A hybrid array is a form of hierarchical storage management that combines

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...

s (HDDs) with

solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It i ...

s (SSDs) for I/O speed improvements. Hybrid storage arrays aim to mitigate the ever increasing price-performance gap between HDDs and DRAM by adding a non-volatile flash level to the

memory hierarchy In computer architecture, the memory hierarchy separates computer storage into a hierarchy based on response time. Since response time, complexity, and capacity are related, the levels may also be distinguished by their performance and controlli ...

. Hybrid arrays thus aim to lower the cost per I/O, compared to using only SSDs for storage. Hybrid architectures can be as simple as involving a single SSD cache for desktop or laptop computers, or can be more complex as configurations for data centers and

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over m ...

Implementations

Some commercial products for building hybrid arrays include: * Adaptec demonstrated the MaxIQ series in 2009. * Apple's

Fusion Drive Fusion Drive is a type of hybrid drive technology created by Apple Inc. It combines a hard disk drive with a NAND flash storage ( solid-state drive of 24 GB or more) and presents it as a single Core Storage managed logical volume with the ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

software includes

bcache bcache (abbreviated from ''block cache'') is a cache in the Linux kernel's block layer, which is used for accessing secondary storage devices. It allows one or more fast storage devices, such as flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs), to act a ...

, dm-cache, and Flashcache (and its fork EnhanceIO). * Condusive's ExpressCache is marketed for laptops. * EMC Corporation VFcache was announced in 2012. * Fusion-io acquired ioTurbine in 2011, and the product line it acquired by buying NexGen in 2013. *

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Accelerated Flash Storage (HAFS) used together with the Hitachi Dynamic Tiering software * IBM Flash Cache Storage Accelerator (FCSA) server software * Intel's Smart Response Technology for desktop * Intel's Cache Acceleration Software for servers and workstations *

LSI LSI may refer to: Science and technology * Large-scale integration, integrated circuits with tens of thousands of transistors * Latent semantic indexing, a technique in natural language processing * LSI-11, an early large-scale integration com ...

CacheCade software for their controllers * Marvell's HyperDuo controllers * Microsoft's Automated Tiering (since Windows 2012 R2) * NetApp's Flash Cache, Flash Pool, Flash Accel *

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

markets products such as Exadata Smart Cache Flash, and the FS1 flash storage system. * Microsoft ReadyBoost allows personal computers to

USB flash drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since fir ...

s as cache. * Nvelo DataPlex SSD caching software was announced in 2011, and was acquired by

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

in 2012. * SanDisk FlashSoft for Windows, Linux, and vSphere * Products are offered by vendors like AMI

StorTrends StorTrends is a brand name of disk-based, hybrid array, and solid state storage products for computer data storage in data centers, sold by AmZetta Technologies. Formally a division of American Megatrends, StorTrends appliances utilize the iTX ar ...

Tegile Systems IntelliFlash is a brand of DataDirect Networks (DDN) based in San Jose that manufactures flash storage arrays. The company, then known as Tegile Systems, was acquired by Western Digital in 2017 and by DDN in September 2019. History Tegile Sys ...

, Reduxio, and Tintri. * ZFS using hybrid storage pools, are used for example in some Oracle Corporation products.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Data management Solid-state caching Memory management software

Implementations

See also

References