AMD Tech Day at CES: 2018 Roadmap Revealed, with Ryzen APUs, Zen+ on 12nm, Vega on 7nm
by Ian Cutress on February 1, 2018 8:45 AM ESTOver the years we have seen various attempts from AMD and Intel to try and help improve storage performance on their mainstream platforms. Because of the solid user experience benefits that solid state storage can bring, these attempts come in two forms: to make the most of a small amount of super-fast storage, or to expand the amount of super-fast storage available. Most attempts at this have been laborious, such as Intel’s caching technology that allows a SSD or 32GB of Optane Memory to act as a quick read/write cache for a rotational drive.
AMD’s latest attempt to boost the storage performance is Enmotus FuzeDrive, a collaborative piece of software that is designed to combine several storage devices into one big disk. The principle is fairly simple: take any combination of rotational hard drive, SATA SSD, NVMe SSD, and even DRAM, and this software will create a single drive that addresses them all. The software and drivers will manage what data goes where for quicker access, rather than it appearing as one big JBOD.
The obvious red flags from the press were about DRAM, which we were told will only act as a read-cache from prepared data taken from the other drives. The other flag was about if one drive in that system fails, whether all the data is lost. The answer was a likely yes, and so the risk of such a system might be in-line with a JBOD array or similar to a RAID-0, but without the predictable speedup a RAID-0 array might bring.
Predictive caching technologies to help speed up read/write access times are, on paper, a good idea. Some SSDs already do this, by having a small amount of fast SLC cache to act as a write buffer, which the controller can then move the data around to empty the cache when the drive is idle. The difference between having something like a controller manage an embedded system and a general software package in play is that the embedded system has to work for a single drive, albeit millions of units. That arrangement is going to be as defined and engineered as much as that SSD vendor wants it to be. For a software package, it has to work across a variety of environments that might be badly configured, or in situations that the software might not be able to identify properly. As the software stretches over three or four different drives, it sounds like a potential failure in the making of one of those drives decides to die.
AMD lists several benefits of FuzeDrive: no Windows reinstall required, drives can be added to the pool at any point, or removed from the pool if sufficient spare space exists. Pools with DRAM added can be configured manually if some more DRAM is needed. AMD lists that in its testing, comparing a 500 GB hard-drive to a system with a Samsung 960 Pro added to the pool, they recorded a 578% faster Adobe Premiere launch, and a 931% faster Adobe Photoshop launch.
I could see FuzeDrive being useful in two particular scenarios: If a user as a small (32-128 GB) NVMe drive and a 1TB SSD/HDD, a single pool can be made. Users with a single large drive (SATA or HDD) could use the software to add DRAM, enabling an automatic RAM disk.
Enmotus FuzeDrive will be available for Ryzen Desktop systems, and will cost $20.
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mode_13h - Thursday, February 1, 2018 - link
Also, cardiovascular risk factors are known to affect brain health.mode_13h - Thursday, February 1, 2018 - link
Everything is fine... until one day, it's not. I have a co-worker somewhat like you describe (though he probably ate a bit better than that). He had a massive heart attack. He's still with us, but such an event is probably more costly and disruptive to one's life than simply taking better care of yourself.mode_13h - Thursday, February 1, 2018 - link
BTW, coffee is probably a net-positive, as long as you keep the cortisol in check and don't add lots of sugar.MFinn3333 - Saturday, February 3, 2018 - link
It is incredibly easy to get Vitamin D outside of the Pacific Northwest or similiar environments..."If you're fair skinned, experts say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun—in shorts and a tank top with no sunscreen—will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000 international units of the vitamin. "
mode_13h - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link
Um, so exactly how does this help in winter, where the only exposed skin most people have is on their face and hands?And getting a couple hours/day of direct sun exposure on your face is going to take its toll on skin aging and cancer risk.
mode_13h - Thursday, February 1, 2018 - link
Too much. About 2000 IU/day is optimal for minimizing all-cause mortality. Perhaps more can be supplemented in short spurts, however.It might be possible to safely exceed 2k IU/day if also supplementing magnesium and/or vitamin K, since one of the down-sides of overdosing Vitamin D is calcification of blood vessels.
Anyway, Vitamin D isn't the only proven immune booster. Garlic is another good one.
ckbryant - Saturday, February 3, 2018 - link
Endocrinology professor once said that the nations with the highest incidences of skin cancers (Australia) also have the lowest rates of population with low vitamin D, even in the Southeast United States people are going outside less and less; especially in the older populations. Not to mention the younger age groups with the phone attached to their face 24/7, and most people over 65 will need 2000-5000units of Vit D3 supplementation/day. However, in extreme cases a once weekly dose of Vit D2 1.25mg (50,000 units) once weekly for 12 weeks then reassessing lab values will render >45ng/dl will will be about where most people need to be. Then daily normal supplementation can continue from there. Endo professor said people who smoke need to avoid Vit A, and Copper supplementation unless they are in high risk of Macular Degeneration due to the increased risk in smokers of Vit A and Copper supplementation causing increased correlation of cancer. However he always emphazies that study x and study y can generate relevant data, and one study can "disprove findings" of another, because CORRELATION does NOT prove CAUSATION.letmepicyou - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link
Yeah, here's another tidbit for you all to research...SELENIUM. 95% of American diets are severely deficient in Selenium. Selenium is an immune system regulator. Best source of Selenium = Brazil Nuts. In fact, not one to spread conspiracy theories (ok, yes I am), but I read a rather in-depth article once by an AIDS researcher that claimed that AIDS isn't even caused by HIV (like conventional "wisdom" claims), but rather every subject he took samples from and tested that had AIDS actually was severely deficient in Selenium in their body. Since I've been eating 1 brazil nut a day, I haven't been sick in YEARS. Most I've ever had was a sniffle, but it goes no further into my RT than my nose. Check it out.mode_13h - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link
Too much selenium is strongly linked to development of insulin resistance. So, be careful with long-term selenium supplementation and Brazil nut consumption. One/day is probably fine, but not much more.AndrewJacksonZA - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Get well soon Ian!!