Micron Innovations Blog » Video

Will the Cloud Drive more Personal Storage?

Kevin Kilbuck — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:26:47 +0000

The Consumer Electronics Show is a great place to pick up on technology trends; this year, everyone was talking about mobile devices and streaming content from the cloud. We’ve been fielding questions about the cloud for a while from people who assume it will mean a smaller memory market as smartphones and tablets scale back on their need for storage (or at least that the NAND will move from personal devices into the servers inside the cloud).

But we see the cloud as a positive driver for storage both in servers and on devices, and we’re not the only ones. See why one software company thinks that better access to the cloud will mean that you’ll want even more high-performance storage on your mobile device—not less.

The Cube is Here!

Alyson Outen — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:23:35 +0000

Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Collaborate to Make Revolutionary HMC Technology Generally Available
You’ve probably heard that Micron and Samsung are collaborating to create the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) Consortium, with the goal of defining an industry-adoptable HMC interface, thus facilitating HMC’s integration into a wide variety of technologies.

I sat down with Scott Graham, Micron’s General Manager for DRAM Solutions, to discuss HMC, its future, and Micron’s role in this groundbreaking consortium. Check out this video to find out more about the consortium and what the future holds for this revolutionary technology.

PCM Real-World Demo

Brian Bradford — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:56:50 +0000

By now, you’ve probably heard about phase change memory or PCM. PCM is an innovative new memory technology that blends the best attributes of EEPROM, NOR, NAND, and DRAM to deliver unprecedented features in one memory device.

But how do PCM’s unique features translate to user experience? The video below shows how PCM’s nonvolatility, high endurance, fast program performance, and overwrite capability can eliminate the need for multiple memory types in a digital video camera application and create a more reliable system.

I hope you find this quick explanation of PCM features useful. Be sure to check out my first post on PCM’s overwrite capability for more details on this key PCM feature.

An Enterprise-focused MLC SSD?

Scott Shadley — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:21:08 +0000

The enterprise SSD market used to be seen as a single tier in the storage market—a cohesive, expensive grouping above other storage options. That’s no longer true. The enterprise SSD market is also segmenting, largely because SSDs deliver several key features—low latency, reliability, and low power, to name a few—that can make dramatic differences in enterprise effectiveness across multiple applications and workloads, but they’re the most effective when they’re designed for specific applications.

Today we announced a new SSD aimed squarely at the entry level of enterprise solid-state storage. Our new RealSSD™ P400e was built for key server and blade applications, including read caching, DAS, and as a boot drive for virtual desktop infrastructures. It’s a slot that many storage architects previously attempted to fill with client SSDs, which really aren’t meant to handle 24/7, always-on workloads. Our P400e, however, was designed specifically for this space, and its excellent IOPs-per-dollar performance and low TCO makes it an easy choice to replace enterprise hard drives.

In the video below, I provide a quick explanation of enterprise SSD tiers and explain some of the key product features of the P400e SSD. As always, you can learn more about the specs of the P400e drive on micron.com.

Demonstrating Phase Change Memory

Brian Bradford — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:23:54 +0000

When we first talk to customers about phase change memory (PCM), we’re often asked two questions: how is PCM different, and why would I want to use it in my device?

PCM is a radically different memory technology that records information via the shifting state (phase change) of a unique material. PCM is able to merge the attributes of NOR, NAND, and DRAM in a single, nonvolatile memory chip. This allows designers to consolidate their different memory solutions and reduce the bill of materials.

Consolidation is good, but why else would you want to use PCM? The video below focuses on PCM’s overwrite capability and shows how it can also optimize your subsystem, improve performance time, and simplify the software structure.

Thanks for watching. As always, feel free to post any comments or questions below.

Glen Hawk Interview from FMS

Alyson Outen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:48:45 +0000

I had a chance to sit down with Glen Hawk—our VP of NAND solutions—at this year’s Flash Memory Summit to talk about the conference and his keynote there. He had a lot to share about the growth of NAND, it’s place in a cloud-computing world, and where the technology is headed. His keynote also featured some great vignettes with several Micron customers who are using NAND in interesting new ways. If you weren’t one of the thousand who got to see the keynote in person, the video interview below should give you a good summary.

750,000 IOPs from a Single SSD?

Janene Ellefson — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:43:34 +0000

As promised, the video below is a live demo of the phenomenal performance you can get from our P320h PCIe SSD. It’s a simple and straightforward IOMeter measurement, but we wanted to show you how much of a leap our card makes over current solutions—the random reads output of the P320h is more than twice as fast as the nearest competitor.

It all hinges on the tight integration we’ve been able to make between our custom controller and high-performance SLC NAND. I’m looking forward to keeping you posted on what our customers are be able to achieve with it. Enjoy the video.

Our PCIe SSD—Out of the Lab and Into Production

Janene Ellefson — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:22:48 +0000

If you’re an SSD fan who’s been following our blog for a while, you know that we posted a from-the-lab teaser video of a prototype PCIe SSD some time ago. Our design team has been hard at work on an ideal solution, and I’m happy to tell you that today we have production product to show you.

Of course PCIe drives aren’t anything new to the market, but I think you’ll agree that our solution offers some new breakthroughs in performance and efficiency. In the video below, I walk through some of the features of the P320h (you’ll quickly see why I’m so excited about this device).

And stay tuned; we’ll have more performance numbers and a demo posted soon.

C400 Delivers Remarkable Performance

Justin Sykes — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:30:40 +0000

It’s true, the RealSSD™ C400 delivers some pretty impressive performance (415 MB/s reads and 260 MB/s writes). But all those IOPs and sequential performance specs are over the head of most consumers. To speak to them, we set up this simple demo of a C400 and stock hard drive running the same programs in identical laptops.

Of course the demo itself isn’t a novel concept by any means, but we think you’ll agree that results are staggering.

Tech Talk: RealSSD™ C400 and the 2011 SSD Market

Kirstin Bordner — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:21:36 +0000

Dean Klein, Micron’s Vice President of Memory System Development, discusses the new RealSSD C400 drive and how SSDs will grow in 2011 with the influx of ultra-mobile notebooks. Dean also discusses how the leading-edge performance and capacities of the C400 are poised to serve this market.