ST2403

ROUNDTABLE: FLASH
"Companies need access to massive storage pools for machine learning training,
but once that is complete that data needs to be offloaded to more cost-effective
storage technologies. So, while it may be counter-intuitive, a strong argument can
be made that emerging AI applications actually increase the need for second and
third-tier storage systems like disk and even tape." - Peter Donnelly, ATTO
alternative to flash is inevitable: "Several
NVM technologies including ReRAM,
MRAM, PCM and FRAM are emerging as
potential alternatives to flash. Intel's 3D
XPoint was an initial attempt to address the
issue but didn't succeed largely for
economic reasons. The key to a successful
flash alternative is development of a
memory that can scale to large enough
densities but at a low enough price. Intel
was only able to meet the density part of
this challenge. It's only a matter of time until
we see a technology that can meet both
criteria, and we believe that ReRAM will be
an answer since it has fundamental
technical advantages including speed,
power efficiency and cost. Development is
underway to get the technology to ever
higher densities."
David Norfolk, practice leader for
development and government at analyst
firm Bloor Research summed up the
difficulty of predicting a schedule for the
arrival of the next new mass-market
memory: "A lot can happen in 10 years -
saying what will happen is easy (for
example atomic memory as being
researched by IBM); saying when is much
harder."
HURDLES FOR ANY NEW MEMORY
Omdia's Hahn agreed with Handy's belief
that the inability to reach sufficient sales to
justify the production volumes needed to
allow viably low prices caused the
cancellation of Optane. Roy Illsley added
that the relatively new high-speed variants of
SLC flash are handling tasks that Optane
was intended for: "It is easy to visualise
where Storage-Class Memory might fit into a
storage-memory pyramid, but it has been
difficult to deliver the right combination of
performance, latency, and cost
characteristics while providing data
persistence in the real world. Optane SCM
seemed to be a good effort, but its
production is being spun down for lack of
proper volume economics. There are clearly
a few good use-cases for Optane SCM but,
honestly, those are being addressed using
recently-released NAND flash SLC
technology. SLC NAND SSD offerings are on
the rise for their fantastic durability and good
write performance, especially for hot data
array tiering and data caching usage."
Panasas' Anderson said he also did not
expect an SCM to emerge in the next ten
years and pointed to another hurdle that
Optane needed to cross: "SCMs had/have
huge promise, but the change in software
architecture required for applications to gain
all the advantages that SCM can offer was
too high, so applications never adopted
them. Flash has not faced this hurdle,
because its specific combination of cost and
performance never required or justified its
use as an adjunct to DRAM memory."
Furthering his argument about the IT
industry's reluctance to modify software,
Anderson refers to NVDIMMs, which are
devices that combine DRAM memory with
flash to offer the performance of DRAM with
the persistence (the ability to retain data
safely after a power interruption) of flash:
"Intel and AMD have both now fully backed
away from vanilla NVDIMMs, let alone the
more exotic Optane."
SLC flash builds on existing NAND flash
technology, and Hahn's comment about its
value resonated with a statement made by
Boyan Krosnov, CTO and co-founder at
StorPool: "Any new technology has to
overcome the existing technology, which
benefits from decades of optimisation and
large-scale manufacturing. So, the new
technology will be at a significant
disadvantage." ST
www.storagemagazine.co.uk
@STMagAndAwards Mar/Apr 2024
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