1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,240 We're used to getting revisions of computer standards fairly regularly. Think about how 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:09,840 many versions of USB, DDR, and PCI Express we've been through. But we haven't had to put much 3 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:15,840 thought into NVMe so far, as there's only been one major version of it. Until now, 4 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:22,480 as the NVMe 2.0 standard has just been released. In case you're out of the loop, NVMe, or Non-Bolatile 5 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:28,160 Memory Express, is the protocol that PCI Express connected storage drives use. Because it's much 6 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:33,440 faster than the older SATA standard, it's enabled those gaudy four-figure throughput numbers you see 7 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:39,040 on manufacturer spec sheets for M.2 drives. And the NVMe 2.0 specification is bringing some new 8 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:44,000 features to the table. So let's dive right in. One of the major improvements is for something 9 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:49,840 called zoned namespaces. And that might sound like some kind of forward-thinking therapy collective, 10 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:55,680 but it's actually a system designed to address some of the biggest issues with SSDs. You see, 11 00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:00,720 even though SSDs are a lot faster than old-school spinning hard drives, there's a significant 12 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:06,720 amount of inefficiency under the hood. Because the cells in an SSD can only be written to so many 13 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:12,720 times before they wear out for good, the SSD's internal logic has to move data around in a process 14 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:18,320 called wear leveling to make sure certain cells don't exhaust their lifespans more quickly than 15 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:25,360 others. Additionally, SSDs can't directly overwrite cells. Instead, cells have to have their data 16 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:32,000 erased first. And this has to be done in groups of cells. So any data in that group that the system 17 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:38,320 needs to preserve must be copied to an empty area. SSDs reserve a certain amount of space called 18 00:01:38,320 --> 00:01:44,560 over-provisioning to support these data operations, meaning a significant amount of storage is inaccessible 19 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:51,280 to the user. NVMe 2.0's zoned namespaces help alleviate this situation by allowing programs 20 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:57,680 to reserve specific physical areas on the SSD and write data for that program sequentially. 21 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:02,720 Without zoned namespaces, the SSD itself would be in charge of what data goes where. And this 22 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:08,560 often results in a specific program's data being scattered all over the drive, meaning that any 23 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:14,560 changes to that data could require lots of those read, copy, delete actions that use a large amount 24 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:21,040 of over-provisioned space. But with zoned namespaces, a smaller physical footprint per program 25 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:27,360 means the SSD won't have to over-provision as much space, nor do so many reads and writes, 26 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:32,960 meaning effectively larger drives, with better endurance for the same cost. And programs could 27 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:38,880 also see a performance boost from zoned namespaces as SSDs read and write sequential data faster than 28 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:44,480 they do random data. So not only is this good for consumers like you and me, but larger organizations 29 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:49,760 should see an even greater benefit than us, since when you're running lots of SSDs in parallel, 30 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:55,920 such as inside a gigantic server farm, having that much wasted space and latency 31 00:02:55,920 --> 00:03:01,440 can have a significant negative impact. Not to mention the direct cost of having to replace drives 32 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:06,560 that wear out. The second significant benefit of NVMe 2.0 that we're going to discuss today is 33 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:13,040 its surprising support for mechanical hard drives. But why would it support mechanical hard drives? 34 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:19,440 Even higher-end drives can't come anywhere close to using the full bandwidth of plain old 35 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:25,600 SATA. So what gives? It turns out that recent advances in hard drive manufacturing have allowed 36 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:31,680 drives to read data off the platters more quickly, partly due to improvements in the actuators that 37 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:36,880 move the drive parts around, and partly due to fitting more data on the platters themselves, 38 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:41,760 through techniques like heat-assisted magnetic recording, which you can learn about up here. 39 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,960 Hammer time. This means that some hard drives that are just starting to hit the market 40 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:52,320 can get sustained transfer rates above 500 megabytes per second sequentially, 41 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:58,160 which is comparable to SATA-based SSDs. NVMe 2.0 will provide enough bandwidth 42 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:03,360 to ensure newer hard drives can max out their potential, especially important in larger settings 43 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:08,240 that use lots of hard drives for mass storage. They can share data among themselves quickly. 44 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,920 Of course, because the NVMe 2.0 spec was released recently, 45 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:17,120 it'll be a while before we see products that support it. But hopefully the result will be 46 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:23,600 larger, cheaper drives for your home PC, and quicker, more reliable access to cloud services. 47 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:27,520 I just wouldn't expect Disney to slash the price of your streaming subscription 48 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,280 with the money they're saving on drives. World doesn't tend to work like that. 49 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:35,280 So thanks for watching guys! 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