Dataram Re-enters the SSD
Accelerator Market
Editor:- October 8, 2008 -
Dataram has
acquired an SSD company.
For full analysis see the
RAM SSD page.
WEDC Expands DDR SDRAM Product Line
Phoenix, Arizona - August 5,
2008 - White Electronic Designs Corp expanded its family of DDR2
SDRAM-based multi-chip packages with the launch of an 8Gb device.
The
SDRAM is organized as 128M x 72, packaged in a 16 x 22mm, 352mm2, 208 PBGA. This
package provides high-density memory for extended-environment embedded
computing, such as that used in aircraft, communications and missiles. Benefits
include higher board density and routing advantages, with 56% more space savings
and a 50% reduction in I/O count over a comparable FPBGA approach. ,,,White Electronic Designs
profile
Corsair Sets Cool Record for DDR3
Fremont,
CA - July 31, 2008 - Corsair announced today that its Dominator DDR3
memory modules have again shattered the world record for frequency.
The record was set using the Asus ROG Rampage Extreme motherboard (Intel X48
chipset) and Corsair Dominator memory, utilizing Corsair's award-winning DHX
technology. The world record of 2,580MHz was reached at latency settings of
9-9-9-24 using a Corsair Dominator DDR3 memory module.
Corsair
achieved these results as part of ongoing lab experiments on the effect of
temperature on memory performance. The memory speed was achieved with the
entire test platform - including motherboard, CPU, chip set, and memory -
chilled to -20 degrees Celsius. ...Corsair Memory profile,
Record Breaking
Storage
Editor's comments:- the IBM research article
High-end
Server Low Temperature Cooling (pdf) provides a concise historic overview
and practical introduction to the state of the art in accelerating CPU
performance using refrigeration.
Texas Memory Systems Launches Fastest RAM SSD
Houston, Texas -
July 22, 2008 - Texas Memory Systems today launched the world's
fastest SSD - the RamSan-440,
The
RamSan-440 is a 4U
rackmount fibre-channel
connected RAM SSD with upto 512GB of storage capacity. It can sustain up to
600,000 random IOPS and over 4GB/second of random read or write bandwidth,
with latency of less than 15 microseconds.
It's the first
RAM SSD to use RAIDed
flash memory
modules for data backup (instead of
hard disk) and the
first system to incorporate Texas Memory Systems' patented IO2 (Instant-On
Input-Output) technology.
...Texas Memory
Systems profile
Editor's comments:- I spoke to Woody Hutsell
at TMS at some length about the new RamSan-440.
Click here to read the
interview. |
|
| MCP
Flash Report - to be or NOR to be? |
Los Gatos, CA - February
8, 2008 - Objective Analysis has completed a new study entitled -
Flash Packaging: What Phone Makers Want & Why.
This 32-page report is an in-depth review of the flash MCP market for
cell phone handsets and looks into the reasons that OEMs choose the chip
configurations they do. One finding - flash multichip packages are
predominantly NOR/RAM configurations today and are likely to remain that way for
the next few years.
"NAND is making great headway in cell phone
handsets through both cards and embedded NAND stacks, but the multichip package
is still largely a NOR/RAM product," said Jim Handy, the report's author. "Although
NAND flash is finding some acceptance in handset MCPs, cell phone manufacturers
find that they have more flexibility by leaving the NAND out of this type of
package." ...Objective
Analysis profile, Market
research
Elpida Doubles Mobile RAM Bit Width
TOKYO,
JAPAN - January 16, 2008 - Elpida Memory, Inc. announced the release
of a new x64-bit wide I/O 256-megabit Mobile RAM dubbed the "ECK2664JACN."
It achieves twice the bandwidth of existing 32-bit products while operating at
an ultra-low voltage of 1.2V I/O (VDDQ). It features Elpida's unique product
characteristics: enabling the highest possible performance for mobile phones and
other mobile products and low-power consumption.
In recent years,
mobile phones have gone beyond music downloads and Internet connections to offer
video recording, video output and a number of other high-performance multimedia
functions. Since HD video will be widely adopted soon, the need now exists for
solutions that support the processing of high-resolution graphics and other
high-density data in digital video cameras and other home electronic products.
...Elpida Memory profile
GDDR5 Sampling
Munich,
Germany - November 1, 2007 - Qimonda AG today announcedit has shipped
the industry's first 512Mb GDDR5 (Graphics Double Data Rate 5) samples to
customers.
GDDR5 is anticipated to become the next graphics
DRAM standard. It will be
available with data rates up to 20GBytes / s per component - more than double
the bandwidth of GDDR3 memories today and comes with many power saving
features.
...Qimonda profile
Editor's
comments:- numbers related to chip generations don't always go the way you
expect. I'm surprised to see that DDR has gone as far as the number "5".
I remember Intel's mainstream processor numbers which went from 8080
(first 8 bit), to 8085 (8 bit, single 5V supply) then 8086 (16 bit) then 186 and
286 (the prefix "80" was included but not voiced much). Then after
the 386 and 486 they surprised us all with the Pentium - which was easier to
trademark than a number. Maybe future generations of DDR will have add-on words
- such as "Fast DDR / Ultra DDR" - or
animals -
like "DDR dragon" I haven't looked into it - but numbers start to
lose their sex appeal in product names. | |
| . | |
|
Squeak!
- the Fastest Solid State Disks
Speed isn't everything, and
it comes at a price. |
But if you do
need the speediest SSD
then wading through the web sites of over 55 current
SSD oems to find a suitable
candidate slows you down.
And the SSD search problem will get even
worse. |
 | |
I predict
there will be over 100 SSD oems in 2008.
I've done the research for
you to save you time. And this page is updated daily from
storage news and direct
inputs from oems. ...read
the article, | |
| . |
| Squeak!
- SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance" |
| Does the
fatal gene of "write endurance" built into
flash
solid state
disks prevent their deployment in intensive server acceleration
applications - such as RAID
systems? |
It was
certainly true as little as a few years ago.
What's the risk with
today's devices?
This article looks at the current generation of
products and calculates how much (or how little) you should be worried. |
| |
| RAM based SSDs have been
used alongside RAID for years - but
flash SSDs are
physically smaller and have bigger capacity (upto 160G in 2.5", 512G in
3.5") and are lower cost than RAM-SSDs and could actually be configured
in standard RAID boxes. F-SSDs aren't as fast as RAM based products but a single
flash SSD can deliver 20,000 IOPs - which when scaled up in an array - starts to
look interesting.
...read the
article,
storage reliability
solid state disks | |
| . |
 |
3rd Party
RAM, Your Rights on Server Warranties - article by Keystone Memory
Users
know that
memory and
hard disk drives aren't
made by most of the companies from whom they buy their servers, notebooks and
desktops. But they are often intimidated from competitively buying 3rd party
upgrades by sales tactics aimed at locking them in to a single source. Such
tactics often hint that maintenance contracts and warranties will be void or
negatively impacted by the presence of 3rd party upgrade products. That kind of
anti competitive pressure is illegal in many countries. This article provides an
overview of the legal protection that users may have under a US law called
Magnuson and Moss. ...read
the article, ...Keystone
Memory profile, US
Storage VARs | |
| . |
Squeak! -
Animal Brands and Metaphors in the Storage Market
Animal
marketing metaphors are popular in service industries, but you'd be surprised
how many companies have used animals in their marketing of data storage
products and services.
The storage market was worth over $150 billion
last year, and as it gets bigger - more companies will turn to animal brands to
help differentiate their otherwise bland products and lend them artificial
(or deserving) characters and virtues.
The idea behind this type of
marketing is to suggest positive connotations so it's unlikely that anyone will
choose to associate their products with gremlins. But you may be surprised by
the population of the storage ark.
This reference articles lists all
known companies who have furry marketing brands, and also includes some which
are slimy, scaly and scary too. ...read the article,
Mice in storage |
| . |
 |
Sanitization
Methods for Cleaning Up Hard Disk Drives - article by Intelligent Computer
Solutions
Removing the data on old unwanted disk drives has
become a concern for all users.
This article reviews the various
methods available to sanitize hard disks along with the advantages and
disadvantages in each case....read the article,
...Intelligent Computer
Solutions profile,
disk sanitizers | | | |
Sun/SPARC Resellers in
the USA
Sun/SPARC Resellers in
the UK
