BITBLAZE Sirius 8022LH
Not so long ago we that a domestic company has developed a data storage system on Elbrus with a localization level >90%. We are talking about the Omsk company Promobit, which managed to achieve the inclusion of its Bitblaze Sirius 8000 series storage system in the Unified Register of Russian Radio-Electronic Products under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The material caused a discussion in the comments. Readers were interested in the details of system development, the nuances of calculating the level of localization, and the history of the creation of storage systems. To answer these questions, we interviewed the head of Promobit Maxim Koposov.
Maxim, please tell us when and how did you get the idea of creating a domestic storage system based on Russian Elbrus processors?
You know, we started developing our own data storage system even before the appearance of Elbrus. It was a regular storage system that worked on the basis of Intel processors. You can read more about this project on RBC.
Around 2013, I saw a video presentation of the Elbrus processor, which was held by the Marketing Director of MCST JSC Konstantin Trushkin. The fact that this company is developing a domestic processor, I heard back in the late 90s or early 2000s. But then it was just news, I did not think that the project would be implemented.
After I was convinced that the processor is real and you can buy it, I wrote to the administration of MCST JSC with a request to send a commercial offer. After discussing the details, the Elbrus manufacturer agreed to cooperate.
Why am I interested in the Russian processor? The fact is that domestic systems based on imported components, including Intel processors, are quite difficult to sell. On the one hand, there is the corporate market, which has long been accustomed to the products of HP, IBM and other foreign companies. On the other hand, there are inexpensive Chinese solutions that are in demand among small and medium-sized businesses.
Having learned about Elbrus, I thought that a storage system based on this chip would be able to occupy its own niche and get buyers from the state, the defense sector. That is, those for whom it is extremely important to use a trusted platform, without hardware or software “bookmarks” and undeclared capabilities. Once I looked at the dynamics of the budget of the Ministry of Defense of the country and saw that the volume of budgeting is gradually growing. Money began to be invested in digitalization, information security, etc., completely or partially abandoning imported storage systems and other electronic systems.
And so , however, not immediately. According to of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 21, 2019 No. 1746 "On establishing a ban on the admission of certain types of goods originating from foreign countries, and amending certain acts of the Government of the Russian Federation", in order to ensure the security of the critical information infrastructure (CII) of the Russian Federation, including used in the implementation of national projects, a ban on admission to the purchase of foreign software and hardware systems is introduced for two years. Namely, data storage systems (“Memory devices and other data storage devices”).
I note that we started work long before everyone started talking about import substitution. Moreover, in 2011-2012, it was stated from the highest tribunes that import substitution in a number of industries, including electronics, should not be dealt with. We need innovation, not a repetition of what others have already gone through. At that time, the term "import substitution" had a negative connotation, and we tried not to use it.
We continued to develop domestic systems, considering this to be the right thing to do. Therefore, if someone says that we started work only after import substitution became an uptrend, this is not true.
Tell us more about the development process
Work on the creation of the Bitblaze Sirius 8000 series storage system began in 2016. Then we applied for the competition of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Decree of February 17, 2016 describing this competition has a long title: “On the organization of work in the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation to conduct a competitive selection for the right to receive subsidies from the federal budget by Russian organizations to reimburse part of the costs of creating a scientific and technical reserve for the development basic technologies for the production of priority electronic components and radio-electronic equipment within the framework of the state program of the Russian Federation “Development of the electronic and radio-electronic industry for 2013–2025”.
We offered the Ministry of Industry and Trade a detailed detailed business plan with a technical and economic justification. They told us exactly what we want to develop, what market we are counting on and who we see as the target audience. As a result, the Ministry of Industry and Trade signed an agreement with us, and we began development.
The project practically did not differ from other projects for the development of software and hardware platforms. First, we assembled several teams of engineers, programmers and other specialists. At the first stage, a mock-up solution was created, on which several teams worked in parallel. We tested different versions of the software, after which we developed three layouts that differ in characteristics.
As a result, we chose an option that allowed us to go along the path of horizontal scaling of the storage system. The market just then developed in this direction. Horizontal scaling was a response to the ever-growing amount of data in storage users. It makes it possible to increase the capacity of the data center with storage.
The developments for the other two layouts were also not in vain - we use them in other projects.
What difficulties arose during the implementation of the project to create a domestic storage system?
In general, problems can be divided into two categories: software development and hardware. As for software, a huge number of different books and articles have been written about it, in our case there is nothing unique in this regard.
From the point of view of "iron" everything is much more interesting. Difficulties arose already at the design stage of the hull. We needed to build everything from scratch. Well, since we are participants in the project of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, we must work with domestic specialists. Professionals who could help us are mainly employed at the enterprises of the military-industrial complex. It is quite difficult to build relationships with them from a business point of view, since we speak different languages. They are accustomed to working with such customers as the state, the military, with us it was very unusual for them at first. We got used to each other for a long time.
Over time, state corporations and enterprises began to allocate departments for the production of civilian products - a kind of mediators between business and production, which is "sharpened" for the production of military products. The leaders of these departments understand the language of the business and are much easier to deal with than the management of the entire enterprise. So far, there are a lot of problems, but already much less than it was at the beginning. In addition, current difficulties are being gradually resolved.
Please tell us about the import substitution of the main components of storage systems and elemental strapping. What is domestic here, and what came from abroad?
Our main goal during the implementation of this project is the import substitution of large integrated circuits, which may have some undeclared capabilities.
In addition to integrated circuits, we also use other domestic components. Here is the list:
- Processor "Elbrus".
- South bridge.
- Printed circuit boards.
- Motherboard.
- Light guides.
- Case and metal parts of the case.
- Plastic parts and a number of structural elements.
Promobit has developed most of the components used, there is design documentation for everything.
But we buy elemental piping, capacitors, resistors from abroad. When domestic capacitors, resistors, etc. will enter mass production, and their quality and reliability will not be inferior to foreign models, we will definitely switch to them.
How was the localization level calculated?
The answer is simple. The Decree of July 17, 2015 N 719 "On confirmation of the production of industrial products on the territory of the Russian Federation" provides formulas according to which all this is calculated. Our certification specialist was guided by these formulas, asking for additional information if necessary.
It is worth noting that our calculations were not accepted by the Chamber the first time, we made several mistakes. But after all the shortcomings were corrected, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry confirmed everything. The main role here is played by the cost of the components. At the same time, it must be remembered that in Decree No. 719, the requirement to comply with the percentage of the cost of foreign components used in the production of a product in the basic configuration does not take into account the cost of data storage devices - hard magnetic disks, solid state disks, magnetic tapes.
As a result, screws, capacitors, LEDs, resistors, fans, power supply - components of foreign origin - account for 6,5% of the cost of the BITBLAZE Sirius 8000 storage system. 94,5% of the cost includes the case, printed circuit boards, motherboard, processor, light guides, produced in Russia.
What happens if access to foreign components is closed?
They can close access to the element base, the manufacturers of which are controlled by the United States. If this question suddenly arises, then we will use components produced by Chinese companies. There will always be companies that do not pay attention to sanctions.
Perhaps we ourselves will establish the production of the necessary components - at home or in another country. Everything is good in this respect.
A more real threat is if the Taiwanese contract manufacturer is banned from producing Elbrus. Then problems of a different order may arise, as it was, for example, with Huawei. But they can also be solved. Our software is cross-platform, so it will work even if you replace processors with other ones. We use the simplest and most efficient algorithms that can be transferred to another architecture without any problems.
Source: habr.com