Category: Standards

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

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.

flash memory summitAll 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.MESS - Final logo #2-Megan Archer

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.

 

PCI Express Coming to an SSD Near You

Team_SSSI

There’s been a lot of press recently about what’s going on in the world of storage regarding the utilization of PCIe as a device interface.  Of course, PCIe has been around a long time as a system bus, while SATA and SAS have been used as storage device interfaces.  But with SSDs getting faster with every new product release, it’s become difficult for the traditional interfaces to keep up.

Some folks figure that PCIe is the solution to that problem.  PCIe 3.0 operates at 1GB/s, which is faster than 600MB/s SATA.  And with PCIe, it’s possible to add lanes to increase the overall bandwidth.  The SATA Express spec from SATA-IO defines a client PCIe device as having up to 2 lanes of PCIe, which brings the speed up to 2GB/s.  Enterprise SSDs will have up to 4 lanes of PCIe, which provides 4GB/s of bandwidth.

There was also some work on the software side that needed to be done to support PCIe devices, including NVM Express and SCSI Over PCIe (SOP), both of which are well underway.

If you are interested in knowing more about PCIe SSDs, keep an eye on our Education page, where, sometime during the week of August 5, we will be posting a new white paper on this topic.

New Performance Test Service Launched for Solid State Drives

Marty Foltyn

The SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative (SNIA SSSI) announces a testing service where interested parties may submit their SSD products for testing to the SSS Performance Test Specification.

Drive Requirements

Any mSATA, SATA, SAS and PCIe SSDs can be tested. The tested device must be recognized as a logical device by CentOS 6.3 and must support Purge (via Security Erase, Format Unit, or equivalent proprietary method of Purge).

Available Tests

Testing is based on the SSS PTS version 1.1.  Visit the SSS Performance Test Service page for more information on the tests.

Testing Process

Testing will be conducted by Calypso Systems, a certified SSS PTS testing facility.  Participants must submit two (2) samples of the SSD to be tested and provide prepaid return express shipment bills (FedEx, DHL or UPS). Testing will take approximately 3-4 weeks to complete.

Any failed test, or test that will not complete, will be tested twice and error logs will be provided.  All product test result data will be kept confidential.

Test results are provided in standard SNIA Report Format as specified in the SSS Performance Test Specification.

For more details, contact ptstest@snia.org

New Webpage about SSD Form-Factors

Team_SSSI

There’s a new page on the SSSI website which describes the wide range of SSD form-factors (physical formats) on the market today.   SSSI defines three major categories – Solid State Drive, Solid State Card, and Solid State Module – and the new page provides descriptions and examples of each.

Take a look.

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