Apple is Doomed, Again.
Posted on 12/22/2012 11:13:07 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Samsung has created a new Linux file system called F2FS. Jaegeuk Kim of Samsung writes on the Linux Kernel Mailing List:
F2FS is a new file system carefully designed for the NAND flash memory-based storage devices. We chose a log structure file system approach, but we tried to adapt it to the new form of storage. Also we remedy some known issues of the very old log structured file system, such as snowball effect of wandering tree and high cleaning overhead.
Greg KH, the lead Linux kernel developer applauded the file system on his Google+ page, "Sweet, a new Linux file system from Samsung that is faster than existing ones when running on flash storage devices, submitted in a clean, easy-to-apply manner. This will be great for Android-based systems."
The file stystem is targeted at NAND flash memory based devices as Kim explains, "NAND flash memory-based storage devices, such as SSD, eMMC, and SD cards, have been widely being used for ranging from mobile to server systems. Since they are known to have different characteristics from the conventional rotational disks, a file system, an upper layer to the storage device, should adapt to the changes from the sketch."
The new file system is great news for Android and also brings Samsung on the 'forefront' as an important contributor to the development of Linux and Android.
(Excerpt) Read more at muktware.com ...
This is great news! Thanks for posting up...
Apple is Doomed, Again.
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Seems to be finally the open source answer to patent-loaden exFAT. Great to see.
F2fs flash-friendly filesystem integrated into Linux
21 December 2012, 11:50
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Linus Torvalds has integrated code to support the F2fs filesystem into the Linux kernel's main development branch; this branch is currently used to prepare Linux 3.8 (1, 2, 3). Introduced in October, F2fs is a filesystem that was mainly developed by Samsung employees and is specially tailored for storage media that use flash memory chips and a rather simple Flash Translation Layer (FTL) – for example USB flash drives, memory cards (eMMC, SD cards, ...) and the storage media that are included in cameras, tablets and smartphones.
F2fs is a Log-structured File System (LFS). Like Btrfs, such filesystems use Copy-on-Write (COW) – when a file is overwritten, the filesystem will, therefore, store the new data in a different place and delete the reference to the old data. However, unlike Btrfs or Ext4, F2fs fills up storage media sequentially, always saving new data behind the most recently stored data with no regard for fragmentation. Only once it has reached the end of the storage medium will it start again at the beginning and use any newly deallocated areas to store further data.
Similar mechanisms are also used by the Flash Translation Layer of flash storage media – for example, in order to ensure that flash chips are evenly used because they only tolerate a limited number of writes. Some of the approaches used in F2fs aim to ensure harmonious relations between the filesystem and the Flash Translation Layer; F2fs is also designed to avoid various known LFS filesystem issues. Further details on F2fs can be found in the related kernel documentation and in an article on LWN.net; the article was written by Neil Brown, who maintains the kernel's MD software RAID code and mdadm.
The "f2fs-tools" userspace tools for implementing F2fs disks are available at kernel.org. The filesystem is only one of many improvements Linus Torvalds has integrated into the main development branch since the release of Linux 3.7. The "merge window" phase in which Torvalds integrates the majority of a new version's major new features usually lasts two weeks; therefore, the Linux 3.8 merge window will probably close this weekend. Only corrections and minor harmless adjustments will be made to the main development branch after this time; if the kernel developers keep to their usual rhythm, Linux 3.8 should arrive in February.
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October 10, 2012
This article was contributed by Neil Brown
When a techno-geek gets a new toy there must always be an urge to take it apart and see how it works. Practicalities (and warranties) sometimes suppress that urge, but in the case of f2fs and this geek, the urge was too strong. What follows is the result of taking apart this new filesystem to see how it works.
See link at post #7....much detail and comments to the article.
bookmark.
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Posted Oct 18, 2012 14:23 UTC (Thu) by arnd (subscriber, #8866) [Link]
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An f2fs teardown
Posted Oct 18, 2012 12:40 UTC (Thu) by arnd (subscriber, #8866) [Link]
* The file system is not stable or merged yet, and will very likely see incompatible changes to the on-disk layout. Even if you don't run into bugs that cause your data to get destroyed, you won't be able to read the data anymore with the version of the file system that eventually gets merged.
* A lot of SD cards are not sufficient in their hardware characteristics to support f2fs. Have a look at https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/Kernel/Projects/Fla..., all SD cards with a number of less than 7 in the "# open AUs linear" column or cards that don't have a power-of-two erase block size.will not work correctly with f2fs. It's not worse than using ext4 or btrfs on the same devices though, but you should not do that either, at least not if you are storing important data.
See #10.
Has a multi-version file system (used by DEC >30 years ago) been invented yet?
Not sure what happened to VSAM.( an IBM scheme )
Well...
Since iOS is OSX,
and OSX is a super-set of UNIX,
and this is a LINUX kernel update
This should not be difficult to
implement in OSX and iOS
Windows however is not UNIX based
that I'm aware of so
it may be more difficult to port
ClearCase, Rational’s (and now IBM’s) version control system has it, though it’s not as transparent as VMS’ RMS, as it was called. Perforce, another version control product, also has it in some form.
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This came out of the blue. Samsung announced their intent to acquire NVELO, known for their Dataplex SSD caching software. Price or specific timeframe of the acquisition have not been revealed yet, but the acquisition does include all NVELO technology and personnel.
NVELO as a company may be a new acquaintance for many as it was founded only two years ago as a spin-off from Denali Software, which was acquired by Cadence in June 2010. While NVELO has not been around for long, the company is full of experience as most of the employees worked over a decade for Denali before the acquisition. In fact, Dataplex development began in 2007 when Denali was still a standalone company.
There are several products in the market that use NVELO's Dataplex software such as OCZ's Synapse, Corsair's Accelerator and Crucial's Adrenaline SSDs. Dataplex is essentially an alternative to Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT) but with fewer limitations. For example, Dataplex is not tied to any specific chipsets, making it a viable option for AMD based setups and older systems without Intel's SRT support. There is also no 64GB cache size limitation like in Intel's SRT, although most of the SSDs that are bundled with Dataplex are 64GB or smaller. Whether it's worth it to use an SSD bigger than 64GB for caching is a different question, but at least there is an option for that. We have played around with NVELO's Dataplex in our labs but we haven't thoroughly reviewed it (yet).
While at least I didn't expect this acquisition, it does make a lot of sense. SSD prices have come down significantly in the last few years but we still aren't at a point where SSDs can replace hard drives in mainstream products. However, the difference an SSD makes is just so substantial that there is no reason not to want an SSD. The advantage of caching is that you can have SSD-like performance with plenty of storage without breaking the bank. Samsung doesn't have any consumer-grade SSD caching products, so with the acquisition it seems that Samsung is interested in entering that market. Why Samsung chose to acquire NVELO instead of just licensing the Dataplex software is a good question, but it's possible that Samsung wants to develop something in the house instead of using a commercially available solution (given the significant vertical integration already present in their SSDs, this wouldn't be a surprise). The acquisition may also be a way to eliminate competition because Samsung can force the competitors to get out of the SSD caching market or to use another solution (assuming Samsung makes Dataplex proprietary).
Source: NVELO Press Release
One of the largest voids consumers have spoken of in storage technology has been the inability to combine our new found speed of SSDs with the capacity of the hard drive.
Our latest review of the Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook reached new heights with SSD speeds of 550MB/s now possible in laptops as light as 2.4lbs and just over 1/2″ thick but this still leaves a question of capacity.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the speed of the SSD combined with the capacity of a hard drive in a notebook solution without breaking the bank? Well, it is not a possibility with our Z830 but for the Lenovo X220 and any other notebook with mSATA and HDD storage combined, this may not be such a far reach.
Lets take this one step further. Today’s review will not be your typical quick one off of what most likely will be a reality in the near future, but rather, an initial break in of our Lenovo X220 laptop in testing NVELO Dataplex with every mSATA that we could muster up. We think this will probably be the leading collection of mSATA SSDs on the web today with manufacturers such as Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, Kingston, AData, Runcore and Renice all taking part.
THE EVOLUTION OF NVELO AND DATAPLEX
NVELO was formed in 2010 when Cadence Design Systems acquired Denali Software and a few Denali employees saw the viability of a new design in caching software as a great solution in today’s storage environment. NVELO subsequently became its own entity and is now in the business of marketing Dataplex, a storage caching software that just makes too much sense to believe it is anything less than a breakthrough.
DATAPLEX CACHING SOFTWARE
Dataplex simply uses a SSD to create a ‘high performance’ cache for your hard drive. This cache can be used from an SSD as small as 32GB and gives your hard drive very close performance to that of your SSD. OCZ was the first to support NVELO and our recent reviews of both the RevoDrive 3 Hybrid PCIe SSD and the Synapse Cache SSD show that this software is going to open some eyes.
HOW DATAPLEX WORKS
Dataplex manages the entire hard drive and caches the ‘hot’ data while leaving the ‘cold’ data on the hard drive. The software actually learns and remembers which applications and data are used most and retains that information on the SSD. A great example of this occurs during system start up.
The typical computer might start at over a minute with a hard drive alone, whereas it starts in 15 seconds with an SSD. With Dataplex, it not only starts the cached hard drive at the time of the SSD, but also, you can turn your system off and come back tomorrow for that 15 second start up once again. Dataplex remembers and retains the files that are used most.
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