News

posted on 20 June 2008 12:02

Texas Memory Systems, the supplier of DRAM-based solid state drives (SSD), has been granted a patent on technology to restart a DRAM SSD much more quickly after a power outage.

If not for internal batteries and backup hard disk drives, DRAM SSDs, based
on dynamic random-access memory, lose their contents when power is switched off. If the DRAM SSD gets its data loaded up from hard drives then reloading the data can take a lot of time; the larger the amount of data, the longer the time.

TMS suggests it could take as long as two hours for 500GB of data to be loaded from hard drives into the DRAM SSD, such as its own RamSan products. Its new technology, Instant-On Input-Output or IO2, makes the data instantly available to applications once the SSD is repowered up.

How is this accomplished? An abstract of the patent states: "The system preferably uses a control module coupled to a memory module and storage means. The control module preferably maintains a load priority queue for recording data requests made by a computer network connected to the system. During start up of the solid state disk system, the control module examines the load priority to queue and determines if any of the data requests are applicable to data segments already loaded during the startup process."

In other words application-requested data segments are loaded into the DRAM SSD first.

Woody Hutsell, an EVP at Texas Memory Systems, said: “Although downtime for a RamSan SSD in a production environment is rare, it is a possibility, for example in the case of a planned shutdown. ... we developed the IO2 technology to address any potential loss of productivity caused by delayed data access during power up.”

Texas Memory Systems’ IO2 technology, patent number 7,216,222 is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. IO2 will be available as a licensable feature on upcoming RamSan SSDs.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}