RDMA for Persistent Memory over Fabrics – FAQ

In our most recent SNIA Networking Storage Forum (NSF) webcast Extending RDMA for Persistent Memory over Fabrics, our expert speakers, Tony Hurson and Rob Davis outlined extensions to RDMA protocols that confirm persistence and additionally can order successive writes to different memories within the target system. Hundreds of people have seen the webcast and have given it a 4.8 rating on a scale of 1-5! If you missed, it you can watch it on-demand at your convenience. The webcast slides are also available for download. We had several interesting questions during the live event. Here are answers from our presenters:  Read More

Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave: Extending RDMA for PM over Fabrics

For datacenter applications requiring low-latency access to persistent storage, byte-addressable persistent memory (PM) technologies like 3D XPoint and MRAM are attractive solutions. Network-based access to PM, labeled here Persistent Memory over Fabrics (PMoF), is driven by data scalability and/or availability requirements. Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) network protocols are a good match for PMoF, allowing direct RDMA data reads or writes from/to remote PM. However, the completion of an RDMA Write at the sending node offers no guarantee that data has reached persistence at the target. Join the Networking Storage Forum (NSF) on October 25, 2018 for out next live webcast, Extending RDMA for Persistent Memory over Fabrics. In this webcast, we will outline extensions to RDMA protocols that confirm such persistence and additionally can order successive writes to different memories within the target system. Read More

SNIA Volunteer Work Wins Recognition at Flash Memory Summit

SNIA thanks and celebrates the many hardworking SNIA member volunteers whose technical work was awarded Best of Show at the recent Flash Memory Summit.

Jennifer Dietz and Eden Kim accept FMS award from Jay Kramer

SNIA won the FMS Most Innovative Flash Memory Technology Award, recognizing innovations that will change the way flash memory works and is used in products, for the SNIA Technical Position Real World Storage Workloads Performance Test Specification (RWSW PTS), developed by the SNIA Solid State Storage Technical Work Group (SSS TWG). “Real World Workloads are important for Data Center, IT, and Storage professionals,” said Eden Kim, Chair of the SSS TWG, and CEO of SNIA member company Calypso Systems “because real world workloads are very different from synthetic lab workloads and are key determinants in datacenter server and storage performance, optimization and qualification.”   Eden and Jennifer Dietz of SNIA member company Intel and Co-Chair of the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative Marketing Committee accepted the award from Jay Kramer of Flash Memory Summit.

Mark Carlson and Bill Martin accept award on behalf of SNIA from Jay Kramer

SNIA also won the FMS Best of show Technology Innovation Award, recognizing that cloud and other large data centers typically prioritize their selection criteria for storage solutions as those that can achieve the highest possible performance while avoiding proprietary vendor lock-in.  SNIA and EXTEN HyperDynamic™ NVMe over Fabrics high-performance storage software were recognized for creating an open storage management specification that works with EXTEN storage software for being the first in the industry to provide a solution based on SNIA Swordfish™ and DMTF Redfish® specifications. “We congratulate EXTEN Technologies for its innovation and well-deserved accolade,” said Don Deel, SNIA Storage Management Initiative Governing Board Chair. “By integrating SNIA Swordfish into its solution, EXTEN Technologies’ customers will benefit from a standards-based API that does not require learning the intricacies of storage infrastructure to handle day-to-day storage needs.” Accepting the award for SNIA at FMS were Mark Carlson of SNIA member company Toshiba Memory Systems and Bill Miller of SNIA member company Samsung Electronics, Co-Chairs of the SNIA Technical Council. Congratulations to all the SNIA volunteers who participated in the development of these award-winning specifications. SNIA Sessions at FMS Now Available for Viewing and Download Read More

Remote Persistent Memory: It Takes a Village (or Perhaps a City)

By Paul Grun, Chair, OpenFabrics Alliance and Senior Technologist, Cray, Inc. Remote Persistent Memory, (RPM), is rapidly emerging as an important new technology. But understanding a new technology, and grasping its significance, requires engagement across a wide range of industry organizations, companies, and individuals. It takes a village, as they say. Technologies that are capable of bending the arc of server architecture come along only rarely. It’s sometimes hard to see one coming because it can be tough to discern between a shiny new thing, an insignificant evolution in a minor technology, and a serious contender for the Technical Disrupter of the Year award. Remote Persistent Memory is one such technology, the ultimate impact of which is only now coming into view. Read More

Dive Into SDC – A Chat with SNIA Technical Council Co-Chair Mark Carlson on Persistent Memory

The SNIA Storage Developer Conference (SDC) is coming up September 24-27, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara CA.  The agenda is now live!

SNIA on Storage is ready to dive into major themes of the 2018 conference, starting with Persistent Memory.   The SNIA Technical Council takes a leadership role to develop the content for each SDC, so SNIA on Storage spoke with Mark Carlson, SNIA Technical Council Co-Chair and Principal Engineer, Industry Standards, Toshiba Memory America, to understand why SDC is bringing Persistent Memory to conference attendees.

SNIA on Storage (SOS) – Why has the Technical Council chosen Persistent Memory as a major topic for 2018?

Mark Carlson (MC) – For a number of years, SNIA has been a key contributor to industry activities driving system memory and storage into a single Persistent Memory entity.  For Developers just being introduced to this new technology, SNIA has a multitude of educational resources that can be used to come up to speed on Persistent Memory and make the most of their time at SDC 2018.

SOS – Where should attendees begin? Read More

Exceptional Agenda on Tap for 2018 Persistent Memory Summit

Persistent Memory (PM) has made tremendous strides since SNIA’s first Non-Volatile Memory Summit in 2013. With a name change to Persistent Memory Summit in 2017, that event continued the buzz with 350+ attendees and a focus turning to applications. Now in 2018, the agenda for the SNIA Persistent Memory Summit, upcoming January 24 at the Westin San Jose, reflects the integration of PM in a number of organizations. Zvonimir Bandic of Western Digital Corporation will kick off the day exploring the “exabyte challenge” of persistent memory centric architectures and memory fabrics. The fairly new frontier of Persistent Memory over Fabrics (PMoF) returns as a topic with speakers from Open Fabrics Alliance, Cray, Eideticom, and Mellanox. Performance is always evolving, and Micron Technologies, Enmotus, and Calypso Systems will give their perspectives. And the day will dive into futures of media with speakers from Nantero and Spin Transfer Technologies, and a panel led by HPE will review new interfaces and how they relate to PM. Read More

The OpenFabrics Alliance and the Pursuit of Efficient Access to Persistent Memory over Fabrics

  Guest Columnist:  Paul Grun, Advanced Technology Development, Cray, Inc. and Vice-Chair, Open Fabrics Alliance (OFA) Earlier this year, SNIA hosted its one-day Persistent Memory Summit in San Jose; it was my pleasure to be invited to participate by delivering a presentation on behalf of the OpenFabrics Alliance.  Check it out here. The day long Summit program was chock full of deeply technical, detailed information about the state of the art in persistent memory technology coupled with previews of some possible future directions this exciting technology could conceivably take.  The Summit played to a completely packed house, including an auxiliary room equipped with a remote video feed.  Quite the event! But why would the OpenFabrics Alliance (the OFA) be offering a presentation at a Persistent Memory (PM) Summit, you ask?  Fabrics!  Which just happens to be the OFA’s forte. Read More

A Q&A on Containers and Persistent Memory

The SNIA Cloud Storage Initiative recently hosted a live webcast “Containers and Persistent Memory.” Where my colleagues and I discussed persistent storage for containers, persistent memory for containers, infrastructure software changes for persistent memory-based containers, and what SNIA is doing to advance persistent memory. If you missed the live event, it’s now available on-demand. You can also download a PDF of the webcast slides. Read More