It’s early days for computational storage, which enables on-drive data processing.
A decade ago, a flash-based solid-state drive (SSD) was pricey and precious—reserved for “hot data” that needed fast access, all the while keeping track of how many writes the storage media could handle before it wore out. Today, the endurance of NAND flash—now 3D—is rarely a concern, and the now-very-mature Non-Volatile Memory express protocol (NVMe) has unlocked the full capabilities of SSDs. There’s also no shortage of form factors serving different purposes in a wide array of use cases. […]
As a younger company founded in in 2014, ScaleFlux is on its third generation of its smart SSD, with samples just beginning to ship to customers. Baker said ScaleFlux integrates everything into a single chip that includes compute engines, flash management, and memory interface. This reduces the cost and the power associated with delivering the compute functionality.
It goes without saying that everyone is dealing with tremendous data growth, he said, but the need for smarter SSDs is just as much about addressing complexity that goes along with that growth and various workloads. […]
