Frequently Asked Questions
The most-asked questions about computer storage, part 2.
What does 'Computer Storage, Part 2' cover as a section of the fan encyclopedia?
It is the second major division of the encyclopedia, focusing on advanced and evolving storage architectures such as NVMe protocols, CXL memory pooling, and emerging media like MRAM and 3D XPoint. It assumes the reader already knows the fundamentals laid out in Part 1.
Who are the key figures highlighted in this section?
The section profiles pioneers like Sanjay Mehrotra (early SSD controller work), the engineers behind the NVMe specification at Intel and Samsung, and researchers at institutions such as IBM Almaden who pushed magnetic recording to its physical limits. Each gets a short biography tied to a specific breakthrough.
Where should a newcomer begin reading Part 2?
Start with the 'From SATA to NVMe' entry, because it bridges the basic interface knowledge from Part 1 into the performance-oriented topics that dominate this section. From there, the 'Storage Hierarchy Revisited' article gives a useful mental map of everything else.
How does Part 2 differ in scope from Part 1?
Part 1 is oriented toward definitions, basic hardware identification, and consumer-facing choices like picking a drive. Part 2 shifts to protocol design, data-integrity mechanisms, enterprise storage fabrics, and the research frontier, so it reads more like an engineering reference.
What are the most frequently cited milestones in this section?
The 2011 publication of the NVMe 1.0 spec, the 2019 commercialization of CXL 1.1, and the 2020 demonstration of sub-terabyte-class 3D NAND stacks are the three events most cross-referenced across entries. Each is treated as a turning point that reshaped the storage stack.
Which storage technologies receive the most detailed treatment here?
NVMe-over-Fabrics, CXL-attached memory, and 3D NAND scaling get the longest dedicated articles, each running several pages with diagrams and a timeline. Secondary coverage goes to ZNS (Zoned Namespaces) and computational storage accelerators.
Is this encyclopedia an official or peer-reviewed resource?
No; it is a community-maintained, unofficial reference written by enthusiasts and hobbyists. Entries cite vendor whitepapers and IEEE/ACM publications, but the encyclopedia itself has no editorial board or formal review process.
What is the most actively debated topic among contributors?
Whether CXL will genuinely blur the line between memory and storage or remain a niche interconnect is the recurring thread in the discussion pages. Opposing camps cite different latency figures and different assumptions about workload profiles.
How does Part 2 link to other sections of the broader encyclopedia?
Cross-references connect storage-protocol entries to the 'CPU Microarchitecture' and 'Operating System I/O Subsystems' sections, and the enterprise-fabric articles point into the 'Networking' division. A 'See Also' sidebar on every page lists the most relevant external entries.
What was the most recent major addition to Part 2?
A full article on CXL 3.0 and its pooled-memory model was added, along with an updated timeline in the NVMe entry reflecting the 2.5 revision. Both were contributed by a small group of readers who track the CXL Consortium's public mailing list.