[Discuss] Hybrid drives and Linux?

[Richard Pieri]

Seagate's hybrid drives aren't optimized for any particular access 
patterns. That would be counterproductive after the boot sequence is 
completed since different users' patterns are different. They are more 
aggressive with caching reads immediately after power resets, but they 
also have a portion of their caches dedicated to this purpose. The rest 
is populated by general system activity.

Like Intel SRT, hybrid caches favor small, random reads. The cache 
mechanism will be disconnected during long, sustained reads. Boot times 
should be better with the hybrid compared to a similar disk without a 
cache. Other activities may or may not be better. All depends on how the 
system is used.

-- 
Rich P.