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”
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”
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”
Solidigm has unveiled a hot-swappable liquid-cooled enterprise SSD. The company expects for this to help remove any need for cooling fans and allow designers to create fully liquid-cooled AI servers and storage systems. They took some time to brief The SSD Guy about their new approach to heat removal.
Here’s what they were looking to accomplish: Hyperscalers and other large computing installations would like Continue reading “A Liquid Cooled SSD, AND It’s Hot Swappable!”
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?”
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”
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”
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”
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”
