Computational Storage
Updated October 2024
SNIA and the Compute, Memory, and Storage Initiative (CMSI) technical work and marketing initiatives are part of the SNIA Accelerate Data Focus Area and an exciting direction of adding computation to the normal storage features of devices and systems to realize a significant performance and infrastructure scaling advantage.
SNIA Computational Storage TWG Co-Chairs Bill Martin and Jason Molgaard review SNIA Computational Storage activities in this SNIA Compute, Memory, and Storage Summit presentation
The industry is seeing an increase in customer requirements to move compute closer to traditional storage devices and systems. Computational Storage solutions typically target applications where the demand to process ever-growing storage workloads is outpacing traditional compute server architectures. These applications include AI, big data, content delivery, database, machine learning and many others that are used industry-wide.
The SNIA Computational Storage Special Interest Group (SIG), a part of the CMSI, evangelizes SNIA's technical work in computational storage, including developing white papers and webcasts, and speaking at SNIA and industry events. Check out their latest activities:
- A new Total Cost of Ownership for Computational Storage - Compression white paper
- Videos on the latest real-world computational storage use cases
- A"Geek Out on Computational Storage" education page with videos on computational storage architectures, applications, and futures.
Check out the CMSI Knowledge Center and the SNIA Educational Library (search for "computational") for even more materials.
Computational storage technical work is accomplished by the SNIA Computational Storage TWG. The TWG has published the Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model v1.0, which defines recommended behavior for hardware and software that supports computational storage, and the Computational Storage API v1.0. SNIA welcomes your comments on these specifications at the SNIA Feedback Portal.
Congratulations to the SNIA Computational Storage TWG and the authors of the Computational Storage API for their Most Innovative Memory Technology (Standards) Best of Show Award at the 2023 Flash Memory Summit. Well done!
Two recent videos and presentations on the Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model and the Computational Storage API provide an overview of SNIA work in this area.