Barracuda 7200.11: broken firmware is broken software!

Oxide and Friends Twitter Space: June 7, 2021

Barracuda 7200.11: broken firmware is broken software!

We’ve been holding a Twitter Space weekly on Mondays at 5p (PT) for about an hour. In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Laura Abbott, Joshua Clulow, Dan Cross, Bill Blum, Rick Altherr, Tom Lyon, and others. The recording is here.

(Did we miss your name and/or get it wrong? Drop a PR!)

Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:

• The Seagate ST3000DM001
  • class action
• [@2:01](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=121) Bryan and Adam’s experience 
  • Fishworks
  • HGST
  • Bryan is unable to forget SU0D > This thing damn near ruined our lives
  • Broad Institute
  • The Seagate Barracuda product line. 7200.10, 7200.11
• [@8:10](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=490) Tough customers
• [@10:17](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=617) Cargo cultism and bad interview questions 
  • What is a Good New Englander? We’re not a hugging people.
• [@12:35](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=755) Adam and Bryan after Sean Manaea’s 2018 no-no
• The Gift of the Magi, LBA
• [@15:11](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=911) Adam torments the interns
• [@16:41](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=1001) Bill and the HP Z620s
  • The Wisdom of James Mickens
• [@19:21](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=1161) Rick’s story 
  • Fast and loose firmware source control
  • Western Digital’s Sparta drive, flying too low
• [@25:34](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=1534) Need for open source firmware (see also: Bryan explains why proprietary firmware is a problem ~3mins) 
  • Vendor gaslighting
• [@27:48](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=1668) Tom on custom firmware 
  • Rent seeking
  • S.M.A.R.T.
  • ADM-3A “dumb terminal”
• [@32:08](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=1928) Adam’s firmware horror story flashbacks 
  • HBA
  • When turning it off and on again isn’t enough: unplug and replug
  • Sun’s ILOM bug
  • Sun’s embarrassing ticker symbol change
• [@38:10](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=2290) After Sun > Stay the hell away from hardware
• [@39:55](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=2395) Hard drive API wish list? 
  • Adam’s series on APFS > There is no bit rot here..
  • Networking vs Storage. Intermittent, transient failure
• [@44:40](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=2680) Firmware as differentiator 
  • Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR)
  • Microwave-assisted magentic recording (MAMR)
  • see also: Jessie’s Life of a Data Byte surveys storage media tech through history
  • Amazing physics, mediocre firmware. Firmware is software
• [@48:23](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=2903) The only firmware that didn’t give us problems.. 
  • Adam on flash: A File System All Its Own, Flash Storage Today, History of SSDs blog entry mentioning sTec and Gnutek
  • sTec aquires Gnutek Ltd
  • The SEC’s complaint against Manouchehr Moshayedi of sTec
  • Channel stuffing
  • See also: Bryan mentions sTec misconduct on the Data Center Podcast
• [@54:04](https://youtu.be/qisoAIx8EE8?t=3244) Sans firmware? 
  • FPGA to ASIC transition article 2011. (aside: treat yourself to this amazing vintage mouse-themed site announcing the same) > It’s when microprocessors show up that all the trouble starts.

(Did we miss anything? PRs always welcome!)

Our next Twitter Space will be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time. Join us; we always love to hear from new speakers!