hIOmon^™

  The File I/O Performance Monitor

Making data perform^SM

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Architecture

SuperSpeed Software, Inc (www.SuperSpeed.com) is a prominent provider of RAM disk software.  Their RamDisk and RamDisk Plus software utilities create a virtual disk drive to store files in non-swapped physical memory (RAM).  As a great complement to these RamDisk offerings, the hIOmon™ File I/O Performance Monitor can easily and quickly identify those particular 'hot' files that can best utilize the dramatic I/O performance improvement potential of the RAM disk software.   

Hardware

InfoLinks

Interfaces

In addition to their RamDisk software, SuperSpeed Software, Inc. is also a leading global provider of disk caching software.  Their SuperCache and SuperVolume software utilities move disk data into system memory (RAM) where it can be accessed by application software at high speeds (especially in comparison to the often much lower speeds of I/O to the actual disk storage devices themselves).  The hIOmon™ File I/O Performance Monitor can both measure and monitor the significant performance improvements possible with these software utilities.   

There are a number of places to find and obtain specific device drivers.  Usually a good place to start is with the vendor of the particular device.  There are also several web sites that are dedicated to locating specific device drivers (e.g., DriverFiles, DriversHQ, GaltTech, DriverGuide, etc.).

Since the I2OSIG ceased operation on 13 October 2000, continued operating system support for I2O has become somewhat questionable.  The following list provides some pertinent information regarding currently-known support for I20 (operating system, device class support, and web site),  Check the I2O SIG web site for additional information and status:

• Windows NT  -  Disk storage

• IBM OS/2 Warp Server - Disk storage

• Linux - According to Alan Cox, support for PCI-based I2O devices talking I2O LAN, I2O SCSI and I2O Block Storage Abstraction (BSA), in accordance with I2O specification 1.5, was introduced within the Linux 2.4 version.  In addition, Linux 2.2 had a board-specific driver for the Red Creek VPN card and (former) DPT has board-specific drivers for their Decade/Century/Millenium series of HBA cards

The development of device drivers requires careful attention to specific operating system dependencies as well as to the peculiarities of the device itself.   A Device Driver Kit (DDK) is a development software tool which can aid in the design and implementation of the device driver software.  Various DDK options are available, depending again upon the particular operating system and device, including:  

Windows

The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) provides DDKs for various Windows versions.

Additional providers of DDKs and information about developing device drivers include: Kernel Mode Systems, BSQUARE, Jungo (formerly KRFTech), and Open Systems Resources (OSR)  

Uniform Driver Interface (UDI)

UDI defines an architecture and a set of OS-neutral and platform-neutral APIs for use between the device driver and the surrounding system (thus allowing multiple Operating Systems and platforms to use the exact same driver).  UDI also provides uniformity across device types by providing a common infrastructure for all drivers, with extensions for specific device types. 

The IOMETER performance monitoring tool is available for free download from the Iometer web site.  This tool is a disk I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems.  Both a workload generator and a measurement tool, the IOMETER software program can be used for the measurement and characterization of:

• Performance of disk controllers.

• Bandwidth and latency capabilities of buses.

• Network throughput to attached drives.

• Shared bus performance.

• System-level hard drive performance.

IOMETER was originally developed by Intel.  Intel subsequently discontinued working on IOMETER and gave it to the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL); in November 2001, an IOMETER project was registered at SourceForge.net. 

The current released version of IOMETER also includes some support for the performance testing of the Virtual Interface Architecture (VIA).

The latest version of IOMETER is version 2004.07.30; instructions on how to get this latest version of IOMETER can be found at the Iometer web site.

The ATA-ATAPI.COM by Hale Landis web site (www.ata-atapi.com) is a great resource that provides a wealth of information for developers of products which use the ATA (IDE/EIDE), Serial ATA (SATA), ATAPI, and other interfaces.  ATA/ATAPI test software, testing services and training classes are also available along with consulting services.

The IOTTA Repository is a SNIA-maintained web site, located within the SNIA Technology Center, that is used to store, manage and distribute the contents of a repository for storage-related I/O traces, I/O trace collection and analysis tools, and other related information.

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