Micron Document




Jeff Bonwick
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
top
Jeff Bonwick invented and led development of the ZFS file system,cite-ref-1[1] which was used in Oracle Corporation's ZFS storage products as well as startups including Nexenta, Delphix, Joyent, and Datto, Inc.cite-ref-2[2]cite-ref-3[3] Bonwick is also the inventor of slab allocation,cite-ref-4[4]cite-ref-5[5] which is used in many operating systems including MacOS and Linux, and the LZJB compression algorithm.

His roles included Sun Fellow,cite-ref-6[6]cite-ref-7[7] Sun Storage CTO,cite-ref-8[8] and Oracle vice president.cite-ref-9[9]

Contents

LZJB

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

History

In 2010 Bonwick co-founded a small company called DSSD with Mike Shapiro and Bill Moore, and became chief technical officer.cite-ref-10[10] He co-invented DSSD's system hardware architecture and software. He developed DSSD's whole-system simulator, which enabled the team to explore possible hardware topologies and software algorithms.cite-ref-11[11] DSSD was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2014,cite-ref-12[12] which then became part of Dell Technologies in 2016. By the end of 2016, Bill Moore had left the company, while Bonwick remained as CTO.cite-ref-13[13] The DSSD product, called D5, was cancelled in March 2017.cite-ref-14[14]

LZJB

Bonwick invented LZJB, a lossless data compression algorithm to compress crash dumps and data in ZFS. The software is CDDL license licensed. It includes a number of improvements to the LZRW1 algorithm, a member of the Lempel–Ziv family of compression algorithms.cite-ref-15[15] The name LZJB is derived from its parent algorithm and its creator — Lempel Ziv Jeff Bonwick.

References

cite-note-11. citerefstanik2007Stanik, John (September–October 2007). "A Conversation with Jeff Bonwick and Bill Moore". ACM Queue. 5 (6). Association for Computing Machinery: 13–19. doi:10.1145/1317394.1317400.
cite-note-22. "The Birth of ZFS". OpenZFS. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
cite-note-33. "Sun's ZFS Creator to Quit Oracle and Join Startup". eWeek. Retrieved September 29, 2010.
cite-note-44. citerefbonwick2005Bonwick, Jeff (June 14, 2005). "The story behind the slab allocator". Oracle. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
cite-note-55. http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/10-unsung-heroes-of-modern-technology-483430
cite-note-66. "Sun Storage Guru Bonwick Named 14th Sun Fellow". Oracle. Oracle Blog. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
cite-note-77. "Sun Engineer Jeff Bonwick is New Sun Fellow". Vol. 112, no. 4. System News, Inc. 26 June 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
cite-note-88. citerefstammersStammers, Tim. "Q&A: Jeff Bonwick, Sun's Storage CTO and Bill Moore, ZFS co-designer". Net.Work. TechNews. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
cite-note-99. "And now, page 2".
cite-note-1010. citerefstacey-higginbotham2013Stacey Higginbotham (April 4, 2013). "Meet DSSD, Andy Bechtolsheim's secret chip startup for big data". Giga Om. Archived from the original on April 6, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
cite-note-1111. citerefharrisHarris, Robin. "What is DSSD Building?". StorageMojo. TechnoQWAN LLC. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
cite-note-1212. citerefsephen-lawson2014Sephen Lawson (May 5, 2014). "EMC acquires flash storage startup DSSD". Computer World. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
cite-note-1313. citerefchris-mellor2016Chris Mellor (December 9, 2016). "DSSD President quits Dell EMC". The Register. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
cite-note-1414. citerefchris-mellor2017Chris Mellor (March 2, 2017). "Dell kills off standalone DSSD D5, scatters remains into other gear: Blueprints and staff shifted to different projects after EMC spent '$1bn' on tech". The Register. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
cite-note-1515. citerefrathoreahirwarpandey2013Rathore, Y.; Ahirwar, M.; Pandey, R. (2013). "A Brief Study of Data Compression Algorithms". Journal of Computer Science IJCSIS. 11 (10): 90.