SanDisk announces ExtremeFFS for "100 times faster" SSD write speeds

SSDs will apparently get a serious (extreme, if you will) upgrade in the coming year, with SanDisk's announcement of a new technology dubbed ExtremeFFS (Flash File System). It is, as you can possibly guess, a new file system, but it'll use page-based methods so that the data's location on the drive won't be tied to its physical space, as it is now. SanDisk says this means that random write speeds are going to be 100 times faster than they are on drives using current technology. The company hopes that this advance, coupled with other upcoming standards, will lead to widespread adoption of SSDs in PCs (and much, much more money in their pockets). That should fit in nicely with news we just heard that Microsoft's Windows 7, unlike Vista, will include optimization for use with the drives. While actual drives that carry ExtremeFFS have yet to be announced, SanDisk expects them to ship in 2009. Fun times.

[Via Electronista, CNET]

[Simon @ Nov 5th 2008 10:23PM]

ExtremeFFS = ExtremeForFuckSakes!!!!
seriously, can these things get any faster?!
(not that im complaining...)

[Daniel @ Nov 5th 2008 10:38PM]

Voted up, because that's what we were all thinking. :-)

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 11:54PM]

I'm kinda curious as to how much faster they can get them. They're pretty fast now, at 100 times current speeds what is it going to do? Open applications I don't even know I need yet?

[Ray @ Nov 6th 2008 12:18AM]

That can get faster... but im all about bottom lines here. From a fresh boot to media player, how fast will i get my porn?

[DWells55 @ Nov 6th 2008 12:43AM]

Yup, first thing that came to my mind when I saw that abbreviation.

[exmap @ Nov 6th 2008 4:05AM]

It's about the random write speed here. These drives are very fast in random reads but very slow in random writes.
Problem is that most file systems do a lot of random writes if you work with small files (to write/change the file system entries), because they are tailored for use with hard disks (hard disks are much faster in random writes).
This file system is optimised for Flash based storage, so it will order the way the data is stored differently so these random writes are avoided as much as possible.

[Jhongerkong @ Nov 5th 2008 10:28PM]

whoa, I didnt say extreme, to the MAX

[Booshack @ Nov 6th 2008 12:53AM]

You're heading for parental faceplant! Do 180' emotional ollie.

[VeganFreak @ Nov 5th 2008 10:28PM]

"The company hopes that this advance, coupled with other upcoming standards, will lead to widespread adoption of SSDs in PCs (and much, much more money in their pockets)."

I have to congratulate on Engadget's accuracy on the previous quote. I mean, it's not like any other company makes technological advancements in order to gain higher earnings. I bet most of them are just doing these things as one of those "weekend things".

[UrFatNUgly!! @ Nov 5th 2008 10:39PM]

Wow, thanks for that relatively useless comment. No really, I loved it. Favorite post so far.

yeah.

[VeganFreak @ Nov 5th 2008 10:49PM]

Yeah, I hear that. Also, do I sense a hint of sarcasm in your comment? I kid, I kid. I find it totally serious.

In any case, bring these in at say, $300 for a 128er and I'm sold.


Also, I should prolly stop acting like a lulzy nub, cuz...oh wait...I sorta am one anyway. =[

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 11:45PM]

Damn it "UrFatNUgly," just because you got up and said your catchphrase mockingly only to realize you were looking in the mirror doesn't mean you can criticize others so you feel less lame.

[Blake @ Nov 5th 2008 10:29PM]

They ought to just throw a gig of ddr2 in there, How's that for paging?

[Aguiluz @ Nov 5th 2008 10:30PM]

I'm interested in for some benchmarks...

[Jin @ Nov 5th 2008 10:33PM]

WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That was fast...

one More Time AGAIN!

WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


@Blake
I was kind of thinking non-volatile cache, or at least GDDR5 but ok.

[Jordan @ Nov 5th 2008 10:35PM]

I wonder if this would make the cheaper mlc ssd's perform better. a cheap fast ssd would be nice.

[You @ Nov 5th 2008 10:35PM]

Oh FFS!

[Poom @ Nov 5th 2008 10:37PM]

This is really good and all, but when will they become affordable!?!?!?!?

[Mark @ Nov 5th 2008 10:41PM]

Speed is fine..but get these AFFORDABLE first..

[El Taco @ Nov 5th 2008 10:48PM]

I know almost nothing about the technology, but I do know that if you have flash cards numbered 1-100 in your hand, it is a lot faster to throw them around randomly then to lay them down in order, but it is much easier to put them back in an ordered pile if you layed them down in an orderly fashion than if you scattered them around. Putting it that way, I hope this doesn't decrease the read speeds just because it is put in a random place and the machine has to look for it.

[LondonConsultant @ Nov 5th 2008 11:13PM]

The virtual drive heads will begin to thrash if memory reading is too random...

[HELOSMTP @ Nov 6th 2008 2:28AM]

lol, this passes for a high-ranking comment? to put it in your analogy, it's more like if you drop the cards around randomly, but every time you pick a card up and drop it again, the card falls in exactly the same spot. SSD's don't need to put information in sequential order like hard drives (at least if you want to read it fast), so it's actually more efficient to distribute data evenly across the memory cells.

if you wanted a REALLY fast/expensive SSD, you could give every memory cell its own input and output so you could read or write every cell at once! Not likely to happen, but that would be impossible with HDDs.

[Logboy @ Nov 5th 2008 10:53PM]

:-)

[Game_playa @ Nov 5th 2008 10:56PM]

FPS is still king

[Game_playa @ Nov 5th 2008 10:56PM]

Why do I need to go to email everytime?

[Game_playa @ Nov 5th 2008 10:57PM]

YESSSS, I dont need to anymore

[)ROFL( @ Nov 5th 2008 11:08PM]

WTF?

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 11:46PM]

I think it's a poem.

[Reader @ Nov 6th 2008 12:21AM]

Refrigerator.

[skulldriveshaft @ Nov 7th 2008 7:27PM]

I garfunkeled your mother last night trebec...

[deyanimay @ Nov 6th 2008 6:04AM]

I think he means verifying his comments.

[decapitor @ Nov 5th 2008 11:05PM]

Full OS compatibility = ?

[Jeffrey @ Nov 5th 2008 11:14PM]

n00b

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 11:48PM]

::Valicore throws an egg at you:: I'll n00b you.

[Reader @ Nov 6th 2008 12:23AM]

So you were the guy that egged Steve Ballmer and awkwardly walked out.

[Vinnie @ Nov 5th 2008 11:21PM]

I hope it's not super expensive

[mvp @ Nov 5th 2008 11:35PM]

They'll probably get the technology to us cheap, its the matter of getting fast enough cables and mb's which will cost us.

[AJR @ Nov 5th 2008 11:41PM]

Is there a upper limit that electronics is going to reach in advancement beyond the thresh hold of speed that contempory processors can handle? how much more advanced can this stuff get?

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 11:52PM]

I've stopped trying to guess... they'll invent some new fabulous shit that is astounding and will require speed and more speed. When I was fricken 8 watching Star Trek: TNG, I thought tricorders were the most awesome thing ever. Now if you tried to give a tricorder from TNG to anyone they'd throw it in the garbage for being chubby.

[michas_pi @ Nov 5th 2008 11:56PM]

SanDisk announces ExtremeFFS for "100 times greater" SSD drive costs

I want SSDs to be more affordable.

[SimonRichards @ Nov 6th 2008 12:10AM]

Does this mean the OS will have to use this filesystem to use these drives? That could be a problem!

[Brian @ Nov 6th 2008 12:14AM]

Two things:
1) Why name it ExtremeFFS? If this is widely adopted then the technology isn't going to be EXTREME anymore... it will sound dated.
2) I'll believe the increase in speed when I see it. Intel's X25 is already extremely fast... 100x faster? I don't believe I'll see that in the next five years.

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Nov 6th 2008 12:14AM]

Microsoft supporting a filesystem that doesn't suck? Yah right...

[nikster @ Nov 6th 2008 12:57AM]

I am with Brian above - ExtremeFFS is a stupid name. If it's supposed to be wide-spread, it won't be "extreme".

Secondly, I do not want my main data storage to be "extreme" the same way I don't want my bank manager to be extreme. I need m data safe first.

Anyone else wonder why the physical layout of data on the disk, or in the case of SSD, in memory, is the business of the file system? It seems like there should be a low level intelligence on the drive which lays out data, and the file system deals with the logical structure only. Or is "ExtremeFFS" just a driver on top of which one can put any other file system?

[nikster @ Nov 6th 2008 1:02AM]

Reading the article, I am not convinced the "Extreme Flash File System" is a file system at all. SanDisk refers to an earlier iteration as a "flash management system". That would make more sense, except for the naming ...

[A.C.E.R. @ Nov 6th 2008 4:05AM]

I think you're reading too far into it. Their "filesystem" is a method for writing to the media more efficiently, any software filesystem created on format is still just data on the drive.

[Ori Matalon @ Nov 6th 2008 5:31AM]

OK, I want this SSD now!!!

my comments at http://www.commentino.com/orim

[Leo @ Nov 6th 2008 10:29AM]

@ Valicore: If there's something we can learn from the history of computing, there's ALWAYS bigger / stronger / faster. I'm looking forward to the days when computers are so frigging fast that all of the applications open before I even decide to open them.

[pol @ Nov 13th 2008 6:03PM]

Expensive For Fuck Sake!