Earlier this month, the first rev of the NVM Express (or NVMe) standard was published. The idea is to establish a uniform register and command set for solid-state memories that use PCIe. It’s an abstracted interface, and doesn’t get into such details as wear-leveling; it works at the read/write/erase level, and the memory subsystem itself takes care of implementing low-level algorithms in the appropriate manner.

The architecture defines pairs of transactions – submissions and completions – that are managed on queues configured as circular buffers. There can be multiple submission and … Read More → "PCIe for SSDs"

RFID tags are everywhere, but they’re rather primitive as high-tech devices go. They’re programmed to do one thing: repeat a message over and over, like so many seagulls chanting, “Mine. Mine. Mine.” And, like a flock of seagulls, if you get a bunch of them going, then it’s hard to tell what any one of them is saying.

This can limit usage of RFID tags in situations where there are a lot of them very close together – say, in the back of a delivery truck. If you want … Read More → "Less Back-Talk"