Flash fundamentals

By the end of this course you should be able to:

-

Explain flash storage technologies in the marketplace

Describe how flash storage is different from hard disks
List flash storage components
Define essential flash storage characteristics
Explain why NetApp is a leader in the flash storage marketplace

Flash-Accelerated storage

Flash devices

Enterprise Flash Storage components

Flash storage venders add value

Comparing SSDs to Hard disks

Flash page write, block erase:

The flash medium is divided into:
-

Pages, which range in size form 512 bytes to 8 kilobytes and

Erase units, which consist of 32 to 128 contiguous pages and are
frequently called erase blocks.

Erase process:
1. Active erase block pages are copied out to a buffer.
2. The erase block is flash erased.
3. The buffer contents are written back with previous data and new data to
any eligible erase block.

Maintaining valid data in erase block.

Solid state technologies

Most use NAND technology. Early chips used NOR technology. Currently, flash is
the predominate solid state storage technology.
Possible future solid state technologies are:
-

Stacking memory
Phase change memory
Resistive RAM
Ferroelectric RAM

Endurance represents the amount of data you can write to a flash device during
its lifetime, it is characterized by:

Program/erase (P/E) cycles

Total bytes written (TBW)
Drive writes per day (DWPD)

Endurance early issues

High endurance flash:
-

Was possible with SLC NAND technology

Was cost prohibitive

Lower cost flash

-

Was possible with MLC NAND technology

Requires wear levelling techniques

Overprovisioning
-

Provided extra capacity

Solved earlier endurance problems

Three classifications of endurance

1. Write-intensive = 25+DWPD
2. Medium endurance = 10 DWPD
3. Read-intensive = 1 to 3 DWPD
Flash media vendors use a combination of NAND type, overprovisioning, and
software to reach a desired endurance level.

Flash media wear-life challenge

-

Rewriting valid data from an erase block candidate amplifies writes

Write amplification increase wear
Wear is measured in P/E cycles, TBW, or DWPD.

Write-optimized software increases flash endurance.

Questions
1. Match each flash parameter to its correct definition
a. Write amplification
i. Characteristic of flash memory, where a single write on the
host results in multiple writes to the flash medium over time
b. Garbage collection
i. Identifies block erase candidates through monitoring page
active and inactive states and monitoring cold data pages.
c. Wear-Levelling
i. Evenly distributes page write and block erase operations over
the flash memory chips in a device
d. Flash transition layer
i. Presents the flash device to the host OS as a logical block
device
2. What are the three major components of enterprise flash devices? (Choose
three.)
a. Flash memory (Correct)
b. FAPI
c. DRAM (Correct)
d. Flash deregulator
e. Flash controller (Correct)
3. How is flash storage wear life measured? (Choose three.)
a. Total bytes written TBW (Correct)
b. Drive writes per day DWPD (Correct)
c. Flash endurance cycles -FEC
d. Program/Erase (P/E) cycles (Correct)
e. Center to Edge (CTE)

4. What
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

are two functions of the flash translation layer? (Choose two.)

Defining the write cliff
Supporting high availability
Managing component wear (Correct)
Mapping pages to logical blocks (Correct)
Mirroring writes to alternate controller

http://www.netapp.com/us/media/flash-storage-for-dummies.pdf