Fusion-io has announced NVM Compression, a flash-aware interface with the ability to double the useable capacity of ioMemory flash such as the popular ioDrive2 and ioDrive2 Duo PCIe SSDs all the while eliminating the performance impact that usually comes with disk-era compression algorithms commonly used with flash SSDs. NVM Compression delivers 4x more flash endurance when integrated with the Atomic Writes interface by streamlining commands to optimize databases for persistent flash memory architectures.
Fusion-io has announced NVM Compression, a flash-aware interface with the ability to double the useable capacity of ioMemory flash such as the popular ioDrive2 and ioDrive2 Duo PCIe SSDs all the while eliminating the performance impact that usually comes with disk-era compression algorithms commonly used with flash SSDs. NVM Compression delivers 4x more flash endurance when integrated with the Atomic Writes interface by streamlining commands to optimize databases for persistent flash memory architectures.
Traditional disk storage data compression hinders database performance substantially. Testing done by MariaDB database developer, SkySQL, demonstrated that NVM Compression interface using Fusion-io nonvolatile memory file system (NVMFS) doubled the useable capacity of the ioMemory server flash available to the database; all without negatively affecting performance. Additionally, as NVM Compression reduces undesirable write amplification, testing of longer workloads showed that the MariaDB database using NVM Compression became even faster than the traditional uncompressed database.
Flash-optimized NVM Compression shares the vast majority of the application code with the traditional uncompressed database logic. As such, NVM Compression significantly reduces the complexity of storage engines by taking full advantage of the underlying architecture of flash as a memory tier, allowing for improved scalability and higher efficiency.
The well-defined interface of NVM Compression also gives developers the ability to quickly introduce flash-aware compression to their applications using versatile workload-optimized compression algorithms. Once it is integrated into an application, NVM Compression allows developers to help enterprises scale their IT infrastructure and satisfy the ever-growing data demands. It accomplishes this by essentially balancing storage efficiency with customer workload performance requirements.
Availability
The NVM Compression and Atomic Writes interfaces are currently in early access testing in MariaDB 10 and Percona 5.6. Fusion ioMemory platforms for MySQL database acceleration are available for purchase from leading server vendors such as HP, Cisco, Dell, IBM, and Supermicro.
