The folks at the PCI-SIG technical work groups are working hard to agree upon a specification for PCIe Gen. 8 by 2028. In a recent announcement the group said that the specification’s draft 0.5 has been released for member review ahead of schedule, and that the released specification remains on track for full release by 2028.
As with earlier PCIe generations, the goals Continue reading “PCIe Gen. 8 Spec. Racing Forward”
When the switch is made from HDDs to SSDs in most applications there are usually very strong benefits, but in the case of spacecraft, SSDs are causing no end of trouble.
Sure, SSDs provide certain extraordinary performance and other technical benefits. Of particular importance in space applications are the facts that they consume less power, they are more resilient to the high g-forces endured during launch, and, most importantly, they weigh less than HDDs, which is extraordinarily valuable when it costs tens of dollars per gram to put satellites into orbit. The big drawback is that Continue reading “Why SSDs are Problematic in Space”
At the end of 2024 Western Digital will execute on its long-planned separation in which the flash and HDD businesses will divide into two companies. The HDD business will keep the Western Digital or WDC brand, and the flash business, which has continuously used the SanDisk name as a brand name for consumer flash products, will return to using the SanDisk name for the company and all of its products.
This move was initiated by Continue reading “The Return of SanDisk”
Now that Generative AI has hit its stride, the industry is beginning to see new applications of this technology that have previously been out of reach. One such application is the development of the Generative SSD by an Andorran company by the name of SSDystopia, who took the time to brief The SSD Guy about its development.
The Generative SSD comes to the market with a completely different approach to Continue reading “Generative SSDs Coming Soon”
On March 5 Western Digital issued an announcement updating the company’s plan to divide its HDD and flash businesses into two independent companies in the second half of this year.
The flash part of the business will be spun out with current WDC CEO David Goeckeler as “CEO Designate.” No further Continue reading “WDC Stealthily Announces More Details for HDD/Flash Split”
During the company’s October 30 earnings call Western Digital CEO David Goeckeler started the conversation with the revelation that the company would be split into two, with a new flash-only company to be created in the process. This plan, intended to increase the company’s shareholder value, was the outcome of a process triggered by activist shareholder Elliott in May 2022, which was the subject of a couple of Continue reading “It’s Official: WDC to Split into HDD & Flash Parts”
For a long time, The SSD Guy has been talking about Write Amplification without explaining what It is. This post is intended to fix that.
Write amplification is an internal issue for NAND flash SSDs that arises from the way that NAND chips work. It doesn’t exist in standard HDDs, nor did it exist in DRAM SSDs before we had NAND ones. In a nutshell it’s the Continue reading “What is Write Amplification?”
Ever 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?”
Mardi Gras is a good time for The SSD Guy to bend your mind. It’s the day before Ash Wednesday kicks off Lent, the penitential season leading up to Easter.
And it never seems to happen on the same date.
I will compare SSD garbage collection to the timing of the Lenten season and Easter. There are surprising similarities.
Very few people understand Continue reading “Mardi Gras vs. SSD Garbage Collection”
In 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”
