SBIR Phase I: SSD In-Situ Processing

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将从根本上改变存储设备的功能，并为存储提供现有存储技术无法解决的第三种功能——在用户的明确控制下实际处理数据的能力。为了进行计算，只有计算请求和结果数据需要通过存储接口传输，从而减少了接口流量和所需的功率。随着大数据的出现和超大规模服务器技术的日益普及，创建了一个不同于传统企业存储的额外存储层。这个新层需要更大的容量，更低的成本和更低的操作功率，但必须仍然具有企业可靠性。现有技术无法满足这种特征的组合，并且使用大数据典型的大型数据集执行会导致低效的解决方案。存储的信息代表了当今公司为关键信息和趋势而挖掘的大量非结构化数据，这些信息和趋势有助于决定公司方向、广告和货币化。未来的应用包括实时分布式视频和图像处理、基因组测序和任何非结构化大数据的挖掘。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目探索了大数据范式的转变，在这种转变中，处理能力尽可能地接近数据。原位处理技术将这一概念推向了绝对的极限，通过将计算能力直接放入存储本身，消除了在处理之前将数据移动到主存储器的需要。技术创新始于为现代数据中心的需求量身定制的企业SSD的坚实基础。支持这些功能的关键技术包括硬件辅助服务质量控制，通过使用先进的ECC实现低成本TLC/3D-TLC NAND闪存，以及支持超大容量驱动器的专有弹性闪存转换层。在此基础上添加的最后一个元素将是通过硬件加速器辅助的专门的原位处理直接对数据执行计算的能力。为了使这种破坏性的解决方案尽可能地非侵入性，需要一个级别的系统软件来使采用尽可能地无缝。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will fundamentally change what a storage device can do, and give storage a third capability that was not addressed by existing storage technology - the ability to actually process the data under the explicit control of the user. For the computation to take place, only the computational request and the resulting data need to transfer over the storage interface, reducing the interface traffic and the required power. The advent of Big Data and the increasing use of Hyperscale Server technology have resulted in the creation of an additional storage tier that is different from traditional enterprise storage. This new tier requires significantly larger capacity with lower cost and lower operating power, and yet must still exhibit enterprise reliability. This combination of characteristics cannot be serviced by existing technologies, and execution with large data sets typical of Big Data results in inefficient solutions. The information being stored represents the large, unstructured data mined by today's companies for key information and trends that help dictate corporate direction, advertising, and monetization. Future applications include real-time distributed video and image processing, genome sequencing and mining of any unstructured Big Data.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project explores the Big Data paradigm shift where processing capability is pushed as close to the data as possible. The in-situ processing technology pushes this concept to the absolute limit, by putting the computational capability directly into the storage itself and eliminating the need to move the data to main memory before processing. The technology innovation begins with a solid foundation of an enterprise SSD tailored for the needs of modern Data Centers. Key technology that will be added to support these capabilities include hardware-assisted quality of service control, low-cost TLC/3D-TLC NAND Flash enablement through the use of advanced ECC, and a proprietary elastic Flash Translation Layer to support extremely large capacity drives. The final element added to this foundation will be the ability to perform computations directly on the data with the addition of specialized in-situ processing aided by hardware accelerators. To make this disruptive solution as non-invasive as possible, a level of system software is needed to make adoption as seamless as possible.