Object Storage Device
An Object-based Storage Device (OSD) is a computer storage device, similar to disk storage but working at a higher level. Instead of providing a block-oriented interface that reads and writes fixed sized blocks of data, an OSD organizes data into flexible-sized data containers, called objects. Each object has both data (an uninterpreted sequence of bytes) and metadata (an extensible set of attributes describing the object). The command interface to the OSD includes commands to create and delete objects, write bytes and read bytes to and from individual objects, and to set and get attributes on objects. The OSD is responsible for managing the storage of objects and their metadata. The OSD implements a security mechanism that provides per-object and per-command access control.
Several research projects have explored object storage and implemented prototype systems with various semantics. The early research spawned a standardization effort that led to a standard OSD command set for SCSI.
Read more about Object Storage Device: The OSD Standard, History
Famous quotes containing the words object, storage and/or device:
“The peculiarity of sculpture is that it creates a three-dimensional object in space. Painting may strive to give on a two-dimensional plane, the illusion of space, but it is space itself as a perceived quantity that becomes the peculiar concern of the sculptor. We may say that for the painter space is a luxury; for the sculptor it is a necessity.”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)
“Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to me extravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
Will he not let us alone,
And think that there a loving couple lies
Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls, at the last busy day,
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?”
—John Donne (1572–1631)