24 July 2010

Linus was Right (and so am I)

If you've visited more than once or twice, you've noticed that the first quote, chronologically, is from Linus Torvalds. In his 23 July entry, Zsolt talks with Fusion-io about a specific to SSD filesystem access. They call it a Virtual Storage Layer (VSL).

"The thinking behind the VSL is to provide software tools which enable developers to communicate in the new language of directly accessible flash SSD memory in a way which breaks away from the cumbersome restrictions and limitations of 30 year old software models which are layered on legacy hard disk sectors."

While Fusion-io initially named their devices as SSD, they eventually stopped doing so, and explicitly say that their devices are not disk drives.

It begins to look like Linus was right. The main issue now is that no standard exists, and reading between the lines, Fusion-io would be pleased if developers wrote to their protocol. They don't call it lock-in, but a rose is a rose is a rose. We'll see.

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