Remember just a couple of years ago when digital cameras came with just 16MB SD memory cards? Well, I’m pretty happy with a 4GB card in my SLR camera. I can pretty much store 993 very high resolution pictures on it, which is plenty when I go on vacation. Only once have I come close to feeling as if I might actually run out of space. Nevertheless, I’m a techy or a geek and I like bigger, faster, better things. I found something that actually seems excessive to even me. Imagine a 2TB SD card. Well, apparently someone is working on them. Take a look here.

Now, I have been a fan of using 2.5″ drives in servers and storage systems for a while. But sometimes the rationale for actually pushing such solutions escapes me. The primary reason for this is the cost difference between a 2.5″ drive vs an equivalent 3.5″ drive.

In this article published by Byte and Switch, one of the reasons for moving forward is, “The 3.5-Tbyte SP1224s is Xyratex’s first offering to use 2.5-inch drives, which the vendor is aiming at applications requiring high input/output operations per second (IOPS). By packing 24 2.5-inch drives into a 2U form factor, Xyratex claims to offer double the performance of its predecessor, the 4U, 24-Tbyte SP1424s, which relies on a dozen 3.5-inch drives.”

But this is comparing apples to oranges. Think about it for a second. How can this new solution provide TWICE the IOPS of its predecessor? Both offer support for 24 drives. The predecessor supports 15,000RPM drives whereas the new solution supports up to 10,000RPM drives. Hmm… I’m not quite getting the math. 24 drives is more like two dozen drives– not a dozen. I suppose someone should have proof read the article.

The article goes on to discuss the “green” aspects of the new storage system. But even this is a bit misleading. For example, the SP1424 supports SATA and SAS drives. BTW, there’s no technological reason the new system can’t support both drive types. It’s got to be a positioning thing. Anyway, consider a 2.5″ Savio drive’s capacity of 146GB vs a Barracuda’s 1000GB’s. On a per drive basis, that’s a power consumption difference of 5.5W. Across the entire enclosure, this equates to 88W. However, when you factor the capacity difference, it will require almost 7 enclosures to equal the storage capacity. That 88W advantage becomes rather meaningless when you look at the additional 728W of power that’s necessary to equal the same amount of capacity. That works out to nearly $640/year. So, the positioning is a little bit off.

In all fairness, another aspect of the positioning is towards transactions as opposed to capacity environments. And there’s not much I can do to disagree with that. But let’s avoid the green discussions. If one wishes to have both transactional benefits along with better power efficiency, then SSDs are a better fit than 2.5″ drives. Now, the costs will go up tremendously; but isn’t the environment truly worth it if you are that “green” sensitive?

If you detect a bit of sarcasm, you wouldn’t be wrong. Like I said in the beginning, I’m a fan of 2.5″ drives, but I wrestle with the positioning of them. Ultimately, I believe economics are still a better rule of thumb. And it’s far easier to build fast, low-cost storage solutions with 3.5″ SATA drives than it is with any speed 2.5″ drive. And when you consider that 3.5″ drives can store 4 times the capacity of a 2.5″ drive, I really don’t think density arguments have much weight.

Thanks for the neat solution! But I still believe you’ve missed the mark. However, if you were to come up with a cheap, dense and fast solution, I might be a bit more interested. And I think the positioning would be a bit clearer.

Technorati Tags: xyratex, storage, 2.5″ drives, savio

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1. I’m thankful to God for opening my eyes to his truths and for his love of me when I’m anything but lovable.
2. I’m thankful for my bible, which I’ve been able to study for myself and to clarify between what is truly taught vs. what is error or vain tradition.
3. I’m thankful for my son, Brendan who was and is truly a gift from God.
4. I’m thankful for Chelle and for the fact that despite all we’ve been through, we’re still friends.
5. I’m thankful for EE who has been my best friend and who has accepted me with all of my flaws and has given me a new start in life. And I’m thankful for her son and daughter who have welcomed me into their hearts.
6. I’m thankful for Barkley, my wonderful dog, who also was a gift from a dear friend.
7. I’m thankful for my friends who have remained friends, even when they’ve not agreed with me.
8. I’m thankful for the fact I can work from home.
9. I’m thankful that God has given me the ability to do what I do, though it wasn’t what I originally intended for my life. It has become more than my work. It has become my joy, hobby and passion.
10. I’m thankful for all that God has provided and that I’ve been able to care for two households.
11. I’m thankful that despite the incredible heartaches I’ve gone through that my family is now out of the cult of cultural fundamentalism and in a true church that believes scriptures. Perhaps now Brendan will have a chance at learning and witnessing truth and not get caught up in all of the inconsistencies of fake Christianity.
12. I’m thankful for those who truly act like Christians as opposed to the hypocrites who like to cast huge boulders in spite of their own sins.
13. And I’m thankful for our friend who has opened up her house to us for Thanksgiving. I trust God will bless her for her act of kindness and love.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!

Friendship and being a friend are terms we’ve learned to live with since we were children. How many books or motivational presentations or sermons have you ever heard on friendship? And have you ever thought about levels of friendship? Are there friends you consider to be best friends? And do you have friends you really consider to be acquaintences?
I think the one thing we can count on that we all hold consistent regarding this topic is that NONE of us desire to be without friends. I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve been there before. In fact, I know I have.

You see? When you find yourself one day flush with friends and the next day all alone, you start to question your notion of friendship. But this really isn’t intended to be a post about analyzing good friends vs. bad friends. This is really meant to be a bit more introspective. And this is to give you my notion of being a friend.

As a result of various turns and twists in my life, I have come to the conclusion that spending my time looking for good friends was going to be time poorly spent. It just seems elusive. The harder you look, the faster it flees. Rather than lose more precious time, I thought about simply being the best friend I could possibly be, something I clearly wasn’t very good at in my earlier years.

Coming from a fairly Christian, or what some would consider to be ultra religious, background over the past 15 years, I have seen my fair share of good people throw other good people under the bus too many times. And while being in such company, I grew accustomed to being told the type of people I should be friends with and the type I should not. “Love not the world, neither the things in the world…” seems to come to mind. This verse always seems to pop up on such topics, but with a fairly detailed explanation of the context. But while the context may be close to accurate, the application of the text invariably results in criticism for befriending folks of different faith and beliefs. More to the point, I cannot tell you how many times I was taught to look down upon people who were different than me or of my supposed faith.

What a bunch of CRAP! Guys, let me tell you something fairly simple. And I hope you’re pick’n up what I’m put’n down. WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT. Even when we think we’re similar, we’re different. And it’s our individuality, mixed with that of others, which makes life colorful and enjoyable. Now, I’m not talking about racial discrimination here, though I think it’s fairly applicable. I am talking about every facet of life: race, creed, religion, sexual preference, political views, etc.
Now, am I suggesting that we accept one another’s views? Am I suggesting that we’re ultimately the same? Heck no! I am suggesting we give one another benefit of the doubt. We extend trust, until it’s lost. We demonstrate mutual respect to those who disagree with us or who believe differently. We give one another a chance.

When we arrive here, we’re ready to examine what it means to be a friend. Otherwise, all that we do and exchange with others will be conditional. Hmm… see where I’m going?

Once we’ve come to this place, we possibly have a chance to pour ourselves into those around us, whether family members, loved ones, workers at the grocery store and so on. We need to invest ourselves into others regardless of what we might ever receive in return. I’ll go a step further, we need to do more than simply invest. We need to love them. We need to be kind to them. We need to be patient with them. We need to encourage them and even see the good in them.

I am by no means there. I am trying. Some days are better than others. And sometimes I may even have a pretty decent streak. But there is still much to work on. Perhaps one day, I may actually be this type of friend. The kind that someone might actually value when there is no one else. When he is all alone.

I do value my friendships much more so than ever before. But these days, my focus is on whether or not I’m being a good friend. I want to be. I wouldn’t want anyone to ever experience that sense of aloneness that I have once felt. And if some take advantage of me in a bad sense, so be it. I’d rather be vulnerable and possibly discover such friendship than to be guarded and never have anything above a shallow relationship.

If you see me struggling or even falling behind in this endeavor, I do hope you will be a friend and give me a nudge. Sometimes that’s very necessary. And I suppose one of the reasons I love blogging is that the comment system allows for such feedback. I wonder if I’m the only one who has noticed that Because we’re not face-to-face, we’re sometimes more open and honest online. Just a thought. Anyway, I enjoy it. And I enjoy you. And I hope to be a good friend to you.

Okay, one of my friends had setup a new site recently and I’d like to ask that you take a look. The site is Roswell Files. It’s a sci-fi site that is built up using a community of writers writing as their character. Now, Gordan’s a good friend and a professional writer. But he can use some help with this project as it’s dependent on its characters to breathe life into it. Unfortunately, he has been left filling in for two many characters.

If you get a chance, take a look. And if you like to write, or you like science fiction, please jump in and contribute.

Thanks,

Mike