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SNIA NVM Programming Technical Work Group Honored at Storage Visions Conference

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 Marty Foltyn

On January 4, 2015, the SNIA NVM Programming Technical Work Group received the Storage Visions 2015 Professional Storage Development Visionary Award ,

Storage Visions, a partner program of the Consumer Electronics Show, showcases digital storage and the entertainment content value chain as the storage conference of CES.

The Storage Visions “Visionary” Awards recognize companies advancing the state of the art in storage technologies utilized in consumer electronics, the media and entertainment industries; visionary products for the digital content value chain; and digital storage end users.

This most recent honor recognizes TWG work on creating next generation programming models, and follows an August 2014 award to the NVM Programming Model as a Best of Show at Flash Memory Summit for the Most Innovative Flash Memory Enterprise Business Application.

The SNIA Non Volatile Memory (NVM) Programming Technical Work Group (TWG) delivers specifications describing the behavior of a common set of software interfaces that provide access to non-volatile memory (NVM). The TWG goal is to encourage a common ecosystem for NVM-enabled software without limiting the ability to innovate.

The TWG’s current work is the NVM Programming Model specification. This specification describes behavior used by applications and kernel components to access:

Emerging features for traditional block NVM (SSDs) and
A new programming model for persistent memory (PM) – NVM hardware designed to be treated by software similarly to system memory.

SSSI Sheds Light on Solid State Storage at Flash Memory Summit

August 22, 2013August 22, 2013 Marty Foltyn

If you attended Flash Memory Summit along with thousands of other business professionals, you soon learned that solid state keynotes, breakouts, and show floor booths, while informative, could be mystifying. Fortunately, the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI) was at FMS to provide enlightenment in the form of a SSS Reception, four new publications on SSS, and three SSSI member demonstrations.

SSSI’s second annual SSS Reception was attended by over 90 individuals and featured presentations by SSSI Governing Board members Paul Wassenberg of Marvell, Walt Hubis of Fusion-io, and Eden Kim of Calypso Systems on SSSI key programs and technical work. SSSI Education Chair Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates delivered a market update on ubiquitous flash memory. All SSSI members are eligible and encouraged to join specification development, education, and outreach programs, and new companies are welcome to join SSSI activities.

At the SSSI Booth, attendees snapped up new white papers and Tech Notes authored by SSSI members. These papers are complimentary to all interested individuals and available on the SSSI education page.

The PCI Express (PCIe) 101 – An Overview of Standards, Markets, and Performance white paper surveys the broad landscape of emerging high performance PCIe storage and the implications of revolutionary applications of these new architectures. Thirteen members of the SNIA SSSI PCIe SSD Committee representing eleven SNIA and SSSI member companies contributed their technical expertise to this paper, which covers standards, programming models for non-volatile memory, the PCIe SSD market, and PCIe SSD performance.
The SSD Performance – A Primer white paper, authored by SNIA SSS Technical Work Group chair Eden Kim of Calypso Systems, provides an introduction to solid state drive performance, evaluation, and test. As noted in the Foreword by SSSI Founder and 2008-2010 SSSI Chair Phil Mills of IBM, “this paper is an excellent tutorial on the performance of solid state drives, which covers this topic in a very easy to understand way, yet provides detailed technical information that the reader can either dig into for a better understanding, or simply skip without missing the main points”.
A new PTS User Guide Tech Note delivers the hows and whys of the SNIA Solid State Performance Test Specification. Authored by SNIA SSSI members Eden Kim of Calypso Systems and Chuck Paradon of HP, this Tech Note provides an easy to understand, step-by step guide to using the SNIA SSS Performance Test Specification (PTS) test methodologies and tests. The Tech Note discusses four basic PTS 1.1 tests – Write Saturation (WSAT), IOPS, Throughput (TP) and Response Time (or Latency) – as updated per SNIA draft PTS-E version 1.1.
The SSSI Workload I/O Capture Program (WIOCP) FAQ, authored by SNIA SSSI member Tom West of hyperI/O LLC, gives details on this project undertaken by the SNIA SSSI to collect I/O operation performance metrics. These empirical metrics reflect the actual I/O operation activity performed during normal, everyday application/workload usage spanning both consumer/client and enterprise systems.

Also in the booth, the Media, Entertainment and Scientific Storage (MESS) Meetup group chatted with end users, and SSSI members exhibited new solid state storage solutions for enterprise markets:

BitMicro presented a high performance MaxIO drive incorporating BiTMICRO’s ultra fast Talino Quad Core ASIC controller, which integrates embedded processors with a high speed multi-bus design to achieve performance far beyond legacy solid state designs.
Fastor Systems unveiled a NVMe compliant PCIe software defined storage device (SDS), or post-controller SSD, in which a de-coupled control & data plane together with a non-blocking fabric and message based architecture provide both high throughput and low latency to address the needs of today’s hyperscale datacenters.
Micron showcased a P420m PCIe SSD featuring multilevel (MLC) NAND technology.

Join the SSSI at Flash Memory Summit August 12-15 in Santa Clara CA!

August 7, 2013August 7, 2013 Marty Foltyn

SSSI returns to the Flash Memory Summit in booth 808, featuring information on updates on new tests in the SNIA Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification-Enterprise 1.1, NVM programming, and Workload I/O Capture Program (WIOCP) activities; new tech notes and white papers, including a PTS User Guide Tech Note, a PCIe SSD 101 Whitepaper, and a Performance Primer Whitepaper; and PCIe SSD demonstrations from SSSI members Bitmicro, Fastor, and Micron.

All current SSSI members attending FMS and individuals from companies interested in the SSSI and their activities are cordially invited to the SSSI Solid State Storage Reception Monday evening August 12 from 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm in Room 209-210 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. At the reception, SSSI Education Chair Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates will provide an overview of the SSD market, and SSSI Chair Paul Wassenberg of Marvell will discuss SSD performance. SSSI Vice Chair Walt Hubis of Fusion-io will discuss SSSI programs, including PTS, NVM Programming, Workload I/O Capture, and PCIe SSD. Refreshments, table displays, and an opportunity drawing for SSDs provided by SSSI members Intel, Micron, and OCZ will be featured.

FMS conference activities begin August 13, and the agenda can be found here. SSSI members speaking and chairing panels include:

Tuesday August 13

4:35 pm – Paul Wassenberg of Marvell on Standards

Wednesday August 14

8:30 am – Eden Kim and Easen Ho of Calypso Testers – PCIe Power Budgets, Performance, and Deployment

9:50 am – Eden Kim and Easen Ho of Calypso Testers - SNIA Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification

3:10 pm - Walt Hubis of Fusion-io – Revolutionizing Application Development Using NVM Storage Software

3:10 pm – Easen Ho of Calypso Testers – SSD Testing Challenges

4:30 pm – Paul von Behren of Intel - SNIA Tutorial: SNIA NVM Programming Model: Optimizing Software for Flash

Thursday August 15

3:10 pm – Jim Pappas of Intel – PCI Express and Enterprise SSDs

3:10 pm – Jim Handy of Objective Analysis – Market Research

An open “Chat with the Experts” roundtable session Tuesday August 13 at 7:00 pm will feature Jim Pappas of Intel at a Standards table, Eden Kim of Calypso Testers at a SSD Performance table, Easen Ho of Calypso Testers at a Testing table, and Paul Wassenberg of Marvell at a SATA Express table.

The Media Entertainment and Scientific Storage (MESS) will hold their August “Meetup” at the Open Chat with the Experts, and also be located in SSSI Booth 808 for further discussions.

Exhibit admission is complimentary until August 8. SNIA and SSSI members and colleagues can receive a $100 discount on either the 3-day conference or the 1-day technical program using the code SNIA at www.flashmemorysummit.com.

Free Booklet: How SSD Controllers Maximize SSD Life

February 5, 2013February 5, 2013 Jim Handy

SNIA’s SSSI has introduced a new booklet: How Controllers Maximize SSD Life. This 20-page volume, which can be downloaded as a pdf for free from the SNIA website, is a compilation of a series of blog posts on the SSD Guy blog.

The booklet explains the tricks SSD controller designers use to extend NAND flash life far beyond the limits posed by NAND endurance specifications of 10,000 or fewer erase/write cycles.

The series was written by this blogger with important help from companies like Intel, SMART Storage, Marvell, and Calypso Systems.

Hard copies are available through the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative.