AMD and Samsung Xilinx Introduces the 2nd Generation SmartSSD

A new SSD has been released by Samsung and AMD Xilinx. The updated computational storage device developed for individuals wishing to alter storage paradigms is the 2nd Gen SmartSSD. Let’s take a look at the upgrades and specifications of this second-generation SSD.

2nd Gen SmartSSD

The new Samsung and AMD-Xilinx SmartSSD use a different processing engine than previous versions. This iteration replaces the earlier Kintex FPGAs that were previously used as its processing core with the brand-new Xilinx Versal ACAP. This results in increased performance such as better copy my data functions, the addition of Arm cores, as well as the possibility of additional acceleration and I/O in the drive. According to the firms, the newest generation is noticeably quicker than its predecessors. The new device makes use of EDSFF, which results in a more up-to-date form factor.

After launching the hardware platform, the firms have been focusing their efforts on developing the software component. One illustration of this would be to handle encryption on the device itself by use of the FPGA so that it would not be necessary to do so on the CPU and make use of the main memory. The processing of data may also take place locally, which is another benefit. For instance, here is the NPUSearch, which farms out the search algorithm to the SSDs and the FPGAs that are included inside them, hence achieving improved performance with the first generation of SmartSSDs.

The fact that the data does not have to be transferred from the storage device in order for it to be processed is a significant aspect of this. Because the movement of data in modern servers is expensive in terms of power consumption as well as latency and performance, there are certain categories of applications that can be enormously sped up by utilizing less powerful processors next to the storage rather than bringing everything back to the main CPU.