To NVMe and beyond!
Posted by Steve Revill Thu, 22 Feb 2024 18:41:00 GMT
Previously thought to be lightyears away, today RISC OS storage technology goes on an Open Source adventure with Woody and friends along the non-volatile memory express-way.
Collaborating together
We’re delighted to have partnered with RISCOSbits and Stader Softwareentwicklung in the development of this key new storage capability for RISC OS 5. Comprising the usual ‘stack’ arrangement of a driver (NVMeDriver) and FileCore filing system (NVMeFS), the solid state flash drives take their familiar place alongside the other media on the left of the icon bar.
Such large, complicated developments work well with multiple partners contributing – much like the earlier development of ADFS 4 and SATADriver to gain SATA support – designing software once and deploying it across multiple hardware platforms saves effort.
Want to play with these toys?
Initially, the popular Pi Compute Module 4 is the target. The CM4 is a requirement because NVMe drives attach using PCI express, so you’ll need at least one PCIe socket. The Titanium has two such sockets and is expected to follow on next.
RISC OS Open is passionate about Open Source and wants everyone to be able to use this technology. Grab a copy of the source code to the updated components NVMeFiler (actually just a derivative of ADFSFiler) and HForm, which both now support NVMe.
The NVMeDriver and NVMeFS will follow as soon as Mr. Potato Head has some spare time.
Availability
Come and see NVMeFS in action at the South West Show on Saturday 24th February. We’ll have a vanilla CM4IO setup fitted with a speedy 256GB FileCore format drive, or head over to RISCOSbits to buy a selection of ready-built computers from Andy (now all grown up!) & sister Molly on the day.
At 77 minutes running time, you could comfortably fit all 114,240 frames of Toy Story onto a 256GB NVMe drive, but it’s probably more fun to watch on the big screen with a bucket of popcorn.
If you’re not able to make it to Bristol, the updated HForm is in the nightly HardDisc4 download and we’ll be hosting pre-built modules in the coming days – at present these are not going to be integrated into the main Raspberry Pi ROM, and do of course require a Pi Compute Module 4 with suitable drive installed.
Congratulations to all involved. So nice to see people working together and for the results to be appearing in GitLab.
Thanks for the clarification that the driver and filing system are coming soon – I thought the stuff in GitLab looked a bit light. ;)
Glad to see official support for SSDs finally coming o RISC OS…
Will this NVMe support stretch to a TRIM utility / support for SSDs connected to existing SCSI, thus covering USB connected SSDs on Pi etc?
The link to the Stader Softwareentwicklung website should be http not https.