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OpenSSD – Open-Source Solid State Drive (SSD) (openssd-project.org)
144 points by peter_d_sherman on April 10, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 18 comments



Seems like the project might be dead. It was based on a controller chip from a company Indilinx [0] that went bankrupt and was sold off to Toshiba.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indilinx


last commit 5 years ago: https://github.com/openssd/openssd yes, looks dead

Edit: seems like they went from openssd-project.org to openssd.io in 2017, so the github project is the old one. Not sure if there is any new one. Maybe https://github.com/Cosmos-OpenSSD/Cosmos-plus-OpenSSD ?


Yep, that newer repo has a presentation in the doc folder detailing 3 generations of the hardware for research use, they moved to FPGA later: https://github.com/Cosmos-OpenSSD/Cosmos-plus-OpenSSD/blob/m...


There’s a commit in another repo in that org by an account professing to be Sangjin Lee, so either it’s real or a long con.


It will be hard to build a reliable SSD without access to the NDA documentation from the NAND manufacturers. The datasheets you see online are only the basic information.


I don't know what you mean, but I use (and SW-integrate) NAND chips all the time and complete datasheets and application notes are available for most known brands.

For example:

google micron nand filetype:pdf

Or

https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Micron%20Technol...


Try looking for the datasheets on any modern high-capacity 3D NAND of the sort used in SSDs. What you've linked to is an ancient part with 1/32 the capacity of the smallest NAND that can be found in any recent SSD.


Yes, the linked one is the first PDF I've found. I know the commercial NANDs found in newest SSD may not be available, because it's probably that the SSD is using a custom chip design. Perhaps the chip is listed somewhere in a website, but unavailable for purchase (for mere mortals like us or those doing an open source SSD). In any case, those chips won't be available for an open source SSD.

Soon I should put hands on a design with a 2Tb Micron NAND from 2014 (MT29F256G08something). The PDF is behind a simple user registration.


SLC NAND is pretty reliable. Also the older gen MLC NAND is not too bad. But around 60nm down things get progressively worse. And moving from SLC to MLC to TLC to 3D it gets even more.


Their 2017 PDF presentation has good info re: their current state:

https://github.com/Cosmos-OpenSSD/Cosmos-plus-OpenSSD/blob/m...

Page 10 shows the 3 generations of OpenSSD they've been developing. They're on the 3rd gen now (marked 2016), which is FPGA based, says it support a subset of NVMe, and mentions a 2TB max capacity.

Might be interesting to actually do stuff with. :)


They are using Xilinx Zenq 7000 series which also have ARM core and memory controller along the FPGA core, think all major electronic parts sellers are selling them and not expensive part. Interesting project non the less



Noble effort though the project looks dormant.


Traffic budget exceeded apparently, but this seems to be the wiki: http://www.openssd-project.org/wiki/The_OpenSSD_Project


This link currently redirects to what appears to be a Korean-language website showing a “page not available” error.



Korean here. It says "maximum daily traffic limit reached" by the web hosting service. Another Slashdot Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect


503. Hacker news effect?




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