- FTL-free SSD concept streams data sequentially with device-assigned addresses
- StreamFast claims a thousandfold reduction in memory requirements for large SSDs
- The design is aimed at cooler drives, lower power consumption and simpler high-capacity storage
Hammerspace founder David Flynn is launching a new SSD architecture that removes the Flash Translation Layer and its controller DRAM, replacing both with a file system-centric design called StreamFast.
According to Blocks and filesthe concept will be developed under a new StreamFast company working with the Open Flash Platform group, while Hammerspace itself will continue to focus on its system-level software.
Flynn says the current SSD model burns memory and power because controllers rely on an FTL stored in DRAM to track data locations.
The DRAM crunch
“It takes a byte of RAM for every kilobyte of flash on the SSD,” Flynn said Blocks and files. “Think about it. If you’re going to have a petabyte of flash on an SSD, that means you have to have a terabyte of DRAM.”
He links that overhead to the broader DRAM crisis, where manufacturers are shifting capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for GPUs from companies like Nvidia and AMD.
The suggestion is to remove FTL entirely and let the file system interact with flash directly.
“We need to get rid of the block abstraction and move to something more natural to flash,” says Flynn.
StreamFast uses device-assigned sequential addresses instead. The SSD writes incoming data streams one after the other and then returns those addresses to the host file system.
“The magic is that the device assigns sequential addresses to arbitrary strings of data streamed to the device,” Flynn said.
Because writes are sequential, the host can replay the stream after an error rather than tracking each address in memory.
“With the StreamFast file system, that’s one byte of RAM for every megabyte of flash,” he said.
That’s a thousand-to-one improvement over the usual ratio. By Flynn’s own math, a 1PB SSD would need about 1GB of host memory instead of 1TB inside the drive.
Removing FTL also cuts write gain and reduces heat, as controller DRAM often forms the thermal hotspot.
“This simplifies the construction of the SSD to the point where it is much more reliable,” Flynn said.
The company works with partners across the flash ecosystem, though when Blocks and files mentioned SK Hynix, Flynn was cagey.
“Can’t talk about the specifics of our partnerships yet, but stay tuned. And I was out in Korea just a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
Flynn also claims the cooler, simpler drives could suit power-constrained environments, including sealed or even orbital data centers.
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