Flash Memory Architecture Alternatives

Dr. John R Busch, CTO and Founder

Flash Chips: NOR vs NAND

Flash memory chips are constructed from different types of cells (NOR and NAND), and with different numbers of cells per memory location (single-level cell or SLC; and multi-level cell or MLC). These variations result in very different performance, cost, and reliability characteristics. NOR flash memory chips have much lower density, much lower bandwidth, much longer write and erase latencies, and much higher cost than NAND flash memory chips. For these reasons, NOR flash has minimal penetration in enterprise deployments; it is primarily used in consumer devices. Leading enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) are all designed with NAND flash. Continue reading →

Enterprise Flash Memory Overview

Dr. John R Busch, CTO and Founder

Why Use Flash in Scale-Out Datacenters?

Flash memory is a high-performance computer memory that can be electronically erased and reprogrammed (non-volatile). Enterprise-class flash memory in the form of commodity solid state disks (SSDs) and PCI-e cards is available today with a broad range of architectures, performance and reliability characteristics, capacities, and price points. In this series of blog entries we provide our analysis of the state and trends of enterprise-class commodity flash memory as it relates to deployment in datacenters scale out. Continue reading →