I sometimes will hear that an otherwise educated IT specialist refers to Flash and SSD interchangeably. That is, well, incorrect. While Flash and SSD can be efficiently utilized in commercial storage methods, they're two distinct (but inter-related) technology. I sometimes will hear that an otherwise educated IT specialist refers to Flash and SSD interchangeably. That is, well, incorrect. While Flash and SSD can be efficiently utilized in commercial storage methods, they're two distinct (but inter-related) technology.
What’s New Is Old: What Is Flash?
Flash memory's existed for a short time. Dr. Fujio Masuoka, a guy Forbes magazine had predicted an unsung hero, was employed as an engineer in Toshiba when he applied to the patents for Flash memory in 1980, even though the first working prototypes weren't made until four years after.
When Dr. Masuoka began his study he had been searching a kind of random access memory, or RAM, which would keep its contents after being pushed down, unlike the dynamic RAM, or DRAM, prevalent in the majority of computer memory. This merit of"persistence" is just one which Flash shares with shared spinning disc drives; once powered down, the information stays put. However, Flash also shares several appealing attributes of DRHave you ever noticed those cassette adapters which let an MP3 player or smartphone to be performed in a classic car stereo? They usually sound like crap, but you can listen to some songs. Something similar had to be contrived to allow Flash to incorporate easily to storage arrays, and the remedy is SSD -- Solid State Disk. Fundamentally an SSD is a card with Flash memory on it which also contains connectors and software that make it to be set up and used instead of a disc drive. This is all good and well but forcing Flash to speak with a system using a disk drive port is a bit similar to creating a jet engine onto a Vespa scooter.AM: high physical density, more top speed, and durability.
Bye Bye Disk?
So, if Flash is"persistent" like disc drives but durable and fast like the DRAM, has not it replaced disc storage completely? When was the last time you watched a floppy disc? Flash memory is the thing that creates USB thumb drives operate, and they're a significant contributor to the demise of the floppy.
Flash comes with an issue, however. When scaled up into big multi-terabyte arrays, it becomes mad expensive. But man is it quickly, and I believe quickly. The high-speed/high-cost character of huge 100% Flash arrays has limited the marketplace to substantial businesses. They also have been the only clients who want that sort of functionality, even though that is changing. The price of Flash, such as any emerging technologies, is falling quickly, and within another ten years, we'll see entire data centers with nothing but Flash storage.
SSD – the Adapter
Have you ever noticed those cassette adapters which let an MP3 player or smartphone to be performed in a classic car stereo? They usually sound like crap, but you can listen to some songs. Something similar had to be contrived to allow Flash to incorporate easily to storage arrays, and the remedy is SSD -- Solid State Disk. Fundamentally an SSD is a card with Flash memory on it which also contains connectors and software that make it to be set up and used instead of a disc drive. This is all good and well but forcing Flash to speak with a system using a disk drive port is a bit similar to creating a jet engine onto a Vespa scooter.
A Little Goes A Long Way
In the past several years some smart folks in the storage industry have been employing Flash as a continuous cache from storage arrays which are otherwise populated with plain-old disk drives. When combined with the correct software algorithms, a little bit of how Flash can severely quicken a disc array. Add in a few SSDs and the ideal caching software and wow, what a huge difference. Like 20-to-30-times-as-fast distinct. These so-called"hybrid vehicle" disc arrays are all the rage from the IT industry today as they can effectively blend the reduced price of a disc with the very great functionality of SSD.
The Road Less Traveled
A couple of years back Kelly Long and John Spiers, the creators of LeftHand networks, and they offered to HP in 2008, started to get tired of walking around their various homes in their PJ's all day with nothing to do, and so that they found NexGen Storage and began working on a storage array architecture which took advantage of their non-SSD Flash memory goods from Fusion-io. The outcome is a storage array that requires hybrid vehicle storage into another level -- the screaming operation of non-SSD-bound Flash together with the tremendous capacity and physiological density of conventional disk drives. The NexGen arrays also incorporate some excellent software that compresses, deduplicates and manage the information on the range so it is completely optimized for both speed and density, which will be sort of just like designing a 200 MPH dump truck: it ai not simple, but it could be accomplished.
