NVMe is a logical device interface specification for accessing non-volatile storage media attached via a PCI Express bus. The NVMe 1.3 specification has been published, and it introduces several new features:
As with previous updates to the standard, most of the new features are optional but will probably see widespread adoption in their relevant market segments over the next few years. Several of the new NVMe features are based on existing features of other storage interfaces and protocol such as eMMC and ATA. Here are some of the most interesting new features:
Device Self Tests
Boot Partitions
Sanitize
Virtualization
Namespace Optimal IO Boundary
Directives and Streams
Non-Operational Power State Permissive Mode
Host Controlled Thermal Management
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(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 27 2017, @04:27PM (8 children)
How much lockdown and backdoors does this carry with it?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:13PM (4 children)
No more than usual...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:40PM (3 children)
Just some ideas..
Device Self Tests - No hardware API documentation or driver to utilize this under a free OS
Boot Partitions - Won't boot any free operating system
Virtualization - Won't boot
Namespace Optimal IO Boundary - Persistent malware also functions like "management engine" software
Non-Operational Power State Permissive Mode - Backdoor
Host Controlled Thermal Management - Now here is maybe an opportunity to make the device self destruct?
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday May 27 2017, @08:13PM
I don't see how you can read any of that into an interface *specification*. Yeah, the usual implementations will likely have that stuff, but it's not required obviously.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday May 28 2017, @01:23PM (1 child)
I think whats going on is they got it on VMWare's VSAN approved devices list.
I have a small vmware cluster in my basement the stereotypical "home lab" and VSAN requires at least one SSD per host, and I'm using NVMEe SSDs and spinning rust for bulk storage. AFAIK if it works at all, VSAN will use it, but you get the usual corporate song and dance bullshit about "official support" if you actually have support and if you want someone in India to read a script telling you to reinstall or reboot. So its nice to be on the VMWARE hardware compatibility list for VSAN.
The list doesn't really matter for businesses anyway. My annual license was cheap because I'm in a user group that gets almost free licenses, but businesses pay like $2500 per host for VSAN so coughing up $600 for the "correct" 2 TB SSD isn't a major expenditure.
For non-vmware people, VSAN is about what it sounds like a virtual SAN thats not exactly an appliance image but is more of a kernel driver implementation (whoa!). If you're familiar with life under LVM on linux, the vsan is like a magical LVM volumegroup.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @06:11PM
only the dumbest windows using whores would use vmware
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:13PM (2 children)
Could it be filled with malware. Hidden malware. Non volatile malware. Malware that self installs. Persistent malware that survives device erasure.
It's not mature technology until it is used for malware.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday May 27 2017, @06:04PM (1 child)
You could fill it with whatever you want.
You already plug in all sorts of things [wikipedia.org] into the PCIe bus (without knowing what you are doing) so why start worrying now? Most people don't even realize their shiny new laptop or netbook has at least one PCIe slot, and wouldn't know WHICH ONE they had if it bit them in the ass.
There are so many new competing PCIe port standards [wikipedia.org] that any machine already equipped with one is obsolete before shipped.
And they are all talking directly to the bus and there's plenty of room for malware and has been since the first day you cabled in a hard drive to your old fashion ata drive controller.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 27 2017, @08:07PM
Time for some I/O MMU such that devices don't get unrestricted access to main memory or CPU?
(Score: 3, Informative) by tibman on Saturday May 27 2017, @10:28PM (1 child)
I'm a fan of NVMe drives. Using one in my latest build and really like it. Zero cable management because it plugs into the mobo. Wish i had a case with a removable drive cage.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday May 28 2017, @05:23AM
Me too.
I've only got one machine capable of socketing a NVMe.
As prices fall we can move away from drive-bay SSDs and put it all on the the mother board and use drives for backup only.
But even today, a drive bay SSD using clunky old Sata II or III makes for an amazing upgrade to any older laptop.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.