SanDisk pitches 100x SSD speed boost tech
Slow random writes hidden in fast sequential writes
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
SanDisk has come up with a tweak for solid-state drives that, it claims, will accelerate SSD random write speeds by a factor of 100.
Dubbed ExtremeFFS, the technology is a Flash file management system that decouples physical and logical storage, allowing data to be written to a drive randomly yet very quickly. Essentially, individual writes are cached in virtual storage - Ram, presumably - then written en masse, a sector at a time, to the optimum location in the Flash bank, chosen by the wear-leveling algorithm.
This hides the actual to-Flash write from the write operation instigated by the OS, in turn, creates the illusion of that apparent 100x increase in random write speed. Writing a sequence of data to an SSD is much faster than writing it randomly, bit by bit.
This paging approach can be adjusted to suit the host operating system, allowing SanDisk to overcome the performance problems it earlier this year laid at the door of Windows Vista.
But it all works independent of the OS, which just thinks it's talking to a regular hard drive.
ExtremeFFS also allows NAND Flash data channels to operate independently, allowing some to be read while others are writing.
SanDisk said the system also allows data to be written to specific parts of a disk, allowing content to be localised according to how frequently it's used. This, it suggested, will make for better longevity that current write-leveling techniques.
ExtremeFFs is actually a version of TrueFFS, a Flash file management system developed by M-Systems - which SanDisk now owns - more than a decade ago for mobile phones. Ironically, Microsoft built TrueFFS into Windows 95 to support PC Card Flash storage.
SanDisk said the technology will return to the PC next year, as it rolls out SSDs with ExtremeFFS on board. Since TrueFFS has been around since 2004, why wait that long? Indeed, why didn't SanDisk use this system sooner?
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COMMENTS
@Steven Jones
Thanks. The word "non-volatile" wasn't part of the original article. With that tiny addition, everything makes sense.
@Ken Hagan
Write back caches using non-volatile memory are extensively used in any decent medium point storage array worth buying. That gets write times down to the sub ms level, and it's all perfectly safe. "All" that is require to make this safe in a flash drive is to have sufficient power available to flush the cache out before power dies. A decent sized capacitor (especially now we have super-capacitors) should be plenty to keep the electronics going long enough to do it.
Non-volatile write caching most definitely belongs in the storage device - not the server. Server caching is great for reads and non-synchronous write buffers, but it's absolutely the wrong place for non-volatile synchronous write caches, especially where you have shared access storage. Lose the server and the data is stuck in the non-volatile cache server and not where it belongs on the storage device.
The problem with write times on SSDs, at least for all but the ultra-expensive ones, is on small random write latency. I don't care a jot how the SSD does it, as long as it happens quickly and securely. Non-volatile write-caching in the SSD is fine by me.
So should SSD's have an on-board battery?
So that when the power goes down they have some to empty the write cache?
Sounds like a good idea until the battery needs replacing :-)
PH - doesn't need batteries at all though you could 'cache' all sorts of diseases from her.
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