Storage Intelligence Feature That Improves Performance and Endurance of Solid State Disk Drives Announced by SCSI Trade Association

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Aug 11, 2015) - Flash Memory Summit, Booth #708 -- Revealing a new Storage Intelligence feature that improves the performance and endurance of solid state disk drives (SSDs), the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) Trade Association (STA) (http://www.scsita.org/) today announced that the INCITS T10 Technical Committee has approved it for inclusion in the SCSI Block Commands feature set (SBC-4). The industry-leading feature will be used in products making use of the popular Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) protocol that delivers the performance and reliability required for enterprise-class storage.

"This move signifies that T10's Storage Intelligence proposal is stable and that data storage developers can begin to integrate this new functionality in products they bring to market," said Rick Kutcipal, president of STA and Product Planning, Data Center Storage Group, Avago Technologies. "This SCSI feature is leading the industry in its capabilities for providing features for optimization of SSDs and their applications."

The Storage Intelligence feature of SBC-4 provides SSD applications control over the access and grouping of the physical information (Streams) written to the drive, allowing for improved performance and endurance through the reduction of garbage collection and the undesirable phenomenon of write amplification. The feature also allows for system control of background activities such as housekeeping so tasks can be performed during optimal times of low usage in order to meet data throughput requirements during peaks of high demand.

"Because flash memory must be erased before it can be rewritten, there are many factors that affect the performance of an SSD," said Don Jeanette, vice president of data storage industry market research and consulting firm TRENDFOCUS Inc. "The Storage Intelligence feature of the SCSI standard is a significant industry advancement that will optimize SSD applications, boost storage system performance and increase the endurance of SSD drives."

About STA
The SCSI Trade Association (STA) was established in 1996 to provide a focal point for members to communicate the benefits of SCSI to the industry. STA promotes the understanding and use of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technology and influences the evolution of SCSI standards to meet future industry needs. The Association has a nine-member Board of Directors, which oversees the Marketing Communications and Technology Committees and all STA activities. For more information, please visit the STA web site at http://www.scsita.org, send an email to info@scsita.org or call the STA office at (415) 561-6273.