SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Jul 18, 2012) -
News Summary:
- SNIA Group will act as main technical entity to coordinate systems standards for software-enabling NVM hardware
- SNIA Group will produce specs and will drive consistency of interface standards and messages related to NVM hardware
- SNIA NVM TWG founded by Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, NetApp, Oracle, QLogic and Symantec
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Full Story:
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) today announced the Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Programming Technical Work Group (TWG) to accelerate the availability of software-enabling NVM (Non-Volatile Memory) hardware. The TWG, founded by Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, NetApp, Oracle, QLogic and Symantec will create specifications that will provide guidance to operating system, device driver, and application developers.
The work group aims to serve as an industry forum communicating the need for Operating System (OS) enhancements to support NVM hardware.
"With the major leaps in performance capabilities and improved economics now possible with storage class memory, defining OS requirements to enable applications is expected to accelerate the availability of a broader range of NVM solutions to the IT industry," said Wayne M. Adams, Chairman of the SNIA. "The classic architecture of operating systems, servers and storage will rapidly evolve with NVM to meet the continued computational needs using larger data sets and driving new uses of information for business and science."
The NVM Programming Technical Work Group will:
- Act as the primary technical entity for the SNIA to identify, develop, and coordinate systems standards for software enabling NVM hardware.
- Produce a comprehensive set of specifications and drive consistency of software interface standards and messages related to NVM hardware.
- Document system-level requirements and share these with other NVM standards organizations under the guidance of the SNIA Technical Council and in cooperation with the SNIA Strategic Alliances Committee.
The TWG will develop a programming model specification for in-kernel NVM interfaces supporting functionality as requested by TWG members. Additionally, the TWG will develop a specification defining the interaction between applications and the kernel for applications directly using NVM storage (such as database software).
Founding Member Quotes:
Dell:
Steve Luning, vice president and senior fellow, Networked Storage and Intelligent Data Management for Dell stated, "Dell has been working with Intel on new programming models for exposing non-volatile memory capabilities directly to applications. In the coming years, we believe this work will have a significant positive impact on platform design and that it is important to have open industry participation in this effort. To that end, we applaud the creation of SNIA's NVM technical work group."
EMC:
Barry Ader, senior director, Flash Business Unit, EMC Corporation stated, "EMC supports SNIA's new effort to create application and operating system related interfaces for a server's storage that is based on non-volatile memory technology. We foresee breakthroughs in IO speed and application performance to balance server and storage architectures. This further enables customers to deploy cloud computing and big data analytics, as well as traditional low-latency transaction oriented applications and high performance computing applications."
Fujitsu:
Georg Mueller, senior director development at Fujitsu Technology Solutions added, "Fujitsu is fully in favor of initiatives such as this to help drive common, workable standards into the industry -- ensuring that emerging technology is best tailored to the needs of end customers. We believe that a SNIA-driven early agreement on standards, especially when backed by all the major vendors in the industry, will enable the business benefits of software-enabling NVM hardware technology to gain more rapid end-customer recognition."
HP:
Doug Voigt, distinguished technologist, Storage Division, HP stated, "Standards will play a crucial role in creating an open ecosystem for innovation that will maximize the performance and ROI potential of solid state technology in computer and storage architectures. HP supports a SNIA Technical Work Group and the opportunity to establish a programming model for accessing NVM as memory."
IBM:
Berni Schiefer, distinguished engineer, IBM stated, "IBM believes defining standards for programming models to better utilize non-volatile memory capabilities in an open industry forum will be a valuable enhancement to current capabilities. IBM fully supports the formation of a SNIA technical working group with the intention of defining such programming models."
Intel:
Steve Dalton, general manager, NVM Product Development, Platform Components Division added, "Intel believes that the impact of Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) to computer and storage systems represents one of the largest changes to computer architecture on the horizon. We have been working with our customers and with the software industry to understand the potential, and to define new programming models to fully take advantage of this transition. Universal feedback from the community has been positive, with the request to perform this work within an open and collaborative industry environment. We are pleased to have this proposal for a new TWG approved by SNIA, and Intel commits significant engineering efforts to ensure its success."
NetApp:
Steven Kleiman, senior vice president and chief scientist stated, "It has become clear that solid-state storage is having a profound impact on computer and storage system architectures. The next wave of disruption will be the advent of 'storage class memory' -- the successor to today's NAND Flash, offering up to 10 times the performance and a fraction of the latency. Standards enabling applications to take direct advantage of this technology will be essential, and this proposed new SNIA Non-Volatile Memory Technology Working Group is a good first step, and NetApp intends to actively participate in this effort."
Oracle:
Scott Tracy, vice president, Software Development, Oracle stated, "Oracle supports the SNIA initiative of the NVM Programming Technical Working Group. These NVM programming models are important to the future of computer systems and Oracle is committed to working within SNIA to help drive this effort."
QLogic:
Rob Davis, vice president, chief technology officer, QLogic stated, "QLogic is pleased to support the formation of a new NVM Technical Work Group. As a strong supporter of SNIA, we look forward to actively participating in a collaborative and open industry forum to develop NVM programming standards that will benefit operating system, device driver and application developers as well as the overall industry."
Symantec:
Don Angspatt, vice president of product management for Symantec's Storage and Availability Management Group added, "We are pleased to be a founding member of the SNIA Non-Volatile Memory Programming TWG. The industry, and more importantly IT organizations, will benefit from this group's efforts to accelerate the availability of NVM solutions. Symantec's goal remains the same -- to provide customers choice in how they manage their data centers -- and leveraging new technologies like this will help them to better meet their storage needs."
About the SNIA
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit global organization, made up of some 400 member companies spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIA's mission is to lead the storage industry worldwide in developing and promoting standards, technologies, and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information. To this end, the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education, and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market. For additional information, visit the SNIA web site at http://www.snia.org.