[LSF/MM TOPIC][LSF/MM ATTEND] OCSSDs - SMR, Hierarchical Interface, and Vector I/Os

[Viacheslav Dubeyko]

Hi Matias,

On Tue, 2017-01-03 at 09:56 +0100, Matias Bjørling wrote:
> On 01/03/2017 12:12 AM, Viacheslav Dubeyko wrote:
> > 
> > On Mon, 2017-01-02 at 22:06 +0100, Matias Bjørling wrote:
> > > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > The open-channel SSD subsystem is maturing, and drives are
> > > beginning
> > > to 
> > > become available on the market. 
> > What do you mean? We still have nothing on the market. I haven't
> > opportunity to access to any of such device. Could you share your
> > knowledge where and what device can be bought on the market?
> > 
> Hi Vyacheslav,
> 
> You are right that they are not available off the shelf at a
> convenient
> store. You may contact one of these vendors for availability: CNEX
> Labs
> (Westlake LightNVM SDK), Radian Memory Systems (RMS-325), and/or EMC
> (OX
> Controller + Dragon Fire card).

We, Western Digital, contacted with CNEX Labs about a half year ago.
Our request was refused. Also we contacted with Radian Memory Systems
about a year ago. Our negotiations finished with no sucess at all. And
I doubt that EMC will share with us something. So, such situation looks
really weird, especially for the case of open-source community. We
cannot access or test any Open-channel SSD nor for money nor under NDA.
Usually, open-source means that everybody has access to hardware and we
can discuss implementation, architecture or approach without any
restrictions. But we haven't access to hardware right now. I understand
the business model and blah, blah, blah. But it looks like that,
finally, we have nothing like Open-channel SSD on the market, from my
personal point of view. And I suppose that it's really tricky way to
discuss software interface or any other details about something that
doesn't exist at all. Because if I cannot take and test some hardware
then I cannot build my own opinion about this technology.

Thanks,
Vyacheslav Dubeyko.