Western Digital Redefines DRAM Caching

Chris Evans digis into Western Digital’s Ultrastar DC ME200. This is a solution to extend server DRAM using caching into byte-addressable NAND. Chris does a great job of giving this a technical overview, and considering if this will find a welcoming market, or simply cover up Western Digital’s lack of a true storage-class memory solution. He also highlights similar efforts to use NAND as a memory cache, specifically citing Diablo Technologies’ Memory1 solution, which he saw back in 2016 at a Tech Field Day event.


What are Storage Class Memory and Persistent Memory?

In this post, Chris Evans breaks down the differences between Persistent Memory and Storage Class Memory. The former puts non-volatile media directly in the DIMM slot, providing storage with extremely low latency, but requiring changes to BIOS and OS to address properly. The latter uses NAND and DRAM in a tiered system to effectively increase the addressable memory to the system. An example being Storage Field Day presenter Diablo Technologies. Of course, thanks to marketing, these terms are often interchangeable, but the article does a good job making the technical distinction clear.


Has NVMe Killed off NVDIMM?

Chris Evans looks at the impact here of NVMe on the nascent NVDIMM market. Without needing to reorganize architectures and with OS support already in place, Chris sees NVMe has having a number of advantages. He still sees a place for NVDIMMs in the data center, but perhaps its place is much smaller than previously assumed.


Intel Optane Enters the Market

Rich Stroffolino gives his thoughts on Intel’s release of their first commercial 3D XPoint product, the Optane P4800X. He situates where its initial $1500+ price tag puts it within the world of new storage technology, what the new tech should be good for in the data center, and similarities to existing storage-as-memory products.


Dreaming of SCM but living with NVDIMMs…

Ray Lucchesi give a look into a rather unique and developing part of enterprise storage: NonVolatile RAM. He walks through the history of the format, and how it has evolved to its current iteration. He finds that the current state has fairly developed hardware, but the software to take advantage of it is still developing. In some ways, it parallels where flash storage was when it first emerged as an affordable option.


Memory-based storage? Yes, please!

Memory-based storage? Yes, please!


Diablo Technologies Makes Memory Cheap With Memory1

Diablo Technologies Makes Memory Cheap With Memory1


Tech Field Day – Diablo Technologies

Tech Field Day – Diablo Technologies


Diablo Technologies: A unique approach to In Memory Databases

Diablo Technologies: A unique approach to In Memory Databases


Are you going All-Flash? Nah, the future is hybrid

Are you going All-Flash? Nah, the future is hybrid


Tech Field Day 10 Preview: Diablo Technologies

Tech Field Day 10 Preview: Diablo Technologies


TFD10 Prep: Diablo Technologies

TFD10 Prep: Diablo Technologies


What you won’t see in 2015

What you won’t see in 2015


#TFDx report – Really fast host side flash with Diablo Technology

#TFDx report – Really fast host side flash with Diablo Technology


Diablo Technologies at SFD5 and Updates

Diablo Technologies at SFD5 and Updates


Reflections on VMworld 2014

Reflections on VMworld 2014


SSD Storage Closer to CPU – That’s Memory Channel Storage by Diablo Technologies for Next Gen VSAN

SSD Storage Closer to CPU – That’s Memory Channel Storage by Diablo Technologies for Next Gen VSAN


DIMM-Based Storage (Memory Channel Storage) Is A Bright Idea

DIMM-Based Storage (Memory Channel Storage) Is A Bright Idea


So You Think Your AFA is Fast?

So You Think Your AFA is Fast?


Your next storage tier? Your volatile memory

Your next storage tier? Your volatile memory