Stanford Seminar - The Quest for Low Storage Latency Changes Everything

Explore the evolution of storage technology and its impact on latency in this Stanford seminar. Delve into the historical progression from early IBM systems to modern NVMe NAND SSDs, examining the ongoing quest for lower storage latency. Investigate media and platform improvements, including next-generation NVM/SCM technologies like 3D Xpoint. Analyze system architecture advancements, such as NVMe and PCI interfaces, and their role in reducing latency. Examine storage software stack optimizations and the potential of persistent memory. Learn about Intel's DIMM technology based on 3D XPoint, the Open NVM Programming Model, and operating system support for persistent memory. Gain insights into new instructions for flushing writes and see example code demonstrating these concepts.

Introduction.
1956: IBM RAMAC 350.
1983: IBM3380.
2016: 10K RPM HDD.
2016 NVMe NAND SSD.
The Continuing Need For Lower Latency.
Lower Storage Latency Requires Media and Platform Improvements.
Addressing Media Latency: Next Gen NVM/SCM.
3D Xpoint Technology Video.
Demonstration of 3D Xpoint™ SSD Prototype.
Need to Address System Architecture To Go Lower.
Addressing Interface Efficiency With NVMe / PCI.
NVMe Delivers Superior Latency Platform HW/5W Average Latency Excluding Media 4KB.
Storage SW Stack Optimizations.
Synchronous Completion for Queue Depth 1?.
Summary: Block Storage Platform Changes.
Persistent Memory Oriented Platform Changes.
INTEL DIMMS Based on 3D XPoint Technology.
Why Persistent Memory?.
Open NVM Programming Model.
Operating System Support for Persistent Memory.
New Instructions For Flushing Writes.
Example Code.