News AMD Axes StoreMI Technology, Replacement Coming in Q2 2020

[Admin]

AMD announced via a new Product Change Advisory that it's discontinuing the StoreMI feature.

AMD Axes StoreMI Technology, Replacement Coming in Q2 2020 : Read more

 

[TechyInAZ]

I'm glad they are ditching StoreMI, while StoreMI is one of the best cache storage solutions due to it's tiered design, i tried it and i got mixed results when it came to performance.

 

[larkspur]

You can rest easy if you downloaded StoreMI before the termination though as AMD will generously let you continue to use the software.

Generously? So it's being generous to let you continue to use the software that enables a feature that you paid for? A quick look over at Newegg at the 3950x page and I see:

AMD StoreMI Technology*

SSDs are fast, but expensive, and offer minimal capacity. Mechanical hard drives boast large capacity for a low price, but are much slower than an SSD. AMD StoreMI technology combines these two types of storage into a single drive and automatically moves the data you access the most to the SSD, so you get the best of both worlds: SSD responsiveness, and mechanical hard disk capacity with its low price.

* AMD StoreMI Technology is included with every motherboard that features an AMD X399 or 400-series chipset. If you have an AMD X399 or 400-series chipset, you can download AMD StoreMI software for free. If you have a socket AM4 motherboard with a 300-series chipset, you can still enjoy the benefits of storage acceleration with Enmotus FuzeDrive software, exclusively for AMD, for an additional fee.


And when I go to AMD's own page for Ryzen 9 series processors I see StoreMI technology continues to be prominently featured. I guess the marketing department must have missed the memo???

 

[cryoburner]

Generously? So it's being generous to let you continue to use the software that enables a feature that you paid for?

I think the writer of the article might have been intending sarcasm there. It's sometimes hard to tell with this site though. : P

In any case, considering we are already in Q2, I'm guessing the replacement will be coming soon. If not this month, perhaps by the May 15 date that the FuzeDrive developer is providing support through.

It is a bit odd that they dropped support for the feature under such short notice though, without the new version immediately available. Apparently this was announced on March 18th, just two weeks before downloads were to be pulled. It makes me wonder if there might have been some falling out between the FuzeDrive developer and AMD. Perhaps they wanted substantially higher licensing fees for the software that AMD wouldn't agree to. It's been about two years since AMD launched StoreMi, so the existing contract might have been up for renewal. Or maybe there's some other reason they felt the need to pull the existing version, and the FuzeDrive developer might still be supplying the next version of the software. Either way, it sounds like StoreMi 2.0, or whatever AMD calls it, should be available before long.

 

[rumplestilts]

AMD announced via a new Product Change Advisory that it's discontinuing the StoreMI feature.

AMD Axes StoreMI Technology, Replacement Coming in Q2 2020 : Read more

Same <Mod Edit> "feature" Apple has been using for their "Fusion Drives". It sucked on Macs (and I know because I am a Mac tech). So just say "good riddance" and move along; nothing to see here.

 

[escksu]

Hmm, with the low price of SSD these days, not sure if using it as a cache makes any sense.... Talking about end uder POV. SErvers are different.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

That's what I was thinking. This is 2020 and 1TB SATA SSDs are easily found for $110, and often under $100 on sale, from quality manufacturers, with 2TB drives at about $200, even less if you get an Intel 660/665 on sale. The time when -anyone- should be using an HDD for games, even a SSHD which this effectively emulates, has passed, so it makes me wonder who is still using programs like FuzeDrive, those "lots of fans" they mentioned.

 

[Gillerer]

Hmm, with the low price of SSD these days, not sure if using it as a cache makes any sense....

StoreMI (as well as FuzeDrive) are not caching solutions, but tiered storage. They approach improving data availability in fundamentally different ways.

• Caching means a copy of the most recently/often used data is put on the SSD. The capacity of the volume will be equal to the size of the HDD (up to capacity supported by the software).
• Tiered storage means that every block of data is only present on only the SSD or the HDD, with the most often needed data being kept on the fast tier. The capacity of the volume will be combined total size of both the SDD and the HDD (up to capacities supported by the software).

Since tiered storage doesn't automatically move most recently used data to the SSD (as a caching solution might do), but also considers the "most accessed recently" metric, they're slower to adapt to your usage patterns (but also don't make the mistake using SSD capacity and lifetime writes, and system processing power to copy once-accessed data to the SSD).

This means that in the short term caching will seem faster (since all your last accessed data will be read off the SSD), but after a a week or so of normal use, the tiered storage's smartness should start to provide benefits.

That is, as long as you don't keep changing your usage patterns erratically, or keep accessing lots of data (more than the capacity of the SSD) all the time - something like editing videos (with raw or intermediate codec video, and lots of scratch use).

 

[cryoburner]

That's what I was thinking. This is 2020 and 1TB SATA SSDs are easily found for $110, and often under $100 on sale, from quality manufacturers, with 2TB drives at about $200, even less if you get an Intel 660/665 on sale. The time when -anyone- should be using an HDD for games, even a SSHD which this effectively emulates, has passed, so it makes me wonder who is still using programs like FuzeDrive, those "lots of fans" they mentioned.

While I largely agree, SSD pricing hasn't been quite that good in recent months. Throughout the second half of last year, the 1TB Intel 660p was widely available for under $100, even dipping as low as $85 on sale a few times. For the last few months, however, it's been priced more in the $120-$125 range, with the occasional sale dropping it to around maybe $110-$115 at best. Pricing of that drive has climbed more than 30% in the last 6 months. See the one-year price history graph on PCPartpicker, for example...

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9n...-state-drive-ssdpeknw010t8x1?history_days=365

The price of the 2TB 660p has similarly climbed into the $240+ range, up from around $190 last year. And the 665p was never priced quite as good, currently standing at $140 for the 1TB model, and $270 for the 2TB. SATA drives have climbed a bit as well. It's probably not enough to turn one away from putting an SSD in their system, but they might go with a lower capacity model than they would have otherwise, and maybe resort to hard drive storage for many of their games.

But yeah, compared to 2 years ago when AMD launched StoreMi, SSD pricing has dropped by around half. It wasn't really practical to put 1TB of SSD storage in a mid-range system then, but it arguably is now. So maybe that played a role with this. The FuzeDrive developer might have wanted more money to renew the licensing for the software than AMD felt it was worth at this point, and maybe they decided to go with their own solution instead. That might also allow them to include features that weren't included in the cut-down version of FuzeDrive previously used for StoreMi. Again, that's assuming AMD isn't using their software anymore, which might not even be the case.

As far as "tiered storage" goes, I'd rather see a caching system. If your files are split across two drives, that increases the potential points of failure, and may complicate the process of upgrading or replacing one of the drives, or transferring them to another system. In the case of StoreMi, where the SSD cache was limited to just 256GB, it seems kind of silly to not have those files mirrored to the hard drive, since that's less than $10 worth of hard drive storage.

 

[watzupken]

StoreMi's benefits are negated considering that SSDs are still quite affordable now. And to be honest, I feel most are perfectly fine to have the OS and key softwares installed on the SSD, and all other files and such on the mechanical drive. I see no point in trying to blur the line by introducing this tiered storage.

 

[Rdslw]

Hmm, with the low price of SSD these days, not sure if using it as a cache makes any sense.... Talking about end uder POV. SErvers are different.

it does a bit once you go above 1TB of storage.
I think cache all solution will not work with non-ram cache.
BUT I am saying this for a while now.
SSD <<no<< is file larger than 1/4/10MB >>yes>> HDD.
something like this will work. Its super light weight, is not wearing the SSD pointlessly. (you can have margins that will take care of edges, like 9 or less to upgrade to ssd, 11 or more to go to HDD) and then you can have much better performance than HDD (as they only struggle with small files) and have a lot of disk space.
If they update the tiers as disks fill up unevenly (too much on ssd -> -1 to min size, to much on hdd +1 to min side on ssd).

second thing is filessystem MAP for HDD.
if SSD will act as "disc map" and HDD will only store the data without ANY METADATA, it will also be way faster and more consistent performer than current HDD/fusion&hybrid craps.

hybrid drives make a lot of sense we just use it in a very stupid way.

 

[wexir]

using storemi on my cheap ass hdd, im using the option to put 2gb of ram into cache and it does indeed speed some things up. Im curious as to what the new thing will be.

 

[Gillerer]

StoreMi's benefits are negated considering that SSDs are still quite affordable now. And to be honest, I feel most are perfectly fine to have the OS and key softwares installed on the SSD, and all other files and such on the mechanical drive. I see no point in trying to blur the line by introducing this tiered storage.

For people with limited means, having a ~250GB SSD + 2TB HDD gives them flexibility and ease-of-use.

Then for people who want good performance, nothing prevents you from having a larger SSD as primary drive, then add a tiered 250GB+4TB for storage and less important games. Any enthusiast probably has a smaller older SSD lying around, anyways, so why not use it?

(Just make sure to keep backups if you store important data on tiered storage. But that goes for a single HDD as well.)

 

[psxlover]

Can someone explain to me, why every site reported that there would be a new version of StoreMI, there are nearly no articles about the new version being out?

 

[cryoburner]

Can someone explain to me, why every site reported that there would be a new version of StoreMI, there are nearly no articles about the new version being out?

Since the new version was announced alongside the updated XT processors, the news got tacked onto the same article as them, at least at this site. TomsHardware had a decent-sized section about it in their XT launch article, as well as in their 3800 XT / 3600 XT review. I don't believe they have done a performance analysis on it yet, though that may be because it's only available on X570 motherboards for the time being, and they might be holding off on that until it comes to other boards.