Author: Jim Handy

Optane’s Legacy, Part III: Memory Expansion and Security

Photo of an Optane DIMM

A lot of folks believe that when Intel’s Optane is gone there will be nothing left but the story of its rise and fall.  That is far from the truth.  Optane has created a legacy of developments that will find use in computing for quite some time.

In this three-part series The SSD Guy blog reviews Optane’s lasting legacy to reveal six changes that it has brought to computing architecture in its short lifetime.

Each of the three parts covers two new developments:

This third and final post will cover Optane’s new approach to memory expansion and the new security Continue reading “Optane’s Legacy, Part III: Memory Expansion and Security”

Would WDC Really Merge with Kioxia?

Column Chart comparing WDC's and Kioxia's margins for the past 12 quartersEver since Toshiba decided to spin out its memory business in 2017, leading to the creation of Kioxia, there have been rumors of Western Digital (WDC) acquiring it, or of Kioxia acquiring WDC’s flash memory business.

There is a new spate of merger rumors in response to Elliott Management’s proposal last May that Continue reading “Would WDC Really Merge with Kioxia?”

Optane’s Legacy, Part II: Two-Speed Memory and Latency Handling

Photo of an Optane DIMM

A lot of folks believe that when Intel’s Optane is gone there will be nothing left but the story of its rise and fall.  That is far from the truth.  Optane has created a legacy of developments that will find use in computing for quite some time.

In this three-part series The SSD Guy blog reviews Optane’s lasting legacy to reveal six changes that it has brought to computing architecture in its short lifetime.

Each of the three parts covers two new developments:

This second post will cover Continue reading “Optane’s Legacy, Part II: Two-Speed Memory and Latency Handling”

Mardi Gras vs. SSD Garbage Collection

Silhouette of a hopping rabbitMardi Gras is a good time for The SSD Guy to bend your mind.  It’s the day before Ash Wednesday kicks off Lent, which is the official start of the Easter season.

And it never seems to happen on the same date.

I will compare SSD garbage collection to the timing of the Easter season.  There are surprising similarities.

Very few people understand Continue reading “Mardi Gras vs. SSD Garbage Collection”

Optane’s Legacy, Part I: New Programming Paradigm and Instructions

Photo of an Optane DIMMA lot of folks believe that when Intel’s Optane is gone there will be nothing left but the story of its rise and fall.  That is far from the truth.  Optane has created a legacy of developments that will find use in computing for quite some time.

In this three-part series The SSD Guy blog reviews Optane’s lasting legacy to reveal six changes that it has brought to computing architecture in its short lifetime.

Each of the three parts covers two new developments:

Intel’s Optane, the new memory/storage technology that was Continue reading “Optane’s Legacy, Part I: New Programming Paradigm and Instructions”

Another Perspective on a WDC Split

Western Digital logo splitting int the WD logo and the SanDisk logoIn an earlier post I reacted to a letter that activist shareholder Elliott sent to Western Digital’s board asking for the company to be split into two parts, one for HDDs and the other for flash.  I wrote it before learning that the Elliott letter was posted on the web for public viewing.

I found Elliott’s proposal hard to rationalize.

Although the reasoning I shared in that post is Continue reading “Another Perspective on a WDC Split”

Smarter NAND for Better SSDs

NAND part of one of the diagrams below.Micron presented something really interesting during the company’s Investor Day Conference last week, but it didn’t seem to get any press coverage.  The company naturally repeated its plan to become a more important supplier of data center SSDs, but what The SSD Guy was most interested in were a few comments they gave for choosing to make vertically-integrated SSDs.  Micron now makes not only the NAND and the DRAM internal to its SSDs, but also the controller.

Why would a company Continue reading “Smarter NAND for Better SSDs”

WDC: To Split, or Not to Split?

Photo of log being split with an axeWestern Digital’s Board of Directors was recently sent a letter by activist shareholder Elliott asking for the company to be split into two parts: one for HDDs and one for flash.  The reason given was that the company’s SanDisk acquisition was not performing well.

Elliott currently holds a 6% stake in WDC.

According to an article in Reuter’s, Elliot’s letter said: Continue reading “WDC: To Split, or Not to Split?”

An SSD You Can’t Wear Out

Infinity symbol overlaid on a Nimbus ExaDrive DC SSD photoThere’s something really odd about Nimbus Data’s colossal 100 terabyte ExaDrive DC SSDs, and it’s not their sheer capacity (although that’s pretty remarkable by itself!)  The strange thing is that they can’t be worn out.  It’s physically impossible.

At first glance that may seem wrong-headed.  NAND flash wears out, and that was the cause of a lot of Continue reading “An SSD You Can’t Wear Out”