SSSI Sheds Light on Solid State Storage at Flash Memory Summit

Marty Foltyn Leave a comment

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 individualIMG_6196s 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.

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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!

Marty Foltyn Leave a comment

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

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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 Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification Available for Public Review

Marty Foltyn Leave a comment

A new revision of the Enterprise Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification (PTS–E 1.1) is now available for public review. The PTS is an industry standard test methodology and test suite for the comparison of SSD performance at the device level. The PTS–E 1.1 updates the PTS–E 1.0 released in 2011 and adds tests with specific types of workloads common in the enterprise environment. The PTS–E 1.1 may be downloaded at http://www.snia.org/publicreview.

“The PTS–Enterprise v1.1 provides both standard testing (IOPS, Throughput, Latency, and Write Saturation) as well as new tests for specific workloads commonly found in Enterprise environments,” said Eden Kim, Chair of the SSS Technical Work Group. “These new tests also allow the user to insert workloads into the new tests while maintaining the industry standard methodology for pre conditioning and steady state determination.”

The new tests target workloads common to OLPT, VOD, VM, and other enterprise applications while paying special attention to the optimization of drives for varying demand intensity, maximum IOPS and minimal response times and latencies.

For more information, visit www.snia.org/forums/sssi

How Many IOPS Is Enough?

Marty Foltyn Leave a comment

SNIA’s SSSI channel webcast of “How Many IOPS Is Enough?” was a smash success!  Now you can listen to an on demand rebroadcast.

Even though there are lots of SSDs on the market today offering IOPS (I/Os Per Second) performance in the thousands to hundreds of thousands (with indications that future models will offer speeds in the million-IOPS range), and HDDs that support from tens to hundreds of IOPS depending on spindle speed and interface, not every application can use the extreme performance of high-end SSDs, and some may not benefit from high IOPS at all.

Since performance is tied to cost, users can save money if they understand how many IOPS the system really needs.  “How Many IOPS is Enough?” draws from the recent study by Coughlin Associates and Objective Analysis that examined what makes an application require high IOPS and which profiled applications according to their needs.

In the webcast, you will also learn how to take part in an exciting SSSI project – the Workload I/O Capture Program, or WIOCP, a simple tool that captures software applications’ I/O activity by gathering statistics on workloads at the user level (IOPS, MB/s, response times queue depths, etc).  The WIOCP helps users to identify “Hot Spots” where storage performance is creating bottlenecks. SNIA SSSI hopes that users will help the association to collect real-use statistics on workloads by uploading their results to the SNIA website. Details on WIOCP can be found at tinyurl.com/tryWIOCP.

New Performance Test Service Launched for Solid State Drives

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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

Reaching Nirvana? Maybe Not, But You Can Help In Better Understanding SSD and HDD Performance via SNIA’s Workload I/O Capture Program

Marty Foltyn Leave a comment

SNIA’s Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI) recently rolled out its new Workload I/O Capture Program, or WIOCP, a simple tool that captures software applications’ I/O activity by gathering statistics on workloads at the user level (IOPS, MB/s, response times queue depths, etc).  The WIOCP helps users to identify “Hot Spots” where storage performance is creating bottlenecks. SNIA SSSI hopes that users will help the association to collect real-use statistics on workloads by uploading their results to the SNIA website.

How it works
The WIOCP software is a safe and thoroughly-tested tool which runs unobtrusively in the background to constantly capture a large set of SSD and HDD I/O metrics that are useful to both the computer user and to SNIA. Users simply enter the drive letters for those drives for which I/O operations metrics are to be collected. The program does not record anything that might be sensitive, including details of your actual workload (for example, files you’ve accessed.) Results are presented in clear and accessible report formats.

How would the WIOCP help me as a user of computer systems?
Our upcoming white paper gives many reasons why you would want to download and run the WIOCP.  One reason is that empirical file and disk I/O operation performance metrics can be invaluable with regard to theories and claims about disk I/O performance. This is especially so when these metrics reflect the actual file and disk I/O operation activity performed by individual applications/workloads during normal usage. Moreover, such empirical I/O metrics can be instrumental in uncovering/understanding performance “bottlenecks”, determining more precise I/O performance requirements, better matching disk storage purchases to the particular workload usage/needs, and designing/optimizing various disk storage solutions.

How can I help this project?
by downloading and running the WIOCP you help us collect I/O metrics, which can reveal insights into the particular ways that applications actually perform and experience I/O operation activity in “real-life” use. And using this information,  SNIA member companies will be able to improve the performance of their solid state storage solution, including SSDs and flash storage arrays. Help SNIA get started on this project by clicking http://www.hyperIO.com/hIOmon/hIOmonSSSIworkloadIOcaptureProgram.htm and using the “Download Key Code” enter SSSI52kd9A8Z. The WIOCP tool will be delivered to your system with a unique digital signature. The tool only takes a few minutes to download and initialize, after which you can return to the task at hand!

If you have any questions or comments, please contact: SSSI_TechDev-Chair@SNIA.org

Free Booklet: How SSD Controllers Maximize SSD Life

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SNIA SSD Controller BookSNIA’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.

January 29 NVM Summit At the SNIA Symposium Brings Experts Together

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January 29th’s Summit on Non-Volatile Memory – in San Jose, California as part of the SNIA Winter Symposium – delivers an excellent one-day, comprehensive deep-dive on all the issues you need to consider about this technology that has changed the ways that storage devices can be used.   Join 150 of your colleagues with products, strategies, or just an interest in NVM who have already signed up for this complimentary event.  Speakers from companies leading the way in NVM will offer critical insights into NVM and the future of computing in an exciting day-long agenda:

  • Keynotes from Mark Peters, Senior Analyst, ESG on the Storage Industry Landscape and David Alan Grier, President, The Computer Society on The Future of Computing with NVM Inflection Point
  • Industry Analyst Perspectives from Jeff Janukowicz, Research Director, IDC
  • Presentations from:
    • Andy Rudoff, Senior Software Engineer, Intel on the problems being solved
    • Ric Wheeler, Manager, Software Engineering, Red Hat on Linux and NVM
    • Dr. Garret Swart, Database Architect, Oracle on killer apps benefiting from this new architecture
    • Jim Pinkerton, Partner Architect, Microsoft  on design considerations when implementing NVM
    • Steven Peters, Principal Engineer, LSI  on what’s nice to have in this new stack
    • Danny Cobb, CTO, EMC on the workings of subsystem speeds and feeds
    • Kaladhar Vorguranti, Technical Director, NetApp on tools for performance modeling and measuring

Remember, this Summit is COMPLIMENTARY to attend but you must register to guarantee your seat at www.snia.org/nvmsummit-reg.   See you there!

Introducing SNIA’s Workload I/O Capture Program

Jim Handy Leave a comment

SNIA’s Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI) recently rolled out its new Workload I/O Capture Program, or WIOCP, a simple tool that captures software applications’ I/O activity by gathering statistics on workloads at the user level (IOPS, MB/s, response times queue depths, etc.)

The WIOCP helps users to identify “Hot Spots” where storage performance is creating bottlenecks.  SNIA hopes that users will help the association to collect real-use statistics on workloads by uploading their results to the SNIA website.

Using this information SNIA member companies will be able to improve the performance of their solid state storage solutions, including SSDs and flash storage arrays.

How it Works

The WIOCP software is a safe and thoroughly-tested tool which runs unobtrusively in the background to constantly capture a large set of SSD and HDD I/O metrics that are useful to both the computer user and to SNIA.

Users simply enter the drive letters for those drives for which I/O operations metrics are to be collected.   The program does not record anything that might be sensitive, including details of your actual workload (for example, files you’ve accessed.)   Results are presented in clear and accessible report formats.

How can WIOCP Help You?

Users can collect (and optionally display in real time) information reflecting their current environment and operations with the security of a tool delivered with digital authentication for their protection.

The collected I/O metrics will provide information useful to evaluate an SSD system environment.

Statistics from a wide range of applications will be collected, and can be used with the SSS Performance Test Specification to help users determine which SSD should  perform best for them.

How can Your Participation Help SNIA and the SSSI?

The WIOCP provides unique, raw information that can be analyzed by SNIA’s Technical Work Groups (TWGs) including the IOTTA TWG to gain insights into workload characteristics, key performance metrics, and SSD design tradeoffs.

The collected data from all participants will be aggregated and publicly available for download and analysis. No personally identifiable information is collected – participants will benefit from this information pool without comprising their privacy or confidentiality.

Downloading the WIOCP

Help SNIA get started on this project by clicking HERE and using the “Download Key Code”: SSSI52kd9A8Z.

The WIOCP tool will be delivered to your system with a unique digital signature.  The tool only takes a few minutes to download and initialize, after which users can return to the task at hand!

If you have any questions or comments, please contact: SSSI_TechDev-Chair@SNIA.org