See You – Virtually – at SDC 2021

SNIA Storage Developer Conference goes virtual September 28-29 2021, and compute, memory, and storage are important topics.  SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage Initiative is a sponsor of SDC 2021 – so visit our booth for the latest information and a chance to chat with our experts.  With over 120 sessions available to watch live during the event and later on-demand, live Birds of a Feather chats, and a Persistent Memory Bootcamp and Hackathon accessing new systems in the cloud, we want to make sure you don’t miss anything!  Register here to see sessions live – or on demand to your schedule. 

Agenda highlights include:

LIVE Birds of a Feather Sessions are OPEN to all – SDC registration not required. Here is your chance, via zoom, to ask your questions of the SNIA experts.  Registration links will go live on September 28 and 29 at this page link.

Computational Storage Talks

A great video provides an overview of sessions. Watch it here.

  • Computational Storage APIs – how the SNIA Computational Storage TWG is leading the way with new interface definitions with Computational Storage APIs that work across different hardware architectures.
  • NVMe Computational Storage Update – Learn what is happening in NVMe to support Computational Storage devices, including a high level architecture that is being defined in NVMe for Computational Storage. The architecture provides for programs based on a standardized eBPF. (Check out our blog on eBPF.)

Persistent Memory Presentations

A great video provides an overview of sessions. Watch it here.

Dive – or Dip – into SNIA Persistent Memory + Computational Storage Summit Content

SNIA’s 9th annual Summit was a success with a new name and an expanded focus – Persistent Memory + Computational Storage – from the data center to the edge.  

The Summit moved to a two-day virtual platform and drew twice as many attendees as the previous year. We experimented with 20-minute sessions to great success.  Attendees saw leading technology experts discussing real world applications and use cases, providing insights on technology trends and futures, and networking  in “live via the internet” panels and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.

The recap of our 2021 event – agenda – abstracts – speaker bios – links to videos and presentations – is summarized on the PM+CS Summit home page

But we know your time is precious – so here are a few ways to sample a lot of great content presented over two full days.

  1. Read our colleague Tom Coughlin’s Forbes blog on the event
  2. Not only did Tom and Jim Handy present on memory futures at the event, but they also provided the fastest sub-7 minute recaps of both Wednesday’s and Thursdays sessions with their lively commentary.
  3. New to persistent memory and/or computational storage technologies?  Check out our tutorials featuring Persistent Memory and Computational Storage Special Interest Group leaders giving you what you need to know.
  4. Love the back and forth?  You’ll enjoy the recordings of our live panel sessions where colleagues debate (and sometimes agree) on the topics of today:
  5. Is Persistent Memory your focus?  We’ve sorted the Persistent Memory Summit content for you in our SNIA Educational Library
  6. A Computational Storage man or woman?  Here is the list of all the Computational Storage content during the Summit to watch via our SNIA Educational Library.
  7. Want to get hands-on?  We have extended the opportunity to experience the  Persistent Memory Workshop and Hackathon with access to new cloud-based PM systems for more learning opportunities.

We extend a thank you and shout-out to our SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage Initiative members and colleagues who presented in sessions and participated in panels. They represent these leading companies in the industry.

AMD, Arm, Coughlin Associates, Dell, Eideticom, Facebook, Futurewei Technologies, G2M Communications, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intuitive Cognition Consulting, Intel, Lenovo,  Los Alamos National Laboratory, MemVerge, Micron, Microsoft, MKW Ventures Consulting, NGD Systems, NVIDIA, Objective Analysis, Samsung, ScaleFlux, Silinnov Consulting, and SMART Modular Technologies.

We thank our Summit sponsors: Eideticom, MemVerge, Futurewei Technologies, SMART Modular Technologies, and NGD Systems; and the SNIA Compute Memory and Storage Initiative members who underwrote the event.

Finally, we thank you for your interest in SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage Initiative outreach and education.  We look forward to seeing you at upcoming SNIA events, including our Storage Developer Conferences in EMEA, India, and the U.S.  Find out more details on SDC.

Continuing to Refine and Define Computational Storage

The SNIA Computational Storage Technical Work Group (TWG) has been hard at work on the SNIA Technical Document Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model.  SNIAOnStorage recently sat down via zoom with the document editor Bill Martin of Samsung and TWG Co-Chairs Jason Molgaard of Arm and Scott Shadley of NGD Systems to understand the work included in the model and why definitions of computational storage are so important.

SNIAOnStorage (SOS): Shall we start with the fundamentals?  Just what is the Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model?

Scott Shadley (SS):  The SNIA Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model (Model) introduces the framework of how to use a new tool to architect your infrastructure by deploying compute resources in the storage layer.

Bill Martin (BM): The Model enables architecture and programming of computational storage devices. These kinds of devices include those with storage physically attached, and also those with storage not physically attached but considered computational because the devices are associated with storage.

SOS: How did the TWG approach creating the Model and what does it cover?

SS:  SNIA is known for bringing standardization to customized operations; and with the Model, users now have a common way to identify the different solutions offered in computational storage devices and a standard way to discover and interact with these devices. Like the way NVMe brought common interaction to the wild west of PCIe, the SNIA Model ensures the many computational storage products already on the market can align to interact in a common way, minimizing the need for unique programming to use solutions most effectively.  

Jason Molgaard (JM):  The Model covers both the hardware architecture and software application programming interface (API) for developing and interacting with computational storage.

BM:  The architecture sections of the Model cover the components that make up computational storage and the API provides a programming interface to those components.

SOS:  I know the TWG members have had many discussions to develop standard terms for computational storage.  Can you share some of these definitions and why it was important to come to consensus?

BM:  The model defines Computational Storage Devices (CSxs) which are composed of Computational Storage Processors (CSPs), Computational Storage Drives (CSDs), and Computational Storage Arrays (CSAs). 

Each Computational Storage Device contains a Computational Storage Engine (CSE) and some form of host accessible memory for that engine to utilize. 

The Computational Storage Processor is a device that has a Computational Storage Engine but does not contain storage. The Computational Storage Drive contains a Computational Storage Engine and storage.  And the Computational Storage Array contains an array with an array processor and a Computational Storage Engine.

Finally, the Computational Storage Engine executes Computational Storage Functions (CSFs) which are the entities that define the particular computation.  

All of the computational storage terms can be found online in the SNIA Dictionary. 

SS: An architecture and programing model is necessary to allow vendor-neutral, interoperable implementations of this industry architecture, and clear, accurate definitions help to define how the computational storage hierarchy works.  The TWG spent many hours to define these standard nomenclatures to be used by providers of computational storage products. 

JM: It has been a work in process over the last 18 months, and the perspectives of all the different TWG member companies have brought more clarity to the terms and refined them to better meet the needs of the ecosystem.

BM: One example has been the change of what was called computational storage services to the more accurate and descriptive Computational Storage Functions.   The Model defines a list of potential functions such as compression/decompression, encoding/decoding, and database search.  These and many more are described in the document.

SOS: Is SNIA working with the industry on computational storage standards?

BM:    SNIA has an alliance with the NVM Express® organization and they are working on computational storage. As other organizations (e.g., CXL Consortium) develop computational storage for their interface, SNIA will pursue alliances with those organizations.  You can find details on SNIA alliances here.

SS:  SNIA is also monitoring other Technical Work Group activity inside SNIA such as the Smart Data Accelerator Interface (SDXI) TWG working on the memory layer and efforts around Security, which is a key topic being investigated now.

SOS:  Is a new release of the Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model pending?

BM:  Stay tuned, the next release of the Model – v.06 – is coming very soon.  It will contain updates and an expansion of the architecture.

JM: We have also been working on an API document which will be released at the same time as the V.6 release of the Model.

SOS:  Who will write the software based on the Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model?

JM:  Computational Storage TWG members will develop open-source software aligned with the API, and application programmers will use those libraries.

SOS: How can the public find out about the next release of the Model?

SS: We will announce it via our SNIA Matters newsletter. Version 0.6 of the Model as well as the API will be up for public review and comment at this link.  And we encourage companies interested in the future of computational storage to join SNIA and contribute to the further development of the Model and the API.  You can reach us with your questions and comments at askcmsi@snia.org.

SOS:  Where can our readers learn more about computational storage?

SS:  Eli Tiomkin, Chair of the SNIA Computational Storage Special Interest Group (CS SIG), Jason, and I sat down to discuss the future of computational storage in January 2021.  The CS SIG also has a series of videos that provide a great way to get up to speed on computational storage.  You can find them and “Geek Out on Computational Storage” here,

SOS:  Thanks for the update, and we’ll look forward to a future SNIA webcast on your computational storage work.

Answering Your Questions on EDSFF

We had a tremendous response to our webcast asking if we were truly at the end of the 2.5-inch disk era. SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage Initiative SSD Special Interest Group brought together experts from Dell, Facebook, HPE, JEDEC, KIOXIA, Lenovo, and Microsoft in a lively follow on to the Enterprise and Data Center SSD Form Factor (EDSFF) May 2020 discussions at OCP Summit,. If you missed our live webcast – watch it on demand.

Webcast attendees raised a variety of questions.  Our experts provide answers to them here: Read More

See You (Online) at SDC!

We’re going virtual in 2020, and Compute, Memory, and Storage are important topics at the upcoming SNIA Storage Developer ConferenceSNIA CMSI is a sponsor of SDC 2020 – so visit our booth for the latest information and a chance to chat with our experts.  With over 120 sessions available to watch live during the event and later on-demand, live Birds of a Feather chats, and a Persistent Memory Bootcamp accessing new PM systems in the cloud, we want to make sure you don’t miss anything!  Register here to see sessions live – or on demand to your schedule.  Agenda highlights include:

Computational Storage Talks

Deploying Computational Storage at the Edge – discussing the deployment of small form factor, asic-based, solutions, including a use case.

Next Generation Datacenters require composable architecture enablers and deterministic programmable intelligenceexplaining why determinism, parallel programming and ease of programming are important.

Computational Storage Birds of a Feather LIVE Session – ask your questions of our experts and see live demos of computational storage production systems. Tuesday September 22, 2020 – 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm PDT (UTC-7)

Persistent Memory Presentations

Caching on PMEM: an Iterative Approachdiscussing Twitter’s approach to exploring in-memory caching.

Challenges and Opportunities as Persistence Moves Up the Memory/Storage Hierarchy – show how and why memory at all levels will become persistent.

Persistent Memory on eADR System – describes how the SNIA Persistent Memory Programming Model will include the possibility of platforms where the CPU caches are considered permanent and need no flushing.

Persistent Memory Birds of a Feather LIVE Sessionask your questions to our experts on your bootcamp progress, how to program PM, or what PM is shipping today . Tuesday, September 22, 2020 – 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm PDT (UTC-7)

Solid State Storage Sessions

Enabling Ethernet Drives – provides a glimpse into a new SNIA standard that enables SSDs to have an Ethernet interface, and discussed the latest management standards for NVMe-oF drives.

An SSD for Automotive Applications – details efforts under way in JEDEC to define a new Automotive SSD standard.

Take 10 – Watch a Computational Storage Trilogy

We’re all busy these days, and the thought of scheduling even more content to watch can be overwhelming.  Great technical content – especially from the SNIA Educational Library – delivers what you need to know, but often it needs to be consumed in long chunks. Perhaps it’s time to shorten the content so you have more freedom to watch.

With the tremendous interest in computational storage, SNIA is on the forefront of standards development – and education.  The SNIA Computational Storage Special Interest Group (CS SIG) has just produced a video trilogy – informative, packed with detail, and consumable in under 10 minutes!

What Is Computational Storage?, presented by Eli Tiomkin, SNIA CS SIG Chair, emphasizes the need for common language and definition of computational storage terms, and discusses four distinct examples of computational storage deployments.  It serves as a great introduction to the other videos.

Advantages of Reducing Data Movement frames computational storage advantages into two categories:  saving time and saving money. JB Baker, SNIA CS SIG member, dives into a data filtering computational storage service example and an analytics benchmark, explaining how tasks complete more quickly using less power and fewer CPU cycles.

Eli Tiomkin returns to complete the trilogy with Computational Storage:  Edge Compute Deployment. He discusses how an edge computing future might look, and how computational storage operates in a cloud, edge node, and edge device environment.

Each video in the Educational Library also has a downloadable PDF of the slides that also link to additional resources that you can view at your leisure.  The SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage Initiative will be producing more of these short videos in the coming months on computational storage, persistent memory, and other topics.

Check out each video and download the PDF of the slides!  Happy watching!

Everyone Wants Their Java to Persist

In this time of lockdown, I’m sure we’re all getting a little off kilter. I mean, it’s one thing to get caught up listening to tunes in your office to avoid going out and alerting your family of the fact that you haven’t changed your shirt in two days. It’s another thing to not know where a clean coffee cup is in the house so you can fill it and face the day starting sometime between 5AM and Noon. Okay, maybe we’re just talking about me, sorry. But you get the point.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had some caffeinated source that was good forever? I mean… persistence of Java? At this point, it’s not just me.

Okay, that’s not what this webinar will be talking about, but it’s close. SNIA member Intel is offering an overview of the ways to utilize persistent memory in the Java environment. In my nearly two years here at SNIA, this has been one of the most-requested topics. Steve Dohrmann and Soji Denloye are two of the brightest minds in enabling persistence, and this is sure to be an insightful presentation.

Persistent memory application capabilities are growing significantly.  Since the publication of the SNIA NVM Programming Model developed by the SNIA Persistent Memory Programming Technical Work Group, new language support seems to be happening every day.  Don’t miss the opportunity to see the growth of PM programming in such a crucial space as Java.

The presentation is on BrighTALK, and will be live on May 27th at 10am PST. You can see the details at this link.

Now I just have to find a clean cup.

This post is also cross-posted at the PIRL Blog.  PIRL is a joint effort by SNIA and UCSD’s Non-Volatile Systems Lab to advance the conversation on persistent memory programming.  Check out other entries here.

Up to the Challenge!

The SNIA Persistent Memory and NVDIMM Special Interest Group announced a programming challenge for NVDIMM-based systems in Q4 of 2019.  Participants get free online access to persistent memory systems based at the SNIA Technology Center using NVDIMM-Ns provided by SIG members AgigA Tech, Intel, SMART Modular, and Supermicro.  The goal of the challenge is to spark interest by developers in this new technology so they can understand more clearly how persistent memory applications can be developed and applied in 2020 environments and beyond.

Response to the NVDIMM Programming Challenge has been very positive.  Entrants to date have backgrounds from no experience programming persistent memory to those who develop persistent memory applications as part of their day jobs.

Read More

Judging Has Begun – Submit Your Entry for the NVDIMM Programming Challenge!

We’re 11 months in to the Persistent Memory Hackathon program, and over 150 software developers have taken the tutorial and tried their hand at programming to persistent memory systems.   AgigA Tech, Intel SMART Modular, and Supermicro, members of the SNIA Persistent Memory and NVDIMM SIG, have now placed persistent memory systems with NVDIMM-Ns into the SNIA Technology Center as the backbone of the first SNIA NVDIMM Programming Challenge.

Interested in participating?  Send an email to PMhackathon@snia.org to get your credentials.  And do so quickly, as the first round of review for the SNIA NVDIMM Programming Challenge is now open.  Read More