1. A method implemented at least in part by a computer, the method comprising: discovering capabilities of solid state storage of the computer, the solid state storage residing on one or more hardware components of the computer, the hardware components having different capabilities; storing data regarding the capabilities in a data structure; accessing an interface for requesting the capabilities, the interface indicating a plurality of callable functions for determining characteristics of the solid state storage, the plurality of callable functions accessing the data regarding the capabilities in the data structure to provide the characteristics to one or more calling processes, the plurality of callable functions including: a function for determining capacity of the solid state device; a function for determining capabilities of the solid state storage for creating physical partitions; and a function for determining a capability of the solid state storage to allocate a portion of memory of the solid state storage to each physical partition of the solid state storage to use when memory of the physical partition fails.