Podcast #112: Why HDDs Aren’t Going Away

Brian catches up with Broadcom’s Rick Kutcipal for this session. Rick is a Product Planner in the Data Center Solutions Group (DCSG) at Broadcom and focuses on storage technology, interfaces, and innovations in that sector. Primarily, Rick is interested in the HDD space and the innovations occurring around that technology.

Rick has been with Broadcom since 2014 and spent 14 years with LSI. He is highly regarded in the industry and interested in innovations in all storage sectors.

This podcast covers everything from HDD to SSD to CXL with relevant sidebars. This is an excellent topic if you are interested in where the industry is heading and how Broadcom expects it to shape.

It’s worth viewing the entire podcast, but if you are short of time or have a specific interest, look at the timestamps below.

00:00 Introduction

General overview of Broadcom
Rick is in the Data Center Solutions Group
- Products in the DCSG
Future focus for Rick’s group
- Visibility into HDD space
- Flash is important, but HDD is relevant
- Still a need for rotational media in hyperscale systems

05:00 OCP Show discussion

Interfaces
- SAS & SATA
- NVMe HDDs
- Multi-actuator
- Power to the drive is important

12:00 Dual-actuator in the enterprise

Form Factors
- Other forms and form factors
- Easy with SSDs
- Challenging for round form factors
- More platters

15:00 Hyperscalers

SMR drives
Sounds good but comes at a cost
Better if the user owns the OS and Applications
Advancements are necessary to continue to evolve capacities
Small innovative steps
Hammer

20:00 QLC Flash Drives

The software can change the game
- Dedupe
Cost for warm storage
Complications associated with QLC
Find a technology, pick it!
View on accelerators and drive management

25:00 Love to see innovation in the space

Thinking about the end game
Some pieces of the technology will make it into mainstream
New thought leadership in these areas
What does Broadcom have to do to remain relevant
- RAID architecture
- Using different architecture
Actively innovating in the space
Data protection

30:00 DPUs

Broadcom is watching the technology closely
Based on the business model
CXL business impact
- Hot topic
- Emerging technology
Networking and fabric
- Ethernet NICs
- Faster speeds

33:00 Wrap-up

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2 years ago

Harold Fritts

I have been in the tech industry since IBM created Selectric. My background, though, is writing. So I decided to get out of the pre-sales biz and return to my roots, doing a bit of writing but still being involved in technology.