SATA multi-actuator drives appear as a single drive to the system stack, yet all IO is addressed to LBA ranges on each actuator. Linux IO schedulers must be aware of this geometry via log pages in ATA Command Set –5 and then optimize behavior to ensure that actuators are kept busy. Legacy IO scheduler behavior can lead to underutilized actuators, delayed IO completion resulting in poor performance.

Applications desire for higher IOPS & bandwidth is driving innovations at the hardware level. This requires software stack awareness to harness the benefits. Multi-actuator drives represent the next big innovation in performance.