Repurposing Depopulation: Extending Storage Device Service Lifetimes

All devices eventually experience degraded performance. For a large fraction of devices, such degraded performance is limited to a static fraction of the device. Repurposing Depopulation is a new standardized feature that extends service life of HDDs and other devices, by eliminating failed subsets from the media upon which user data is allowed to be stored.

This talk will explore the design of Repurposing Depopulation, it Use Cases, its protocol as implemented in both T10 (SCSI) and T13 (ATA), and system considerations for its use.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the need for Repurposing Depopulation and its main benefits
2. Learn real-life applications of Repurposing Depopulation
3. Understand the architecture and design of the Repurposing Depopulation feature
4. Understand protocol flows as it as implemented in T10 (SCSI) and T13 (ATA)​
5. Learn how to apply the benefits of Repurposing Depopulation in your products