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April 01, 2014

University of New Hampshire Plugfest Leads to Product Certification

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) provides interoperability and conformance testing for a wide range of network, telecommunications, storage products and technologies. Its recent NVM Express Interoperability Plugfest, which took place this past February, led to a number of devices finding certification through the New Hampshire group and NVM Express, a collection of more than than 90 companies that support non-volatile memory-based storage. UNH-IOL announced this week that products from Dell, Huawei, Intel, Mobiveil, PMC Sierra and Samsung Semiconductor met the standards necessary to join its NVMe Integrators List 1.1, a listing of products that conform to and perform well within the NVMe 1.1 specifications.

NVM Express has created two versions of host-controller specifications for PCIe storage devices such as solid state drives. It created NVMe 1.0 in 2011 and NVMe 1.1 in 2012. The first plugfest that tested devices with respect to these standards took place in May 2013, and the second plugfest continued in February. Ten companies, in total, participated in the latest plugfest, but only eight found themselves awarded with device compatibility certification.

UNH approved solid state drives from manufacturers Intel, Huawei, and Samsung Semiconductor, a solid state controller from PMC Sierra, a solid state drive intellectual property solution from Mobiveil, and a Dell system.

The four-day event replaces approximately three weeks of testing at in-house facilities. In order to participate in the plugfests, companies must join the UNH-IOL NVMe Testing Consortium. The depth of testing at such events appears to displace any adverse work it may take to join the consortium. And further advancements in the field can build from the knowledge gained at UNH-IOL events. Not only are approved devices mentioned in the Integrators List, members of the consortium are able to participate in continuous testing to enhance their own devices and others utilizing PCIe technology.

Experts in the field will discuss topics surrounding the advancement of PCIe this year at the Flash Memory Summit in August. The event will include hands-on labs, vendor displays, and seminars covering memory-based architectures, PCIe devices, and non-volatile memory, among other industry standards and practices.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson


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