Windows and Linux Drivers for PCIe SSDs

The NVM Express Work Group announced the completion of several components: a standard Windows driver, a Linux driver and an NVM Express Test Suite.

They enable broad adoption of PCIe-based SSDs that support the NVM Express specification. The NVM Express specification defines an optimized register interface, command set and feature set for PCIe-based SSDs utilized in both enterprise and client systems.

The NVM Express specification was developed cooperatively by more than 80 companies from across the industry and was released on March 1, 2011 by the NVM Express Work Group. The goal is to enable the broad adoption of SSDs using the PCIe interface. NVMe efforts are directed by the NVM Express Promoter Group consisting of Cisco, Dell, EMC, IDT, Intel, Micron, NetApp, Oracle, SandForce (LSI) and STEC.

The Windows driver was developed by IDT, Intel, and LSI’s Flash Components Division (formerly SandForce) and is available under BSD open source license terms. This driver supports all of the mandatory features of the NVM Express 1.0 specification. Driver integration testing has been completed and the driver has been transferred to a new work group in the OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA). The OFA and NVMe will collaboratively maintain the NVMe driver and coordinate future enhancements.

The Linux driver was released in March 2011 and is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It is available at http://git.infradead.org/users/willy/linux-nvme.git and offers performance improvements over existing storage drivers. The NVMe Linux driver is expected to be included in the next version of the main Linux kernel, and will be integrated into major Linux distrbutions, providing users with an optimal out-of-box experience. Further development of the Linux driver is discussed on the Linux-NVMe mailing list; subscription details are located at http://lists.infradead.org/mailmain/listinfo/linux-nvme.

To support the development of NVMe devices, Intel has created an NVM Express Compliance Suite framework as an open source project. The suite is designed to grow over time as conformance tests are added to verify hardware as compliant with the NVMe specification. Hosted on github at https://github.com/nvmecompliance, multiple NVMe member companies are working to author tests and add them to the suite, open for anyone to use. More detailed information has been provided for developers at https://github.com/nvmecompliance/tnvme/wiki. The NVMe Promoter Group has partnered with the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratoryhttp://www.iol.unh.edu to deliver an interoperability test suite. UNH-IOL plans to build on the NVMe Compliance Suite framework as part of delivering the interoperability test suite in the middle of this year.

Sally Stevens, VP of Dell Server Marketing, said: "This is exactly what we envisioned when we embarked on this journey towards enabling open standards for the new performance tier. This is a huge step toward our promise of delivering open architecture without compromising performance."

"EMC is committed to standards and it continues to heavily focus on compliance and interoperability testing," said Bill DePatie, vice president of Hardware Engineering at EMC. "EMC was the first to deliver Flash drive technology in enterprise storage arrays. As a driving force in enterprise Flash technology innovation, EMC recognizes the importance of NVMe to expanding the adoption of Flash. With the release of these new components, the NVMe standard continues to advance, and increase its reach. These are fundamental building blocks that provide continued industry momentum for NVM Express."

"SSDs using the PCIe interface deliver unparalleled performance, while reducing system power and latency. However, broad industry adoption has been hampered by the lack of standard software drivers. IDT is proud to be among the group of industry leaders who have worked to overcome this challenge by developing the NVMe baseline standard Windows driver," said Kam Eshghi, senior director of marketing in the Enterprise Computing Division at IDT.

"This is a critical milestone for the industry that will accelerate the adoption and unlock the potential of PCIe SSDs in the data center," said Tom Macdonald, vice president Intel Architecture Group and general manager Platform Solutions Group. "Standards allow the industry to move forward rapidly, enabling innovation and interoperability to deliver maximum user benefit."

"The completion of a baseline standard Windows driver is a key milestone that will help to accelerate the market adoption of SSDs using the PCI Express interface," said Sumit Puri, senior director of strategic marketing, Flash Components Division, LSI. "LSI is a leading provider of flash storage solutions, and continued enhancements to the NVM Express specification pave the way for widespread integration of solid state storage technology in servers and external storage systems to meet the challenges of performance-hungry applications and exponential data growth."

"NetApp is focused on providing customers with innovative choices in deploying SSD and Flash technology to drive IT costs down and improve performance," said David Dale, director of Industry Standards at NetApp. "The delivery of standard Windows and Linux drivers and NVMe test suite is a major milestone on the path to SSDs becoming ubiquitous in servers and enterprise storage, enabling NetApp to deliver unprecedented efficiency and flexibility to customers."