DDR PHY Cartoon from Denali
Editor:-
November 17, 2009 - Denali
Software today published a simple cartoon style guide which introduces
the complexities involved in
designing
DDR PHY.
What's a DDR PHY? - To quote one of the captions - "I
sit between the memory controller and I/O pads and make your SoC shine!"
Even
if you're not a chip level
storage designer - appreciation of these design issues are helpful to an
understanding of product architectures, strengths, weaknesses and adaptibility. |
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| New Book -
Oracle Performance Tuning with SSDs |
Editor:- October 9, 2009 - some
of the technical folks at Texas Memory Systems
have contributed to a new book called -
Oracle
Performance Tuning with SSDs - written by Oracle expert, Mike Ault.
This
is part of an august collection of Oracle tuning books published by
Rampant
Press.
"Solid State Disk storage is changing the game for
Oracle databases, and how we think about performance tuning," said Mike
Ault. "Whereas in the past a poorly-designed database might take 6 months
and $500,000 in consulting costs to repair, simply installing an SSD can mean
the database immediately runs more than 10x faster for a fraction of
the cost of repairing the source code. We wrote the book specifically for DBAs
so that they could easily understand the benefits and limitations of SSD in
their specific circumstances, and have all the tools they need to benchmark
effectively. Any DBA who wants to keep their performance tuning skills relevant
will read this book."
SSD Education - Size of the Problem |
Editor:- July 9, 2009 - One of
the recurring themes in my 1 on 1 dialogs with
SSD vendors and users alike
is the importance of better education about this important subject.
One
of my frustrations has been my own inability to convey the idea of how much
needs to be known - compared to what is.
So I make no apology for
recycling this text below - which I wrote in an email today.
"User
education about SSDs is the most serious problem the industry faces. Users need
to make local decisions about which info to filter in or out for their own
needs and at what level to engage with this technology. It's as if users had to
learn all about the microprocessor from the 4040 and microcontrollers up to
today's dense 64 bit multi-core server chips in 2 years instead of 30 years."
...Later:- If it's any consolation to those of you out there -
struggling to build a solid mental pyramid out of SSD's shifting sands - some
SSD product managers - who have been parachuted into new roles - don't
understand the technology or market they're talking about either. Which just
adds to the total
confusion.
New Book on Forensic Data Recovery
Editor:- June
4, 2009 - Ontrack
this week announced availability of the second 2nd edition of the American
Bar Association book,
"Electronic
Evidence and Discovery: What Every Lawyer Should Know Now."
The
authors, both have strong connections to Ontrack and more than 20 years
combined experience in the legal technology industry. |
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| New Book on
Enterprise Storage |
Editor:- May 7, 2009 - EMC has published a new
book (480 pages $60) -
"Information Storage and
Management".
The book's 40 contributing writers cover the
evolution of storage technology, including traditional deployment, consolidated
storage networking and storage virtualization, while also addressing the most
prevalent storage technologies, including direct attached storage (DAS),
networked attached storage (NAS), storage area networks (SAN), content addressed
storage (CAS), and IP SAN.
Here's a quote from the
intro...
"Not long ago, information storage was seen as only a bunch of disks or
tapes attached to the back of the computer to store data..."
Yes -
I remember those bad
old days
(pre 1998) before people thought of storage as a single market. It sounds like
an interesting book.
You can never learn too much about storage. The 9
year old classic Storage
Architecture Guide is still a popular article today.
CommVault Announces Online Training and Certification Programs
Oceanport, NJ -
November 24, 2008 - CommVault today announced a new web-based training
program intended for personnel responsible for the day-to-day administration and
management of its software.
The first of these classes, the CommVault Simpana Administration
class, is also available at CommVault Education Centers and as a Customer Onsite
course. This class is intended for users looking to improve the overall data
access, protection and management capabilities for their data center operations.
...CommVault
profile |
|
| Solid
Data Expands SSD Services |
SANTA CLARA, CA -
January 29, 2008) - Solid Data Systems, Inc. today announced the
expansion of its professional services organization.
This group
helps users optimize the use of SSDs
in high transaction rate applications and is aligned by vertical industry
expertise. Solid Data's services program offers free initial phone
consultation, on-site architectural assessment and evaluation, and technical and
cost analysis on proposed SSD-based architectural solutions.
"In
the past SSDs were often used as quick fixes, only replacing key hot files,"
said Mark Hayashida, CTO of Solid Data Systems. "The mission of Solid Data
Professional Services is to introduce architectures specifically designed around
solid state disk storage. These architectures bring more than performance to
high transaction rate environments. Once the limitation of mechanical disk
drives is removed, the resulting systems are simpler, use much less power, and
reduce the number of servers required. In addition, peak transaction capacity is
dramatically increased, virtually eliminating server crashes due to overload. In
properly architected systems the savings more than compensate for the additional
cost of the SSD..."
...Solid Data Systems
profile
Editor's comments:- this is a welcome move because as
new vendors enter the enterprise SSD market - there will be many examples of
the technology being mis-sold for applications which get no real benefit because
the SSDs have been deployed incorrectly. That's like hitching a
Porsche to plow
your field. It may have the horsepower - but it's not going to go any faster
than the John Deere... There's no
substitute for expertise when deploying this technology. | |
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SSD Bookmarks
suggested
by - Gary
Drossel, VP of Product Planning, WD Solid State Storage |
Here's an article written by or
about WD Solid State Storage
NAND
Evolution and its Effects on SSD Useable Life
Gary Drossel says he
chose this article because reliability is the main driving force for WD Solid
State Storage and its customers.
The article shows why calculations
based on models of flash SSD writes in 24/7 applications can result in wear-out
estimates which are over optimistic by an order of magnitude due to write
amplification and wear-leveling inefficiency. That's why the company recommends
using the real-time endurance data logging tool (SiSMART) built into its
SiliconDrives for a day, week or month, in a prototype / pilot system before
full-scale deployment. The data collected can be used to either confirm that
there is adequate safety margin in the application - or used to initiate
software or other system design changes to adjust the extrapolated life within
acceptable limits.
Other SSD article suggestions...
Solid State Storage Initiative -
published by SNIA
Gary
Drossel says he recommends this bookmark because - "It discusses SNIA
activities relative to bringing SSD technology into the data center. And it has
links to a couple of white papers, articles and research resources about solid
state storage."
Editor:- thanks Gary for sharing your SSD links.
see also:-
WD
Solid State Storage - editor mentions on StorageSearch.com | | |
