SNIA, the Storage Networking Industry Association, has just published a White Paper titled “Understanding SSD Performance Using the SNIA SSS Performance Test Specification” as a companion piece to the association’s SSD Performance Test Specification (PTS). As the White Paper’s introduction states:
“A commonly asked question for NAND Flash based SSDs is: “which SSD performs best?” Invariably, the informed answer is “it depends” – this is due to several factors inherent in NAND-based SSDs.”
These factors include:
- Device-level factors such as the drive’s condition before the performance test starts, when and how the test sequence is applied, the amount of data transferred each way during the test, the type of data used, etc.
- System-level factors including the test platform used, the test program or exerciser used, and the bandwidth of the system-level disk interface.
- Architectural factors such as the type of NAND Flash used in the SSD’s construction, the drive’s target use (high read or high write workloads, for example), and the SSD’s warranty life target.
If you need to evaluate SSDs in any context, this SNIA White Paper is an excellent place to start.
Denali Memory Report 