SCSI to IDE bridges...

[Alexander Schreiber]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 03:46:03PM -0700, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 25 Sep 2008 at 17:31, Jim Leonard wrote:
> 
> > All of this is mitigated by using IBM Microdrives instead of solid-state CF.
> 
> Back to a old query--will a Microdrive stand up to months of 
> continuous 24x7 use?  My impression was that they were useful only as 
> intermittent-use devices.
> 
> It seems that if flash was ready for primetime, the server farm 
> operators would jump at the chance to employ them, given that power 
> consumption is a *big* expense for them (both for system power and 
> the HVAC that's needed). 

The advantage of flash is _not_ the power consumption, but something
completely different: latency. Even the fastest SCSI drives have 2 ms
average latency (according to the datasheets). With flash, that latency
goes _waaaayyyy_ down. Which makes it _very_ interesting for high volume
OLTP and other latency bound I/O.

> But they're not jumping, are they?

One word: money.

Flash is still a lot more pricey for the same capacity than spindles.

Regards,
       Alex.
-- 
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
 looks like work."                                      -- Thomas A. Edison