The Dafs Collaborative will complete version 1.0 of the Direct
Access File System (Dafs) protocol by the second week in August,
according to the organisation's co-chairman David Dale. It will
then submit the specification to the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) for formal ratification, a process expected to take
about a year.
Dafs is a protocol designed to move network-attached storage (Nas)
onto a new phase. Greatly improved performance will be achieved by
using direct application memory-to-disc access via emerging
interconnect technologies that bypass the operating system, such as
Virtual Interface and the Infiniband system.
Products built to the Dafs specification are likely to start
appearing on the market well before this process is complete. "I
expect you will see Dafs products very early in the next calendar
year," Dale said.
The first glimpse of the new technology came at the Dafs
Developers' Conference in Florida last month. Significantly, IBM
demonstrated DB2 database access using a filer from Nas specialist
Network Appliances - high performance database access is expected
to be a "killer app" for Dafs.