Is a number of that magnitude one with which we should become familiar? Absolutely! The notation immediately below the yotta is the zetta (10^21). A zettabyte of information, or a billion terabytes if you prefer, is slightly less than the 1.2 zettabytes of new data estimated to have been created in 2010. By 2020, the amount of new data created in a single year is estimated to have increased to 35 zettabytes.
The notation immediately below the zetta is the exa (10^18). That notation is also of immediate importance because a 64-bit address space can “only” address up to 16 exabytes in existing architectures. Cisco estimates that global IP traffic in 2014 will reach 767 exabytes.
The significance of this much data is that the infrastructure necessary to create, transport, and store that much information has a growing impact on the data processing infrastructure—and particularly on the cost/performance ratio of memory technologies.
Most of us are familiar with the traditional computing memory hierarchy that describes the relative cost and performance of memory technologies as we move outward from high-performance cache memory at the closest physical and logical proximity to the processing element. As we move away from that position and toward the various levels of more remote data storage, the cost‑per‑bit and other performance requirements decline for memory technologies.
So what do we make of the recent introduction of lower-performance NAND replacing high-endurance and high-performance DRAM in a growing number of Enterprise SSD applications? And what about products such as Kaminario’s recently announced 12TB DRAM-based SSD?
The volume of data that is being processed, transported, and stored is beginning to shift the traditional cost/performance ratio of traditional semiconductor memory technologies. The lower power-consumption capabilities of NAND nonvolatile memory is already beginning to outweigh other performance considerations at this current level of 1.2 zettabytes of new data.
Our expectation is that this growth of data will continue to put pressure on system-level designers to find more opportunities for memory technologies to increase the value of their contribution to the overall system-level cost/performance. We believe that the opportunity for memory technologies to break away from the traditional image of the ultimate high-volume commodity product is rapidly approaching as new cost/performance opportunities are identified, and that system-level designers will continue to encourage new levels of technology experimentation and product differentiation among various memory technologies.
www.convergentsemiconductors.com - Global Analysis of Memory Strategies and Issues
www.convergentsemiconductors.com - Global Analysis of Memory Strategies and Issues
