Western Digital SSHD pairs SSD cache with HDD
The new Black-series "SSHD" from Western Digital hybrid device pairs solid state cache with mechanical platters in an attempt to deliver the best from both worlds, you get a significant performance boost from the fast flash memory and the cheap storage capacity of a HDD.
In a demo being showcased at CES, the SSHD loaded a suite of applications in 55 seconds, only four seconds worse than an SSD, while a standard hard drive took 81 seconds to finish the test. Like Seagate's Momentus XT hybrids, WD's SSHD solution uses its flash memory as a read cache. Incoming writes from the host system aren't stored in the NAND, although that may change for future generations. Interestingly, the caching mechanism is controlled by a combination of firmware and host-based software drivers.
The Momentus XT's caching is implemented entirely in the firmware, and I'm curious whether bringing the host PC into the picture provides any benefits. We've already seen good results from driver-based caching solutions like Intel's Smart Response Technology, which allows SSDs to be configured as caches for traditional hard drives. The WD SSHD will be offered as a 2.5" disk with a 7mm thickness, making it suitable for ultraportable laptops and ultrabooks. The site also heard that an even slimmer 5mm version may be in the cards, as well.
Western Digital 4 and 8 TB My Book Duo - 10/10/2012 05:34 AM
Western Digital (WD) has released two new models of their My Book and My Book Duo external hard drives. The Thunderbolt devices are now available in an 8 TB model which uses a pair of 4 TB drives in a...
1 TB Model Western Digital VelociRaptor - 04/17/2012 09:24 AM
Western Digital today announced it is now shipping the new WD VelociRaptor 1 TB hard drive, the latest addition to its award-winning drive family, the largest capacity 10,000 RPM hard drive on the mar...
Western Digital WD TV Live With Spotify - 10/07/2011 10:17 AM
Western Digital, the world's leader in external storage solutions and maker of the popular WD TV media player family, today introduced the next generation of its WD TV Live streaming media player, an ...
Western Digital buys Hitachi GST with $4.3bn deal - 03/08/2011 11:06 AM
A huge shift in the balance of storage powers is taking effect real soon as Western Digital
Western Digital Unveils First SAS WD S25 - 11/04/2009 12:16 PM
Western Digital announced today the debut of its new WD S25-inch 2.5-inch traditional hard drive, featuring a SAS interface. Designed for the traditional enterprise market segment, the new drive is t...
Member
Posts: 98
Joined: 2011-09-01
I am currently using this technology in raid configurations on enterprise servers. I have a SSD "cachecade" raid 1, which takes all the caching responsibilities from the other raids that I assign. This is all done from both firmware and software. It is still pretty buggy, but when it does work, you can really see the difference.