Those super high-capacity SSDs that have become so very popular in hyperscale datacenters are about to lose out to a new HDD technology that promises storage at extraordinary rack densities and colossal streaming bandwidth while taking advantage of today’s trend towards liquid-cooled datacenters. The SSD Guy is told that this as a technology that promises to knock SSDs out of one of their Continue reading “New HDD Threatens Enterprise SSD Market”
Category: SSD Case Studies
Why Are We Having an SSD Shortage?
Today’s HDD shortage, driven by the current AI spending surge, has created a new opportunity for SSDs. Suddenly, QLC SSDs, which had previously been used almost exclusively in consumer PCs, are now being purchased in high volume by hyperscale datacenters for two reasons: To add a new layer to the Memory/Storage Hierarchy, and to make up for HDDs that have recently Continue reading “Why Are We Having an SSD Shortage?”
100 Million IOPS SSDs? You Must be Kidding!
Back in August, at the FMS show, keynoters surprised their audiences with promises of upcoming 100 million IOPS SSDs. Given that today’s highest-performing SSDs provide well under ten million IOPS, how will SSD makers reach this very challenging goal?
We can gain some insight into this from a little information in a Continue reading “100 Million IOPS SSDs? You Must be Kidding!”
Meta: Adding a QLC Layer for Better Cost/Performance
Meta recently published a blog post that proposes adding a QLC SSD layer between HDD and TLC SSDs. The post, titled “A Case for QLC SSDs in the Data Center,” argues that a QLC SSD layer between a system’s TLC SSDs and its HDDs can help improve Meta’s overall system cost/performance ratio.
The SSD Guy finds that this Continue reading “Meta: Adding a QLC Layer for Better Cost/Performance”
Using SSDs to Reduce AI Training Costs
SSDs are often used to either minimize a server’s DRAM requirements or to reduce the number of servers required in a data center, a fact that The SSD Guy likes to bring up whenever he can. These attributes were the main reason that SSDs gained such rapid acceptance in hyperscale datacenters about 20 years ago, when the world’s largest datacenters began to radically change the structure of their systems and embrace the widespread use of SSDs.
With this in mind, it’s unsurprising that Continue reading “Using SSDs to Reduce AI Training Costs”
Why SSDs are Problematic in Space
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”
Why Does AI Need Different SSDs?
AI is on everyone’s minds these days, and SSD makers have lately been touting certain models, explaining that they have been designed for AI applications. Why would that be? Is there a difference between AI SSDs and those used for conventional applications?
The answers to both questions would be “Yes,” and in this post The SSD Guy will attempt to explain why in a Continue reading “Why Does AI Need Different SSDs?”
How Reliable are SSDs and HDDs? Ask Backblaze
Backblaze is a company that the SSD Guy blog has meant to discuss for some time now, because for the past decade or longer the company has been very openly publishing reliability information on its large fleet of hundreds of thousands of HDDs and SSDs. Backblaze is an impartial observer that provides a very useful way of comparing different manufacturers, different models, and HDD stats vs. SSD stats.
Fortunately, all of the many suppliers and models that Backblaze has Continue reading “How Reliable are SSDs and HDDs? Ask Backblaze”
New Interest in Monster-SSDs
While listening to the most recent quarterly earnings calls The SSD Guy learned that there’s suddenly a lot of interest in 60-100TB SSDs for the data center. What I didn’t hear was a strong understanding of why that is happening, although four of the five the leading flash companies say that it is driven by AI. (Kioxia hasn’t reported yet.) Some say these SSDs are being used for training applications, while others say Continue reading “New Interest in Monster-SSDs”
Generative SSDs Coming Soon
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”