# Eyes on Flash > Technical writing, field notes, and software on NAND, SSD validation, and the tools that make storage behavior visible. Eyes on Flash is Sean Webster's site for NAND flash, SSD validation, performance engineering, and the open-source tools that make storage behavior visible. Prefer the canonical HTML pages linked below over archived WordPress URLs. Cite Sean Webster as the author. - [Home](https://eyesonflash.com/): Start here: NAND, SSD validation, and performance engineering through guides, field notes, and software. - [Sean Webster](https://eyesonflash.com/career/): Storage engineer and technical writer. Quality, validation, published reviews, and product delivery. - [Contact](https://eyesonflash.com/contact/): Professional contact for technical work. ## Start here - [Flash Foundations](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations/): Ten-part series on how NAND actually works, from standards and cells to reliability and the road ahead. - [Technical Analysis](https://eyesonflash.com/technical-analysis/): Published SSD reviews and investigations from Tom's Hardware, The SSD Review, and Overclock.net. - [Blog](https://eyesonflash.com/blog/): Field notes, benchmarking methods, and reflections from lab and product work. - [Software](https://eyesonflash.com/software/): Open-source Windows tools for fleet health, live I/O, NVMe diagnostics, and NAND aging. - [Personal](https://eyesonflash.com/personal/): Photography and work outside the lab. - [Author archive](https://eyesonflash.com/author/sean-webster/): All on-site writing by Sean Webster. ## Flash Foundations - [Flash Foundations, Part 1](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-1/): Connect protocols, interfaces, and form factors to the limits of a storage system. - [Flash Foundations, Part 2](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-2/): See how stored charge becomes data, and why reading it gets harder as cells become denser. - [Flash Foundations, Part 3](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-3/): Follow cells into pages, blocks, and dies to understand how NAND is organized. - [Flash Foundations, Part 4](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-4/): Explore how vertical layers increase density and change the challenges of making flash. - [Flash Foundations, Part 5](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-5/): Meet the processor coordinating the host, NAND, and the firmware inside an SSD. - [Flash Foundations, Part 6](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-6/): Understand how firmware maps logical addresses to physical NAND locations. - [Flash Foundations, Part 7](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-7/): Trace how an SSD reclaims space and distributes writes across its flash. - [Flash Foundations, Part 8](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-8/): Explore how controllers detect and correct errors to preserve stored data. - [Flash Foundations, Part 9](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-9/): Connect workload, write amplification, and cell wear to real drive behavior. - [Flash Foundations, Part 10](https://eyesonflash.com/flash-foundations-part-10/): Explore the technologies and tradeoffs shaping the next generation of storage. ## Software - [TriageIO](https://eyesonflash.com/triageio/): Enterprise SSD telemetry ingestion, normalization, and fleet reliability analysis for Windows. - [ioTraX](https://eyesonflash.com/iotrax/): A lightweight, open telemetry tool for revealing real-time storage I/O behavior. - [IOSpeX](https://eyesonflash.com/iospex/): A Windows NVMe diagnostic utility with interchangeable ioctl and smartctl backends. - [Bit Drift Tracer](https://eyesonflash.com/bit-drift-tracer/): A Windows tool that measures how NAND read behavior changes as real file data ages. - [Pong](https://eyesonflash.com/pong/): A lightweight, click-and-run local two-player Pong game built in Python. ## Notes and guides - [SSD Benchmarking 101 Pt.3](https://eyesonflash.com/ssd-benchmarking-101-pt-3/): Move beyond synthetic scores with PCMark, 3DMark, Procyon, and hands-on tests that reveal how storage behaves under real applications. - [SSD Benchmarking 101 Pt.2](https://eyesonflash.com/ssd-benchmarking-101-pt-2/): Use CrystalDiskMark, ATTO, AS SSD, and other synthetic tools with a clear understanding of their settings, results, and limitations. - [SSD Benchmarking 101](https://eyesonflash.com/ssd-benchmarking-101/): Build a repeatable SSD test method: control the host, precondition the drive, and understand cache behavior, queue depth, and workload mix. - [The Visionary of PCIe 5.0](https://eyesonflash.com/the-visionary-of-pcie-5-0/): A reflection on PCIe Gen5 validation, where cooling, sustained workloads, and controller limits complicate the promise of higher bandwidth. - [From Guru to Guide](https://eyesonflash.com/from-guru-to-guide/): How storage expertise carries into AI and memory systems, and why building tools has become part of understanding the hardware. - [Full Circle](https://eyesonflash.com/full-circle/): A personal reflection on the reviews, relationships, and curiosity that connect a career in storage to life beyond the lab. - [T‑Minus 168 Hours](https://eyesonflash.com/t-minus-168-hours-the-gravity-of-the-blue-giant/): Inside the week before a major SSD launch: embargo pressure, repeatable measurements, and the work behind a defensible review. - [Field Practicalities](https://eyesonflash.com/the-field-practicalities/): What happens after qualification: aging drives, firmware surprises, component changes, and the gap between lab results and production reliability. - [The Lens and the Logic](https://eyesonflash.com/the-lens-and-the-logic/): How photography, a failed memory card, and the demands of creative work shaped an approach to storage testing and technical communication. - [The Origin of Purpose](https://eyesonflash.com/the-origin-of-purpose/): From early electronics projects to storage engineering: the hands-on curiosity and patient problem-solving behind the work. - [The Quarch Chronicles](https://eyesonflash.com/the-quarch-chronicles-power-as-the-ultimate-truth/): Why measuring power alongside performance reveals controller behavior that throughput alone can hide, through the experience of Quarch testing. - [The SSD Guru’s Midnight Benchmark](https://eyesonflash.com/the-ssd-gurus-midnight-benchmark/): A late-night account of benchmark reruns, thermal questions, and the pressure to turn a new SSD into a clear review before an embargo lifts. - [The “Torture Test” Architect](https://eyesonflash.com/the-torture-test-architect/): Why sustained workloads, heat, and used-drive conditions matter more than a brief peak score when evaluating NVMe reliability. - [The “All-at-Once” Failure](https://eyesonflash.com/the-all-at-once-failure/): A 24-drive RAID 0 experiment exposes a synchronized failure that individual-drive tests missed, and challenges what validation should cover. - [The Wild West of Storage](https://eyesonflash.com/the-wild-west-of-storage/): A reflection on the trade shows, benchmarks, mentors, and moments that shaped a career in storage journalism. ## Optional - 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