Vista, OS X updates could bring significant SSD speed gains

It's been a real roller coaster ride of emotions with SSD. The once lauded (at least in our hearts) savior of all things computing has, in real life, provided us with lackluster and even controversial performance gains, while battery improvements haven't been revolutionary and the prices still aren't exactly wallet-friendly. Most of that is unlikely to change in the next couple of years, but there's still plenty to be fixed in the short term. Samsung is working with Microsoft to define optimum packet sizes and best practices for reading and writing files to SSD as a potential update for Windows Vista, which is particularly optimized to work best with traditional hard drives. Sun is also working to improve SSD support with its next-gen ZFS file system, which in addition to powering its Solaris OS should be making an appearance in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, at least in the server version. There's clearly still plenty of untapped potential in SSD, let's just hope the powers that be figure this stuff out sooner rather than later.

[Via Mac Rumors]

[John @ Aug 10th 2008 7:59AM]

what about my win3.1 setup ???

[Blaine Oliver @ Aug 10th 2008 9:22AM]

Im pretty sure anyone who is on 3.1 would not be able to afford vista, while anyone who can afford an SSD is most likely able to afford vista.

[PlopperZ @ Aug 10th 2008 9:29AM]

@Samboini
Actually one of my setups has an SSD and Windows 3.1 on it.

[Ian @ Aug 10th 2008 9:30AM]

Picking up on sarcasm is not one of these guy's stronger points is it?

[martin @ Aug 10th 2008 12:46PM]

i'm pretty sure john was just taking the piss, why does everyone take it so seriously

[dhughes @ Aug 10th 2008 12:52PM]

It looks like someone's Super Sarcasm Detector (SSD) needs some fine tuning.

[linuxamp @ Aug 11th 2008 12:02AM]

I'm quite sure they won't back port this to 3.1. Time to upgrade to Windows 95.

[Skyride @ Aug 10th 2008 8:08AM]

You can get 90% of the performance gains this will give by experimenting yourself.

[Mike @ Aug 10th 2008 8:32AM]

true, but if samsung's working on it, be sure that they'll make it so that SSD vendors can specify settings in the drive, for each individual type of drive, to optimize performance best.

samsung > *

[Christy McGrory @ Aug 10th 2008 9:21AM]

I certainly hope so in the case of Vista. I installed an SSD last week and it's been terribly slow so far.

[loosely_coupled @ Aug 10th 2008 6:43PM]

All SSDs are not the same. The different types of NAND flash, drive architectures, flash controllers, firmware, etc all lead to enormous variations in drive performance, particularly throughput.

You no doubt have a shitty SSD. A quality enterprise level SSD with read/write speeds >100MB/sec will make even Vista fly.

[MadMike @ Aug 10th 2008 9:57AM]

Even if ZFS is not standard in OS X Standard... errr, anyway - Someone will find a way to add it in anyway.

[Steffen Jobbs @ Aug 10th 2008 10:45AM]

It appears as though someone has already added ZFS to OSX. I guess it's both read and write.

http://zfs.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/

I can tolerate SSDs being slower than harddrives, but receiving no gains on battery life is pretty lousy. The only advantages you're getting for the price premium is no moving parts and a lighter package.

[evilsmevil @ Aug 10th 2008 10:00AM]

This is totally expected and is exactly the same for any new type of technology that differs by any degree from an existing encumbant

Everything is optimised for the technology that has the greatest market share and as soon as there are enough SSD's in the marketplace for it to be worth their time. OS vendors are going to start optimising their systems to make their platform the most attractive for early adopters.

[Ellianth @ Aug 10th 2008 10:12AM]

So the article was about Sun and Microsoft doing work, and OSX gets the headline?

[Ellianth @ Aug 10th 2008 10:14AM]

OK, Scratch that, now I see the "vista," in the headline. I swear it wasn't there a minute ago. I swear!! Please don't kill me :'(

[Beastage @ Aug 10th 2008 10:20AM]

No your point stands... the title is misleading.

First of all Snow Leopard is an upgrade that will cost money, second it requires ZFS.

So OSX update getting better SSD speeds? that is just 10% of the truth.

[Badison @ Aug 10th 2008 10:21AM]

Yeesh! Settle down lol.

[Kizorblade @ Aug 10th 2008 11:06AM]

Reaaaad.
"making an appearance in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, at least in the server version"

[Kizorblade @ Aug 10th 2008 11:46AM]

Hmm, I could have sworn I didn't see your comment before...
Don't kill me too!

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 10th 2008 1:59PM]

Probably because the article, which comes by way of Mac Rumors, prominently mentions how this might be of interest to Mac users. For that reason the article's headline focuses on OS X support.

It actually doesn't mention Vista, but likely the sources they cite have lots of information about Vista and future SSD performance improvements in that OS as well.

[Decoy @ Aug 10th 2008 4:07PM]

If it was just about Vista, there wouldn't be an article here at all.

[Wormbolt @ Aug 10th 2008 11:00AM]

@Beastage

That's 9% more truth than you would get in most Apple ads.

[dcny @ Aug 10th 2008 11:26AM]

So when will i see a 500gb SSD for less than $300 2030 ?

[THizzle7XU @ Aug 12th 2008 9:26PM]

Have we even seen a 256GB drive, let alone a 512GB drive, period?

[zargon @ Aug 10th 2008 11:39AM]

... and something Linux has had for some time now and for FREE!

[oZ @ Aug 10th 2008 1:03PM]

Linux has had what now? Good SSD support? No, not really. ZFS support? In userland, slow implementation, and not even close to recommended for real use.

[THJ @ Aug 10th 2008 3:59PM]

Linux is only free if you don't value your time.

[zargon @ Aug 10th 2008 6:24PM]

"Linux is only free if you don't value your time."

Not really, that is a common myth that stems from people that haven't bother trying it or just believe everything they hear. There are a few gems out there that are install and go, Ubuntu being the most famous, but also Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE to name a few of the mains ones.

I am not saying linux is for everyone, but it is more than solid alternative to both Windows and OSX that is more often than not ahead of the curve and is completely free, no paying for any update or fixes.

[zargon @ Aug 10th 2008 9:42PM]

ZFS is just a buzz word for the consumer world and its recent hype can be attributed to Apple and their sheep. I however would like to see some of its features make their way into consumer grade file systems.

ZFS excels in high capacity and data manipulation. It would be great at work for our file server NASs or our SAN.

[Travis @ Aug 10th 2008 11:31PM]

"Not really, that is a common myth that stems from people that haven't bother trying it or just believe everything they hear."

Actually, I tried to install Ubuntu and Fedora core on my machine recently, after a techno-wizard friend of mine did the same about a year ago. Neither of them would install (or even recognize the drive that it was being run from), and after spending hours in forums and on the web trying to find a solution, and after trying several different things that were suggested, I gave up.

Then I got a Vista Business install disc (legally), put it in, and everything installed with no hiccups. It just worked. (Wait, can I say that about a Windows system without getting sued?)

[Wwhat @ Aug 11th 2008 2:31AM]

"Linux is only free if you don't value your time."
That's a good line, MS should use that if they don't already, especially since there is some painful truth to that.
Only problem is that linux users can say things like "don't let MS grab the value from your time" or similar quips.
Or they can mention DRM, ouch.

[Cybergypsy @ Aug 10th 2008 11:51AM]

nice...

[a12ctic @ Aug 10th 2008 3:16PM]

Even if they don't have any benefits you will still be switching to SSD. They're so much superior to HDD for mobile computing. Even without extra battery life, the ability to be dropped and be cramped into a smaller space makes them worth it.

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 11th 2008 12:00AM]

I've already seen pretty good gains on my computer just from upgrading; looking forward to more speed considering my tablet is so slow.

[Wwhat @ Aug 11th 2008 2:08AM]

Basically when they say they 'add support' for vista they mean 'they'll fix the ridiculous bug and lack of foresight'.
Each and every time in fact when they mention adding or improving vista it seems it's just a fix for a flaw of design, it's sort of clever how they make lemonade from the lemon, just fix all the bugs and call each fix 'a new feature/enhancement' and soon people will be all in awe about your constant efforts to 'enhance the user experience'.
Of course MS isn't alone, and probably not the first either who thought that up.

[epobirs @ Aug 11th 2008 3:41AM]

Actually, the problem here is not in any major OS or file system. They already have all they need to use setor and cluster arrangements to best accomodate SSD specs.

The real problem is that the current gen of SSD devices look like run of the mill SATA/PATA drives tot he systems. They were designed this way so they'd work with no special support required. The downside is that what works best for spining platter drives isn't the best use of flash memory.

The major newthing to arise from this is an industry standard for the recognition of SSD devices conencted where a hard drive or optical drive is currently expected. The OS support on the file system level will be a minor patch once the system knows about the difference.