The SNIA SSSI site has a new page entitled Solid State Storage Standards Explained.   It provides an overview of standards on drivers, interfaces, connectors, form factors, security, and testing that must be considered when designing or evaluating an SSD.  There are links to each standards site to get further details. 

The page will be updated regularly and inputs are welcome.  Questions and comments may be sent to asksssi@snia.org.

Update:  A recording of this webcast is available here.

Presenter: Tom Coughlin, SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative and President, Coughlin Associates

Abstract: This session presents a brief overview of the solid state technologies which are being integrated into enterprise storage systems today, including technologies, benefits, and price/performance. It describes where they fit into today’s typical enterprise storage architectures today, with descriptions of specific use cases. Finally, the session speculates briefly on what the future will bring.

This week, the SSSI formally released the Enterprise Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification.   The SSS PTS provides standard test methodology for measuring the performance of Enterprise-class SSDs, so that the performance of products from different manufacturers may be fairly compared.  The press release can be found here. 

The Enterprise SSS PTS may be downloaded from here.

A Client (single user) SSS PTS is planned to be released in Q3 2011.

The best way to get flash memory into computers isn’t to replace HDDs but to augment them.  For a vast majority of computer users the amount of storage they need is beyond what they can afford with flash memory alone.  This trend is liable not to change in the future even as the costs of flash memory go down because HDDs will increase in storage capacity  as well and the storage requirements of these users will increase as least as fast or perhaps even faster.   However, these users would love to get a higher performing computer and putting some flash memory in combination with a hard disk drive could be a very attractive means to do this.

Hybrid HDDs that include some flash memory in the HDD are one approach but flash memory can also be installed in a computer motherboard or installed as a second drive.   A recent report from Coughlin Associates and Objective  Analysis explores these hybrid and paired storage and memory architectures.  The main requirement to accomplish the performance and cost advantages of a paired storage systems in managing what is stored on the flash memory, and what on the hard disk drive.  There are several software tools described in the report to provide this storage management.  Paired and hybrid storage can also reduce system power use.

The combination of flash memory and HDDs is so compelling that the authors project a 53% adoption rate in desktop computers and a 25% adoption rate in notebook computers by 2016. 

Furthermore, today’s media tablets will not provide for the needs of many business and power users who would like mobile products with more capability than can be provided by today’s tablets.  This will lead to a new category of “fat tablet” computers that combine some flash memory with hard disk drives as well as other enhancements to meet this market need.  The report projects that 40% of the total tablet market will be “fat tablets” by 2016.

The report can be ordered from Coughlin Associates at:  http://www.tomcoughlin.com/techpapers.htm.

SSSI will be in booth 616 at Storage Networking World in the Santa Clara Convention Center on April 5-6.  The booths are open 12:30-3:00PM and 5:30-7:30PM on Tuesday, plus 11:00AM-3:00PM on Wednesday.

The SSSI booth will feature a demonstration of the Performance Test Specification by Calypso on their tester.  White papers and other information on SSDs will be available as well.

SSSI has been working with Storage Strategies NOW (www.ssg-now.com) on a survey about solid state storage technology adoption, practice, and deployment.  We’ll have copies of the survey in the booth or it can be completed on-line at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/476489/Solid-State-and-High-Speed-Memory-Adoption-Practice-and-Deployment.  Qualified responses will receive a $7.50 Amazon gift card or have the option to have it donated to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

Come to SNW and ask SSSI about SSDs.

The white paper “Two May be Better than One: Why Hard Disk Drives and Flash Belong Together” has been posted at http://www.snia.org/forums/sssi/knowledge/education/.  The paper discusses the use of both solid state storage and HDDs in the same system.  Specific mention is made of Paired Storage, a configuration where a small SSD allows fast boot up and quick access to frequently used files and the HDD provides high capacity at a low cost per GB.

The Enterprise Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification v1.0 draft has been posted at http://www.snia.org/publicreview/ and is available for download.  [Update: released specification is now available here.]

The Enterprise SSS PTS provides a standard way of measuring the performance of SSDs for Enterprise applications, thus enabling fair comparisons of SSDs from different suppliers.

It is anticipated that final release of the Enterprise SSS PTS will occur in April 2011.

Work is ongoing in the  SSS Technical Work Group on development of a Client SSS PTS.

More information about the SSS PTS can be found at http://www.snia.org/forums/sssi/knowledge/education/.

SSSI will be at Storage Visions in Las Vegas on January 4-5.  Our booth will feature a demonstration of Storage Pairing (HDD + SSD) technology, details about the SSS Performance Test Specification, and lots of informative white papers & other literature.

For more information about the show, see www.storagevisions.com, and for the latest information about Solid State Storage, visit SSSI in booth #4.

Input from the public review of the v0.9 Performance Test Specification led to a decision to split it into two documents – one focused on enterprise and one focused on client performance tests.

The Enterprise PTS is due to be released in March 2011, with the Client PTS coming later in the year.

See the press release here.

Check out a new Webcast this week by analysts Jim Handy and Tom Coughlin.

When: December 16, 2010 at 9:00AM PT

What: Why HDD and Flash Belong Together

To attend: http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/23850 

Please be sure to log on and learn from two top industry analysts.