Re: USB Install will temporarily freeze

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> There's a protocol standards revision in the works, called TRIM, that will
> allow the host to tell the flash what parts of the file system can be
> erased and what it needs to keep.  This will allow smarter garbage
> collecting, which can happen in the background.

Actually the TRIM thingy is not needed for the GC to be done in the
background.  And even with TRIM, it takes the same kind of efforts to do
the GC "in the background".  So TRIM is not directly related to stuttering.

Without TRIM, it's more difficult for the disk to maintain a good
level of performance because it doesn't get as much free space to play
around with.

Stuttering can be eliminated in 2 ways (and they can be combined):
- by doing the GC incrementally in the background, before eating up all
  the available erased pages.
- by adding a bit of RAM to your disk, so you can keep working from that
  RAM while the GC is progress.
Apparently current "stutter-free" SSDs nowadays use the
second approach.  Don't know if some drives use the first.

> I don't know what (or even "if") the time-frame will be for getting TRIM
> into USB sticks.

Or even into the USB-storage protocol (so it can be used for
USB-connected SSDs).  Maybe if/when USB3 eats up the eSata business.


        Stefan