
RAM cache flash
ratio in SSDs varies from close to zero (skinny) upto
100%.
More
RAM makes it easier for designers to meet
symmetry goals
which are desireable in some applications - but it also creates additional
cost and complexity in the
sudden power
loss management subsystem.
RAMlike NVMs such as MRAM aren't a
golden bullet either - but by compressing the time window required to maintain
holdup for critical save operations from milli-seconds to microsends (and
cleaning up the state on the next restart) such chips can enable a smaller
footprint than other approaches.
At the other end of the spectrum -
designers of skinny cache controller architecture can achieve the same
in-system apps results with virtually no RAM. So - as usual in SSDs - you will
see a diversity of
approaches in competing SSDs. They aren't all going down the same path -
even if the destination looks the same.
Kaminario speeds pet pill processing
Editor:- May 21,
2012 - Kaminario
today published a
case
study (pdf) which describes how PetMed
Express (a leading online pet pharmacy) saw a 4x performance
improvement in its report processing and operational processes.
Editor's
comments:- OK - I admit it. SSD makes something run faster isn't really a
news story.
"SSD makes system run slower - but customer is very
satisfied and says they would be happy to pay even more" - would be a
better SSD news story instead.
It seems I will use any excuse to
link the themes of SSDs, animals and medecine. Have I no shame? Guess not.
See
also:-
Animal Brands
and Metaphors in the Storage Market,
Animal brands in
the SSD market, SSDs
as tonic medicine
more money for Facebook will mean a bigger market for SSDs
Editor:-
May 18, 2012 - All I'm going to say on the subject of Facebook's
IPO is that the big sites in the internet economy today wouldn't be
able to do what they do without SSDs.
And the only way they can get
smarter, quicker and add new functionality is by using more. Eventually (by
2020) the infrastructure of all big internet sites will all be 100% SSD -
because that's
where
cost and competitiveness will converge in the data factory economy. And
all the client gadgets will be instant-on. See also:-
SSD market analysts
the new fad in selling flash SSDs... life assurance and health
care claims
Editor:- May 17, 2012 - in a new article today on StorageSearch.com -
MLC flash lives longer in
my SSD care program - I link goats, pills, angels and lifestyles to the
newest trend in SSDs - selling SSD life insurance. ...read the article
Pure Storage says what you can do with those hard drive arrays
Editor:-
May 16, 2012 - Pure
Storage today published a new
video on YouTube which
pokes fun at the idea of hanging onto
hard drive arrays and
suggests what you can do with them. The 142 second video packs a lot of humor
into its tour of why their way of doing
dedupe with
flash is cheaper and better. And it includes
animals too.
The
company also
unveiled
a new generation of fast-enough
(100K write IOPS)
HA/FT SSD arrays
today - with upto 100TB compressed capacity - which are clustered around
InfiniBand.
I'm
not great fan of SSD videos - because they mostly waste time - but this one
will be added to my favorites
list later today - because it's amusing and speaks for the SSD industry.
1U MLC RamSan accelerates backup window for Penn State
University
Editor:- May 15, 2012 - a
research group at
Penn State University has reduced its
backup time from 6 hours
(with a 200 drive HDD array) to 1 hour by using a pair of 1U rackmount MLC
SSDs (model RamSan-810)
from Texas Memory
Systems.
"With some of the other 3 solutions we tested, we poked and pried at
them for weeks to get the performance where the vendors claimed it should be,"
said Michael Fenn, systems administrator at Penn State. "With the
RamSan, we literally just turned it on and that's all the performance tuning we
did. TMS was the best solution largely because of its maturity and performance.
It seemed very stable and it just worked out of the box." See also:-
SSD Backup
new guide for those seeking consumer SSDs
Editor:-
May 15, 2012 - StorageSearch.com
today published a new article -
the consumer SSDs
guide which will provide orientation for readers who have accidentally
stumbled into our enterprise and mission critical SSD pages when all they were
really looking for was something to help them decide about a notebook SSD.
It's surprising how much stuff has been written about a topic which in reality
is so lacking in serious substance. It's a good job I don't write restaurant
reviews - otherwise I'd starve for a living with that attitude. ...read the new article |
