Marvel HyperDuo

[Will Rickards]

Have you guys heard about Marvell's hyperduo technology?
Looks like seagate's hybrid tech but separated out to have two individual devices. Looks like you can specify the stuff to keep on the ssd as well.
http://www.marvell.com/products/storage/storage_system_solutions/sata_controllers_pc_consumer/

I kind of like this idea better than straight up partitioning. Normally I'd have a boot partition with apps and then a data partiton. But if the boot partition was an SSD, it would be missing the more recent data files. Because I'd want my recent photos and docs on the ssd rather than a data partition. And I wouldn't want to be messing around with having a current directory and an archive directory or something like that.

What do you guys think? Hype or looks promising? It is supposed to be available this quarter.

 

[ddrueding]

Is there any reason this kind of technology can't be strictly software? It doesn't look like it needs anything more than a trick driver and some knowledge of the OS.

 

[Howell]

I like the looks of it.

Configured with one hard drive and one SSD, HyperDuo uses intelligent algorithms to automatically migrate hot data to the SSD, while enabling all data to be safely stored on a larger capacity SATA HDD.

 

[LunarMist]

How fast will that controller kill the new 3K write cycle SSDs?

 

[Howell]

How fast will that controller kill the new 3K write cycle SSDs?

It shouldn't be any faster than use without this controller. It should be less due to having more room to spread out the data.

 

[blakerwry]

Is there any reason this kind of technology can't be strictly software? It doesn't look like it needs anything more than a trick driver and some knowledge of the OS.

At that point, you're talking about basic caching and buffering functionality - something the OS already does in RAM. Rather than purchase a 64GB SSD for caching, 64GB of RAM might be a better choice.

Realistically, the benefits of cache probably diminish greatly as the size is increased; that is to say that 10MB cache might improve performance 100%, while a 100MB cache improves it 200%, and it might take a 1GB cache to reach 300% - based on our hypothetical example.

With all the caching and buffering already present in the OS, drivers, RAID cards (new ones have a 1GB cache), and the storage devices themselves I would have to think we are already heavily masking the actual performance of our storage mediums and that "innovations" such as these are simply alternative methods of the things we've already been doing for the past couple decades. I could certainly see how one might choose an SSD over battery backed RAM, but otherwise I'm not seeing much incentive to use this technology.

 

[LunarMist]

It shouldn't be any faster than use without this controller. It should be less due to having more room to spread out the data.

Somehow that is not computing. I'd rather use the SSD and HD by themselves. The chance of reusing random data is small and I already know to put the OS, apps, and frequently used files on the SSD.

 

[Will Rickards]

OS and apps sure. Frequently used files? More often than not for me that is a couple files. What I really care about are the most recent files. Most recent photos or videos to process. And I want them in my normal categorical structure. Not in some separate section I have to copy to the HD later for archival.

Pictures and video are begging for a database like file structure. Most of the time I don't care about where they are stored on the disk. I only care how recent the file is and who is in it.

I don't know maybe it isn't that great of a thing but when I start saying save to D not C to some people they have no idea what I'm talking about. They barely if at all have any structure to their files on their computers. So for them having it appear as one big disk would be helpful. And sometimes I just want to be able to treat it as one big disk.

 

[Howell]

Somehow that is not computing. I'd rather use the SSD and HD by themselves. The chance of reusing random data is small and I already know to put the OS, apps, and frequently used files on the SSD.

Configured with one hard drive and one SSD, HyperDuo uses intelligent algorithms to automatically migrate hot data to the SSD, while enabling all data to be safely stored on a larger capacity SATA HDD.

It is essentially using the SSD as controller attached Read/Write cache. Since the SSD will not be filled up with file data there be more room for the TRIM function to even out the wear.

 

[ddrueding]

I suspect that, like controller attached cache, the SSD will be filled to the brim at all times. It makes sense for the controller to make available as much information as possible, even if the likelihood of you accessing a particular file is low.

 

[LunarMist]

Well, you all can try it out and let us know. rofright: My computers are too complicated already.