Next version of Mac OS X, aka Leopard, will support Sun file system, known as ZFS for Zettabyte File System. What will be changed for Mac users?
First, ZFS is independent of HD storage space… quite almost has it supports up to 16 exaBytes HD, in other words 16 millions TB. Each file can use up to 16 exaBytes too. To compare with the current HFS+ file system in Tiger, we are "limited" to 16TB HD or a file while HFS+ support tops to 16 exaBytes too.
ZFS allows users to easily create ZFS storage pools (zpool), in other words disks are concatenated (something similar to
LVM for Linux), or RAID-1 (mirroring) or RAIDS-Z volumes.
RAID-Z is an integrated redundancy scheme similar to RAID 5 (so an improved RAID 5, (see
this page for more details about RAID-Z and RAID-Z2).
Another feature of ZFS that can be linked to the forthcoming Time Machine, is the support of
snapshots. A snapshot is a copy of a set of files and/or directories as they were at a particular point in the past, so it makes "undo" or search of older version easier. Indeed, it uses the
Copy-on-write functionality, making all modifications of a set of files written on a different location than the older version on the HD.
Another interesting feature is compression, a ZFS volume can automatically compress data (on-the-fly), adding extra storage space for users.
To conclude, managing zpools is relatively easy thanks to command lines as described in this
article. One can expect that Leopard will allow users to manage zpools directly via the GUI of Disk Utility.
Of course ZFS is not perfect, there is currently no support for encrypting data, and journaling is not as easy as with HFS+. In addition, it is currently not possible to boot from ZFS volumes, even though they are working on this feature, when Apple releases Leopard, ZFS support might be initially limited to external volumes (non bootable) or might even limit this feature to OSX Server.
[update] Thanks to Dominik (from German website
http://www.opensourcemac.de) for additional links and information below:
Concerning encryption when the zfs support is final:
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/zfs-crypto/
There are also some ppl working on the zfs_boot project.
Look at: http://blogs.sun.com/tabriz/
Toast 8 is officially available from today.
The article is now available in english:
here, and screenshots illustrate how deeply Roxio has modified this new version of one of the key applications on Mac.
Seagate quickly follows Hitachi, and also announced its first 1TB HD for Q1 2007. It will be based on a 4 x 250 plates technology, whereas Hitachi will be using 5 x 200GB plates. In theory, Seagate model should heat less and be faster; however, one will have to test it, as recent Seagate models have not been particularly the leaders of performance benchmarks.
The good point for consumers is to see many manufacturers entering the 1TB HD market, a promise for lower price.
LG unveiled specification of its first player able to read both blue laser-based media: Blu Ray and HD-DVD. But that's not all!
It is also a burner supporting CD, DVD and single and double layer Blu Ray media!
For sure this device is not going to fill the gap for HD-DVD burner. Indeed, the current lack of media as well as burners for this format can seriously question the future of HD-DVD as a storage technology for computers.
Of course this new LG drive will be too expensive for most consumers (1200$), but at least it shows the current right direction, while forcing other manufacturers to enter the market.
In its strategy to bring AMD back to reality, Intel keeps releasing Quad Core-based CPUs models.
New models will be a Core 2 Quad clocked at 2.4GHz, and 2 models of Xeon X32x0 (respectively clocked at 2.13 and 2.4GHz). Those Xeons are entry level server CPUs, directly based on Core 2 Duo and featuring a 1066 MHz FSB vs. 1333MHz for the Xeon powering MacPro; however multi CPU feature is supported. If Cupertino does not introduce a desktop between the iMac and the MacPro, then neither the Core 2 Duo nor those entry level Xeon will be used in Apple-branded hardware models.
Apple is expected to release a Quad Core Xeon-based MacPro model as the new high-end model for its Pro desktop (8 cores in total), it would not need any hardware modification, one can simply replace Dual Core Xeon CPU by Quad Core units.
