Paper Title: The Challenges of EDSFF in Enclosure Design

Paper Abstract: With the emergence of EDSFF and the form factors that have been created to support it, the challenge of system designers is to figure out how best to enable the new technology. The 2.5" 15mm form factor has been the standard-bearer for many years and with a myriad of new form factors such as E1, E3, Short, Long, 1T, and 2T all trying to make a home in the next enclosure architectures. It is key to understand how these changes will affect the architectures of the future. This presentation will explore a number of the system design trade-offs facing system designs for enclosure resources, and how the new form factors play a significant role in how future systems will be designed. This also includes requirements that will be driven back into the components that support them.

Paper Author: Brent Yardley, STSM, IBM

Author Bio: Brent Yardley is a Senior Technical Staff Member and Master Inventor with IBM System Storage, where he focuses on developing All Flash Arrays (AFAs). Brent is currently the overall Chief Hardware Architect responsible for the hardware architecture, design, and integration of IBM's storage hardware products and planning future generation storage platforms. He specializes in system designs that integrate multiple I/O protocols, FPGAs, and ASICs, and is an expert in both hardware and software design and system integration. A 22-year veteran of IBM, Brent holds multiple patents focused on storage architectures and solutions. He has an extensive background and understanding of the architecture, design, and implementation of highly available storage-based systems and solutions. He has earned BS degrees in both Software and Hardware Engineering from the Oregon Institute of Technology.