Re: News : ARM Trying to Buy AmperComputing

On Wed, 22 Jan 2025, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 21/01/2025 19:56, Rich wrote:

For SSD's, writes occur to an "erased" flash block (typically much
larger than a "disk sector" size used by the host) and given enough
writes over a short enough timeframe the SSD controller can run out of
"pre-erased" blocks to use, and when that happens write speed slows
down to the rate that can be done when a "block erase" has to occur
before the actual writes can hit the media.  Note that this "block
erase" can also invove moving any partially used data sectors out of
the block into another block, creating a "write amplification"
situation as well.

>
One of the best ways to gain speed and longevity is to buy an SSD that is way larger than you need. So it always has empty blocks available.
>
And can do the block erases in background

Indutrial ssds do have spare space exactly in order to prolong lifetime. I think when ssds first came out, there was one vendor, STEC, if memory serves, that manufactured vastly over engineered drives in the beginning. They seemed to last forever. Then they learned of course, and started to reduce quality and lifetime to industry standards and of course the price as well.