A new SNIA Technical Work draft is now available for public review and comment – the SNIA Persistent Memory Performance Test Specification (PTS) White Paper.

A companion to the SNIA NVM Programming Model, the SNIA PM PTS White Paper (PM PTS WP) focuses on describing the relationship between traditional block IO NVMe SSD based storage and the migration to Persistent Memory block and byte addressable storage.

The PM PTS WP reviews the history and need for storage performance benchmarking beginning with Hard Disk Drive corner case stress tests, the increasing gap between CPU/SW/HW Stack performance and storage performance, and the resulting need for faster storage tiers and storage
products.

The PM PTS WP discusses the introduction of NAND Flash SSD performance testing that incorporates pre-conditioning and steady state measurement (as described in the SNIA Solid State Storage PTS), the effects of – and need for testing using – Real World Workloads on Datacenter Storage (as described in the SNIA Real World Storage Workload PTS for Datacenter Storage), the development of the NVM Programming model, the introduction of PM storage and the need for a Persistent Memory PTS.

The PM PTS focuses on the characterization, optimization,
and test of persistent memory storage architectures – including 3D XPoint,
NVDIMM-N/P, DRAM, Phase Change Memory, MRAM, ReRAM, STRAM, and others – using
both synthetic and real-world workloads. It includes test settings, metrics,
methodologies, benchmarks, and reference options to provide reliable and
repeatable test results. Future tests would use the framework established in the
first tests.

The SNIA PM PTS White Paper targets storage professionals involved
with:

1. Traditional NAND Flash based SSD storage over
   the PCIe bus;
2. PM storage utilizing PM aware drivers that
   convert block IO access to loads and stores; and
3. Direct In-memory storage and applications that
   take full advantage of the speed and persistence of PM storage and
   technologies.

The PM PTS WP discussion on the differences between byte and
block addressable storage is intended to help professionals optimize
application and storage technologies and to help storage professionals
understand the market and technical roadmap for PM storage.

Eden Kim, chair of the SNIA Solid State Storage TWG and a co-author, explained that SNIA is seeking comment from Cloud Infrastructure, IT, and Data Center professionals looking to balance server and application loads, integrate PM storage for in-memory applications, and understand how response time and latency spikes are being influenced by applications, storage and the SW/HW stack.

The SNIA Solid State Storage Technical Work Group (TWG) has published several papers on performance testing and real-world workloads, and the  SNIA PM PTS White Paper includes both synthetic and real world workload tests.  The authors are seeking comment from industry professionals, researchers, academics and other interested parties on the PM PTS WP and anyone interested to participate in development of the PM PTS.

Use the SNIA
Feedback Portal to submit your comments.

by Jim Fister, SNIA Director of Persistent Memory Enabling Last year, the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Non-Volatile Systems Lab (NVSL) teamed with the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) to launch a new conference, Persistent Programming In Real Life (PIRL). While not an effort to set the record for acronyms in a conference announcement, we did consider it a side-goal.  The PIRL conference was focused on gathering a group of developers and architects for persistent memory to discuss real-world results. We wanted to know what worked and what didn’t, what was hard and what was easy, and how we could help more developers move forward. You don’t need another pep talk about how the world has changed and all the things you need to do (though staying home and washing your hands is a pretty good idea right now).  But if you’d like a pep talk on sharing your experiences with persistent memory programming, then consider this just what you need. We believe that continuing the spirit of PIRL — discussing the results of persistent memory programming in real life — should continue. If you’re not aware, SNIA has been delivering some very popular webcasts on persistent programming, cloud storage, and a variety of other topics.  SNIA has a great new webcast featuring PIRL alumni Steve Heller, SNIA CMSI co-chair Alex McDonald, and me on the SNIA NVDIMM programming challenge and the winning entry. You can find more information and check the on-demand viewing at https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/663/389451. We would like to highlight more “In Real Life” topics via our SNIA webcast channel.  Therefore, SNIA and UCSD NVSL have teamed up to create a submission portal for anyone interested in discussing their real-world persistent memory experiences.  You can submit a topic here  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_Ypo_sf1xxFcPD1F7se02jOWrdslosUnvwyS0RwcQpWAHiA/viewform where we will evaluate your submission.  Acceptable submissions will be featured in conjunction with the SNIA channel over the coming months. As a final note, this year’s PIRL conference is currently scheduled for July.  Even though most software developers are already used to social isolation and distancing from their peers, our organizing team has kept abreast of all the latest information to make a decision on the capability to do an in-person conference on that date.  In our last meeting, we agreed that it would not be prudent to hold the conference on the July date, and have tentatively rescheduled the in-person conference to October 13-14 of 2020. We will announce an exact date and our criteria for moving forward on that date in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

The SNIA Persistent Memory and NVDIMM Special Interest Group announced a programming challenge for NVDIMM-based systems in Q4 of 2019.  Participants get free online access to persistent memory systems based at the SNIA Technology Center using NVDIMM-Ns provided by SIG members AgigA Tech, Intel, SMART Modular, and Supermicro.  The goal of the challenge is to spark interest by developers in this new technology so they can understand more clearly how persistent memory applications can be developed and applied in 2020 environments and beyond.

Response to the NVDIMM Programming Challenge has been very positive.  Entrants to date have backgrounds from no experience programming persistent memory to those who develop persistent memory applications as part of their day jobs.

At the January 2020 Persistent Memory Summit, the SIG announced the first NVDIMM Programming Challenge winner:   Steve Heller of Chrysalis Software Corporation.

Steve submitted a closed-source project, the Three Misses Persistent Hash Table (www.threemisses.com), a key-value store application that uses persistent memory to enable significantly faster start-up and shut-down.  Its use of the DRAM speed of the NVDIMM modules enables faster look-up performance.

Steve's project met the challenge criteria as reviewed by the judges, including the use of multiple aspects of NVDIMM/Persistent Memory capabilities and the use of persistence to enable new features and appeal across multiple aspects of a system beyond persistence.  The Three Misses Persistent Hash Table also advanced the cause of Persistent Memory and applied to all types of NVDIMM/Persistent Memory systems.

Jim Fister, who directs the SNIA Hackathon Program, provided a lively summary of Steve’s winning entry during his talk Introduction to PM Hackathons at the Persistent Memory Summit.  Look for the details about 9 minutes, 30 seconds into the video.  You can watch all of the day’s videos on the SNIA Video Channel PM Summit playlist.

Steve also provided a live demonstration of his work during the day at the Persistent Memory Summit.

SNIA congratulates Steve and reminds you that the NVDIMM Programming Challenge is still LIVE!  Additional participants and submissions are welcome through March 31, 2020, and will be featured at upcoming SNIA events.  Send an email to PMhackathon@snia.org and get your credentials.  Read more about challenge details, and watch this space for future winners, as well as more challenge opportunities!

The SNIA Persistent Memory and NVDIMM Special Interest Group announced a programming challenge for NVDIMM-based systems in Q4 of 2019.  Participants get free online access to persistent memory systems based at the SNIA Technology Center using NVDIMM-Ns provided by SIG members AgigA Tech, Intel, SMART Modular, and Supermicro.  The goal of the challenge is to spark interest by developers in this new technology so they can understand more clearly how persistent memory applications can be developed and applied in 2020 environments and beyond. Response to the NVDIMM Programming Challenge has been very positive.  Entrants to date have backgrounds from no experience programming persistent memory to those who develop persistent memory applications as part of their day jobs. At the January 2020 Persistent Memory Summit, the SIG announced the first NVDIMM Programming Challenge winner:   Steve Heller of Chrysalis Software Corporation. Steve submitted a closed-source project, the Three Misses Persistent Hash Table (www.threemisses.com), a key-value store application that uses persistent memory to enable significantly faster start-up and shut-down.  Its use of the DRAM speed of the NVDIMM modules enables faster look-up performance. Steve’s project met the challenge criteria as reviewed by the judges, including the use of multiple aspects of NVDIMM/Persistent Memory capabilities and the use of persistence to enable new features and appeal across multiple aspects of a system beyond persistence.  The Three Misses Persistent Hash Table also advanced the cause of Persistent Memory and applied to all types of NVDIMM/Persistent Memory systems. Jim Fister, who directs the SNIA Hackathon Program, provided a lively summary of Steve’s winning entry during his talk Introduction to PM Hackathons at the Persistent Memory Summit.  Look for the details about 9 minutes, 30 seconds into the video.  You can watch all of the day’s videos on the SNIA Video Channel PM Summit playlist. Steve also provided a live demonstration of his work during the day at the Persistent Memory Summit. SNIA congratulates Steve and reminds you that the NVDIMM Programming Challenge is still LIVE!  Additional participants and submissions are welcome through March 31, 2020, and will be featured at upcoming SNIA events.  Send an email to PMhackathon@snia.org and get your credentials.  Read more about challenge details, and watch this space for future winners, as well as more challenge opportunities!

We’re 11 months in to the Persistent Memory Hackathon program, and over 150 software developers have taken the tutorial and tried their hand at programming to persistent memory systems.   AgigA Tech, Intel,  SMART Modular, and Supermicro, members of the SNIA Persistent Memory and NVDIMM SIG, have now placed persistent memory systems with NVDIMM-Ns into the SNIA Technology Center as the backbone of the first SNIA NVDIMM Programming Challenge. Interested in participating?  Send an email to PMhackathon@snia.org to get your credentials.  And do so quickly, as the first round of review for the SNIA NVDIMM Programming Challenge is now open.  Any entrants who have progressed to a point where they would like a review are welcome to contact SNIA at PMhackathon@snia.org to request a time slot.  SNIA will be opening review times in December and January as well.  Submissions that meet a significant amount of the judging criteria described below, as determined by the panel, will be eligible for a demonstration slot to show the 400+ attendees at the January 23, 2020 Persistent Memory Summit  in Santa Clara CA. Your program or results should be able to be visually demonstrated using remote access to a PM-enabled server. Submissions will be judged by a panel of SNIA experts.  Reviews will be scheduled at the convenience of the submitter and judges, and done via conference call. NVDIMM Programming Challenge Judging Criteria include: Use of multiple aspects of NVDIMM/PM capabilities, for example:

1. Use of larger DRAM/NVDIMM memory sizes
2. Use of the DRAM speed of NVDIMM PMEM for performance
3. Speed-up of application shut down or restart using PM where appropriate
4. Recovery from crash/failure
5. Storage of data across application or system restarts

Demonstrates other innovative aspects for a program or tool, for example:

1. Uses persistence to enable new features
2. Appeals across multiple aspects of a system, beyond persistence

Advances the cause of PM in some obvious way:

1. Encourages the update of systems to broadly support PM
2. Makes PM an incremental need in IT deployments

Program or results apply to all types of NVDIMM/PM systems, though exact results may vary across memory types. Questions? Contact Jim Fister, SNIA Hackathon Program Director, at pmhackathon@snia.org, and happy coding!

We’re 11 months in to the Persistent Memory Hackathon program, and over 150 software developers have taken the tutorial and tried their hand at programming to persistent memory systems.   AgigA Tech, Intel,  SMART Modular, and Supermicro, members of the SNIA Persistent Memory and NVDIMM SIG, have now placed persistent memory systems with NVDIMM-Ns into the SNIA Technology Center as the backbone of the first SNIA NVDIMM Programming Challenge.

Interested in participating?  Send an email to PMhackathon@snia.org to get your credentials.  And do so quickly, as the first round of review for the SNIA NVDIMM Programming Challenge is now open.  Any entrants who have progressed to a point where they would like a review are welcome to contact SNIA at PMhackathon@snia.org to request a time slot.  SNIA will be opening review times in December and January as well.  Submissions that meet a significant amount of the judging criteria described below, as determined by the panel, will be eligible for a demonstration slot to show the 400+ attendees at the January 23, 2020 Persistent Memory Summit  in Santa Clara CA.

Your program or results should be able to be visually demonstrated using remote access to a PM-enabled server. Submissions will be judged by a panel of SNIA experts.  Reviews will be scheduled at the convenience of the submitter and judges, and done via conference call.

NVDIMM Programming Challenge Judging Criteria include:

Use of multiple aspects of NVDIMM/PM capabilities, for example:

1. Use of larger DRAM/NVDIMM memory sizes
2. Use of the DRAM speed of NVDIMM PMEM for performance
3. Speed-up of application shut down or restart using PM where appropriate
4. Recovery from crash/failure
5. Storage of data across application or system restarts

Demonstrates other innovative aspects for a program or tool, for example:

1. Uses persistence to enable new features
2. Appeals across multiple aspects of a system, beyond persistence

Advances the cause of PM in some obvious way:

1. Encourages the update of systems to broadly support PM
2. Makes PM an incremental need in IT deployments

Program or results apply to all types of NVDIMM/PM systems, though exact results may vary across memory types.

Questions? Contact Jim Fister, SNIA Hackathon Program Director, at pmhackathon@snia.org, and happy coding!

The 2020 SNIA Persistent Memory Summit is coming to the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara on Thursday, January 23, 2020. The day before, on January 22, an expanded version of the SNIA Persistent Memory Hackathon will return, co-located again with the SNIA Annual Members Symposium. We’ll share Hackathon details in an upcoming SNIA Solid State blog. For those who have already attended a Persistent Memory Summit, you will find significant changes in the makeup of the agenda.  For those who have never attended, the new agenda might also be an opportunity to learn more about development options and experiences for persistent memory. The focus of the 2020 Summit will be on tool and application development for systems with persistent memory.  While there is significant momentum for applications, some companies and individuals are still hesitant. The recent Persistent Programming in Real Life (PIRL) conference in San Diego focused on corporate and academic development efforts, specifically diving into the experience of developing for persistent memory.  A great example of the presentations at PIRL is one on ZUFS from Shachar Sharon of NetApp, a SNIA member company. The Persistent Memory Summit will have several similar talks focusing on the experience of delivering applications for persistent memory.  While obviously of benefit to developers and software management, the presentations will also serve the needs of hardware attendees by highlighting the process that applications will follow to utilize new hardware.  Likewise, companies interested in exploring persistent memory in IT infrastructure can benefit from understanding the implementations that are available. The Summit will also feature some of the entries to the SNIA NVDIMM Programming Challenge announced at the SNIA Storage Developer Conference.  Check out the “Show Your Persistent Stuff” blog for all the details.  If you haven’t registered to participate, opportunities are still available. Registration for the Persistent Memory summit is complimentary, and includes a demonstration area, lunch, and reception. Don’t miss this event!

Persistent Memory software development has been a source of server development innovation for the last couple years.  The availability of the open source PMDK libraries (http://pmem.io/pmdk/) has provided a common interface for developing across PM types as well as server architectures.  Innovation beyond PMDK also continues to grow, as more experimentation yields open and closed source products and tools.

However, there is still hesitation to develop without physical systems.  While systems are available from a variety of outlets, the costs of those systems and the memory can still be a barrier for small developers.  Recognizing that there’s a need to grow both outlet and opportunity, Now, however, the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is announcing the availability of NVDIMM-based Persistent Memory systems for developers along with a programming challenge.

Interested developers can get credentials to access systems in the SNIA Technology Center in Colorado Springs, CO for development and testing of innovative applications or tools that can utilize persistent memory.  The challenge is open to any developer or community interested in testing code.

Participants will have the opportunity to demonstrate their output to a panel of judges.  The most innovative solutions will have a showcase opportunity at upcoming SNIA events in 2020. The first opportunity will be the SNIA Persistent Memory Summit.  Judges will be looking for applications and tools that best highlight the values of persistent memory, including persistence in the memory tier, improved performance of applications using PM, and crash resilience and recovery of data across application or system restarts.

To register, contact SNIA at pmhackathon@snia.org.  The challenge will be available starting immediately through at least the first half of 2020.

Check out the Persistent Programming in Real Life (PIRL) blog as well for information on this challenge and other upcoming activities.

Persistent Memory software development has been a source of server development innovation for the last couple years.  The availability of the open source PMDK libraries (http://pmem.io/pmdk/) has provided a common interface for developing across PM types as well as server architectures.  Innovation beyond PMDK also continues to grow, as more experimentation yields open and closed source products and tools. However, there is still hesitation to develop without physical systems.  While systems are available from a variety of outlets, the costs of those systems and the memory can still be a barrier for small developers.  Recognizing that there’s a need to grow both outlet and opportunity, Now, however, the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is announcing the availability of NVDIMM-based Persistent Memory systems for developers along with a programming challenge. Interested developers can get credentials to access systems in the SNIA Technology Center in Colorado Springs, CO for development and testing of innovative applications or tools that can utilize persistent memory.  The challenge is open to any developer or community interested in testing code. Participants will have the opportunity to demonstrate their output to a panel of judges.  The most innovative solutions will have a showcase opportunity at upcoming SNIA events in 2020. The first opportunity will be the SNIA Persistent Memory Summit.  Judges will be looking for applications and tools that best highlight the values of persistent memory, including persistence in the memory tier, improved performance of applications using PM, and crash resilience and recovery of data across application or system restarts. To register, contact SNIA at pmhackathon@snia.org.  The challenge will be available starting immediately through at least the first half of 2020. Check out the Persistent Programming in Real Life (PIRL) blog as well for information on this challenge and other upcoming activities.  

A Best of Show award, over 12 hours of content, three days of demos, and a new program drawing attention to persistent memory programming completed – Flash Memory Summit 2019 is officially a success!

SNIA volunteers were again recognized for their hard work developing standards for datacenters and storage professionals with a “Most Innovative Flash Memory Technology” FMS Best of Show award. This year, it was SNIA’s Object Drive Technical Work Group who received kudos for the SNIA Technical Position Key Value Storage API Specification.  Jay Kramer, head of the FMS awards program, presented the award to Bill Martin, Chair of the Object Drive TWG, commenting “Key value store technology can enable NVM storage devices to map and store data more efficiently and with enhanced performance, which is of paramount significance to facilitate computational storage.  Flash Memory Summit is proud to recognize the SNIA Object Drive Technical Work Group (TWG) for creating the SNIA Technical Position Key Value Storage API Specification Version 1.0 defining an application programming interface (API) for key value storage devices and making this available to the public for download.

SNIA Sessions at FMS Now Available for Viewing and Download

SNIA Executive Director Michael Oros again took the mainstage to describe “Standards that Can Change Your Job and Your Life” encapsulating SNIA work in three core areas:  persistent memory, computational storage, and storage management.

Also at Flash Memory Summit, SNIA work and volunteers were on display in eight sessions on persistent memory, highlighting advances in persistent memory, PM software and applications, remote persistent memory, and current research in PM, sponsored by SNIA, JEDEC, and the OpenFabrics Alliance.   A new 2019 SNIA-sponsored track on computational storage featured four sessions on controllers and technology, deploying solutions, implementation methods, and applications.

SNIA’s SFF Technology Affiliate highlighted their work on the Enterprise and Datacenter 1U Short SSD Form Factor (E1.S) specification SFF-TA 1006,  while the Object Drive TWG expanded on their work in standardization for a key value storage interface underway at SNIA and NVM Express.   SNIA also presented a preconference seminar tutorial on persistent memory and NVDIMM, and a session on Storage Management with Swordfish APIs for Open Channel SSDs.

A new session on programming to persistent memory featured a tutorial (video available soon) and a 2 ½ day Persistent Memory Programming Hackathon where attendees programmed to persistent memory systems and discussed their applications.  Next up for the Hackathon series – a 2-day event at SNIA Storage Developer Conference.

Find PDFs of these sessions by clicking on Flash Memory Summit 2019 under Associated Event in the SNIA Educational Library.

We continued our discussions on the exhibit floor featuring JEDEC-compliant NVDIMM-Ns from SNIA Persistent Memory and NVDIMM SIG members AgigA Tech, Micron, SMART Modular Technologies, and Viking in a Supermicro box running an open source performance demonstration.  If you missed it, the SIG will showcase a similar demonstration at the upcoming SNIA Storage Developer Conference September 23-26, 2019, and at the 2020 SNIA Persistent Memory Summit January 23, 2020, both at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara.  Click on the conference names to register for both events.