Slashdot are reporting that eBay have started to deploy SSDs for their VMs. Apparently the SSDs save on rack space and therefore power. They are also reducing the VM deployment time, allowing them to get a VM up and running in 5 minutes.
Tag Archives: Solid State Drive
Apple & Lacie Thunderbolt Technology
Apple officially unveiled the newly updated MacBook Pro range featuring new high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology and improved processor and graphics offerings back in February 2011. LACIE have just announced the Little Big Disk with Thunderbolt Technology to support this range of Macs. Running on PCI Express and DisplayPort protocols, data transfer speeds between peripherals on Thunderbolt technology can reportedly be done 20 times faster than USB 2.0. LACIE also mention the use of SSD technology in the little big disk to complement this technology, using two 250GB Intel 510® Series Solid-State Drives (SSD). The two solid-state drives are preconfigured as a Striped RAID Set for enhanced performance.
Our only concern with SSD technology is it’s reliability and endurance.
As with any non-volatile floating gate memory device, the more you cycle the device the more failures you tend to observe, and the less data retention you get. So although the I/O technology is the way forward, the type of device used for critical data storage, is still a question to be answered.
Dataquest part of Novatech’s New Managed Services
Dataquest’s specialist data recovery services incorporated in Novatech’s bespoke IT & Telecomms hardware solutions. Novatech can now offer their customers the complete worry free IT Solution. In partnership with Novatech, Dataquest will provide their customers with 24/7 Data Recovery support.
SSDs Not Secure
Some tests carried out by the “Non-Volatile Systems Laboratory” have revealed some serious flaws with SSDs ability to be securely erased. When using standard tools designed for spinning disks, the results were understandably bad. They also tried the built-in “Security Erase Unit” command and the results of this were generally not good. After being securely erased, most of the SSDs still contained some large fragments of the test files.
Some secure erasure software would be similarly inefficient for hard disks anyway, as things like remapped or bad sectors can still contain readable data which may not be erased during the process.
The simplest solution for securely erasing any data is to completely destroy the storage media. For hard drives this means making a real mess of the platters, for SSDs it means wrecking the whole PCB, data chips and controller chips.
Senuti iPhone iPod and iPad Recovery
We came across this software when we received an enquiry from a customer who wanted to take all their contact details from their iPhone 3G to iPhone 4 solid state devices. It definitely looks the part and so simple to use.
2TB WD Drive
Western Digital are apparently set to release a 2TB hard disk in the next week or so. With a 32MB cache and “Green” logo, this drive will spin down from 7,200rpm to 5,400rpm to conserve power. With capacities like this, the gap between SSDs and hard disks is still far from closing.
MEMRISTORS
To put it in a nutshell, this could be the future for storage technology. The memristor has been the missing link from back when resistors, inductors and capacitors were originally created. What has now changed is the use of nano technology which has allowed the creation of the fourth electronic component; the memristor.
This technology can “remember” how much current has passed through it and can save its electronic state even when turned off. This means that in theory it will be much faster and cheaper than flash memory (And SSDs), and eventually also replace the hard drive for data storage.
Seagate Mutant Hybrid Drives
Hard disk manufacturer Seagate is reportedly working on combining cheap unreliable solid state storage technology with more expensive and reliable technology to bring low cost SSD’s to consumers. At least we won’t be seeing any more of those savage 2.5″ Momentus drive head crashes!
The Little-Big Drive
Toshiba has just announced the 1.8″, 160GB, 5400rpm MK1617GSG drive. Apparently designed for netbooks and other such small machines, it’s a shame that this drive is a tad on the bulky side. at 8mm thick, this drive would be bulging out the sides of a current iPod or MacBook Air. With a SATA interface though, this drive could make for some fun embedded type devices or mods. I would personally love to see one squashed into an eeepc. I also bet that this little baby will be far cheaper than an equivalent solid state drive.
Seagate May Sue Rival SSD Makers
The next battle in the war on SSDs may have just begun. Apparently Seagate are convinced that SSD makers such as Samsung and Intel are violating some of Seagate’s (and Western Digital’s) patents. The wizardry which relates to the way a storage device communicates with a computer is at stake, even though Seagate themselves don’t appear too taken with an SSD based future. CEO Bill Watkins is quoted as saying, “realistically, I just don’t see the flash notebook sell.” I would have to agree with that at the moment. Cost per GB, reliability and speed are among the many drawbacks currently facing solid state drives when compared to traditional hard disk drives. Once these issues are resolved then the need for regular backups will become all the more important in my eyes at least. There are currently many ways in which we can resurrect a failing hard drive but next to no ways to recover a failed SSD.