FAQ
Does Radian sell software or hardware?
Both. We sell the RMS-250 SSD hardware pre-loaded with Symphonic CFM firmware to OEMs and cloud providers, and we license software/hardware technology to device manufacturer partners who can in turn sell the SSD product to OEMs, cloud or service providers.
What if I’m not an OEM, cloud or service provider but want to try out your products?
We want to see as many Symphonic-based SSDs in as many slots as possible. But we first need to integrate the Symphonic technology with popular target system software, such as open source file systems and key value stores, before we can make the product more generally available.
What does Symphonic look like to a host?
Like a block device, but utilizing the vendor-specific extensions in the NVMe API. It supports LBAs based on 4K tuples.
Does Symphonic require modifications or patches to the kernel?
No mods to the kernel are required.
What device driver is required?
Symphonic can utilize the mainline NVMe driver, but Radian recommends the Radian version as it includes support for certain diagnostic utilities.
Is Symphonic plug and play (i.e., backwards compatible)?
While Symphonic greatly minimizes modifications to host target software stacks (file system, block virtualization manager, object/key value store, etc) in comparison to other Software-Defined Flash approaches, it does still require modifications. This integration effort requires the developer be an experienced file system or kernel engineer and, at least for now, requires support from Radian Engineering.
Can you load Symphonic firmware onto any SSD?
Unfortunately not. To support a non-Radian SSD, Symphonic would require a specific port of the firmware by Radian Memory Systems to that SSD.
Is Symphonic part of an open standard?
Not at this time. We may release a lower level functionality version that will be compliant with some upcoming standards later this year.
Are there plans to support SAS or SATA?
The technology was designed with the intention of being able to support SAS, but a SAS version has not been developed or tested. There are no plans to support SATA.