> Nicolas Boulay wrote: >> Super IO for x86 : gigabyte ethernet card 8 or 16 ports which are seen >> from >> the host like one ethernet card (with pci-e speed), the card act like a >> big >> switch (with a kind of routing). So you could make very fast >> interconnection >> between server (imaging direct connection between calcul server and file >> server). >> >> You could also make a SATA RAID controller. The idea is to saturate a >> pci-e >> link (2*300 MB/s). You could do it with 8 to 16 HD. >> >> IO connections are the 2 domains where PC can't be compare with >> mainframe. >> Standard (ethernet, SATA) put the cost down. What is lacking is a card >> to >> connect the PC with the network and the HD. >> >> nicO > > +1 for storage products > > According to [1] at the end of 2008 the storage market > will exceed $200 billion. > > - High performance SATA/SAS RAID controller (PCI-Express / HTX interface) > > Today's high performance controllers price is near to $1000. However it > is not possible to saturate the x8/x16 PCI-E interface with these cards. > Most SATA/SAS controller comes with an PCI-X chip that is bridged to > PCI-Express interface. eg.: Areca (Marvell Hercules2 SATA controller + > Intel IOP PCI-X to PCI-Express bridge), LSI 1068 is still is a PCI-X > device therefore the bandwidth is limited to 1Gbytes/sec. > The card (especially when combined with an add-on fpga accelerator card) > would be ideal for database or HPC usage.
It look like my idea :) But 8 PCI-E link is 2.4 GB/s in each direction... That's why saturate a 300 MB/s is soon enough. (random access of HD did not reach 40 MB/s) > > - FPGA accelerator card with gigabytes of memory (PCI-Express / HTX/ > Infiniband interface) > Crypto, compressing, computing error correcting codes, pattern matching, > sorting or filtering data is not possible at n * 100Mbytes/sec rate. > Special device drivers would be feasible with this card [2]. This could be very interresting if the FPGA have a free access synthetiser and place&route tools. The success of this kind of card depend of there price and what you could put inside the FPGA... (look a lot like OGD1) > - SAN/NAS storage standalone controller(iSCSI/FC/Infiniband) for SAN/NAS > manufacturers and DIY people. Real-time intrusion detection or virus > detection would be feasible with an additional FPGA card. > > - Solid state disk This could be fun. Find a way to put 256 memory chips (if it's less you could often replace it with main RAM). You add a battery for power failure (or not, this could still be used for /tmp). Then you could have a 64 GB mass storage at 300 MB/S and with µs latency. > > [1] http://www.storagesearch.com/squeak-5.html > [2] http://www.openhardware.de/digital/kad/ > > Zoltan > _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
