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Micron’s P320h: A Custom Controller Native PCIe SSD in 350/700GB Capacities

pcnz_admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 06:54:52 +0000

SSDs are beginning to challenge conventional drive form factors in a major way. On the consumer side we’re seeing more systems use new form factors for SSDs, enabled by mSATA. The gumstick form factor used in the MacBook Air and ASUS UX Series comes to mind. SSDs can offer performance in a smaller package, thus helping scale down the size of notebooks.

The 11-inch MacBook Air SSD, courtesy of iFixit

The enterprise market has seen a form factor transition of its own. While 2.5″ SSDs are still immensely common, there’s a lot of interest in PCIe solutions.

The quick and easy way to get a PCIe SSD is to take a bunch of SSDs and RAID them together on a single PCIe card. You don’t really get a performance benefit, but it does help you get a lot of performance without being drive-bay limited. This is what we typically see from companies like OCZ.

The other alternative is a native PCIe solution. In the aforementioned example, you typically have a couple of SATA SSD controllers paired with a SATA to PCIe RAID controller. With a native solution you’d skip the RAID controller entirely and just have a custom SSD controller that interfaces directly to PCIe. A native PCIe SSD is just an SSD that avoids SATA entirely, thus avoiding any potential bottlenecks. Today Micron is announcing its first native PCIe SSD: the P320h.

The P320h is Micron’s first PCIe SSD as well as its first in-house controller design. You’ll remember from our C300/C400/m4 reviews that Micron typically buys its controllers from Marvell and simply does firmware development in house. The P320h changes that. While it’s too early to assume that we’ll see Micron designed controllers for consumer drives as well, clearly that’s a step the company is willing to take.

The P320h’s controller is a beast. With 32 parallel channels and a PCIe gen 2 x8 interface, the P320h is built for bandwidth. Micron’s peak performance specs speak for themselves:

Sequential read/write performance is up to 3GB/s and 2GB/s respectively. Random 4KB read performance is up at a staggering 750,000 IOPS, while random write speed peaks at 341,000 IOPS. The former is unmatched by anything I’ve seen on a single card, while the latter is a number that OCZ’s recently announced Z-Drive R4 88 is promising as well. Note that these aren’t steady state numbers nor are the details of the testing methodology known so believe accordingly.

There is of course support for NAND redundancy, which Micron calls RAIN (Redundant Array of Independent NAND). Micron calls RAIN very similar to RAID-7 with 1 parity channel, however it didn’t release information as to what sorts of failures are recoverable as a result. RAIN in addition to typical enterprise level write amplification concerns result in a some pretty heavy overprovisioning on the drive as you’ll see below.

Micron will offer the P320h in two capacities: 350GB and 700GB. The drives use 16Gbit 34nm SLC NAND (ONFI 2.1). The 700GB drive features 64 package placements with 8 die per package – that works out to be 16GB per die, or 1TB of NAND on the card.

The 350GB version has the same number of package placements (64) but it only has 4 die per package, which works out to be 512GB of NAND on board. Obviously with twice as many die per package there are some interleaving benefits which result in better 4KB random write performance.

Pricing is unknown at this point, although Micron pointed out that it is expecting cost to be somewhere south of $16 per GB (at $16/GB that would be $5600 for the 350GB board and $11,200 for the 700GB board).

Computex 2011: OCZ’s RevoDrive 3 & RevoDrive 3 X2, Now With TRIM

pcnz_admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:03:46 +0000

There’s a new PCIe SSD in town: the RevoDrive 3. Armed with two SF-2281 controllers and anywhere from 128 – 256GB of NAND (120/240GB capacities), the RevoDrive 3 is similar to its predecessors in that the two controllers are RAIDed on card. Here’s where things start to change though.

In the past OCZ used a PCI-X RAID controller to keep costs down, but that’s now gone. OCZ won’t disclose the name of the controller vendor but a quick look at the card shows that it’s native PCIe. The RevoDrive 3 itself is a PCIe 2.0 x4 card, however OCZ wouldn’t confirm whether or not the controller was running at 2.0 or 1.0 speeds – just that the interface wasn’t a bottleneck.

The other big improvement is that OCZ made some modifications to both the SandForce and on-board RAID controller firmware to allow everything from SMART data to TRIM to be passed through to the system host. In the past RevoDrive users were stuck with a PCIe card that couldn’t be TRIMed, but with the 3 you get full TRIM support. Formatting the drive under Windows 7 or deleting files off of will result in those LBAs being TRIMed by the SF controllers.

OCZ is promising up to 900MB/s reads and 700MB/s writes (highly compressible of course). Random writes are spec’d at up to 120,000 for 4KB transfers. OCZ expects the 240GB capacity to sell for $599.

In addition to the standard RevoDrive there’s an X2 version with twice the controllers:

With four controllers the RevoDrive 3 X2 is good for up to 1.5GB/s reads and 1.2GB/s writes. OCZ is quoting up to 200,000 4KB random write IOPS. Again all of these figures are using highly compressible data. Just like the base RevoDrive 3, TRIM/SMART reporting are now supported on the x2.

Capacities start at 240GB ($699) and go all the way up to 960GB.

The New Indilinx Everest SSD

pcnz_admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:20:15 +0000

OCZ acquired Indilinx not too long ago and today we’re seeing the first new controller from the company since 2009. OCZ calls it the Everest Platform, and it’s an SSD targeted at the enterprise – at least for now.

It’s Indilinx’s first 6Gbps controller, good for up to 520MB/s reads and 410MB/s writes (but “only” 20K 4KB random write IOPS). The reference drive features two supercaps as its power loss protection circuitry. Everest will start at 64GB and be available in configurations of up to 1TB at customer request.

Given that OCZ owns Indilinx, I’m expecting some pretty aggressive pricing from these controllers. Still no word on a new consumer based Indilinx drive. OCZ did have a Vertex Plus on display, which is the old Barefoot controller but with new firmware that allegedly improves performance up to 500%. I have yet to test the aforementioned firmware so I’m not really sure how accurate the claims are.

It’s clear that Indilinx based drives aren’t going to be outperforming SandForce anytime soon, but the question is whether or not they’ll get good enough to be a value alternative.

SANDISK Launches Two New SSD for Tables and Ultra-Thin Notebooks

pcnz_admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:13:33 +0000

New SSDs combine fast SATA III performance with power consumption as low as 10mW1-enable feature-rich computing platforms with longer battery life
SanDiskÂ® SSD series’ U100 drive for ultra-thin notebooks offers SATA III performance and customized form factors
SanDiskÂ® iSSDâ„¢ integrated storage device series’ i100 drive is the world’s smallest, fastest 128 gigabyte (GB)2 (SATA III) BGA-based SSD-ideal for slim, high-performance tablets and ultra-thin notebooks
Sampling now with volume production scheduled for Q3 2011

Computex, Taiwan, May 31, 2011- SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today introduced two new solid state drives (SSDs) for the mobile computing market. The U100 drive, successor to the popular SanDiskÂ® P4 modular SSD series, delivers a flexible, cost-effective solution for ultra-thin notebooks. The SanDiskÂ® iSSDâ„¢ integrated storage device series’ i100 drive is the world’s smallest, fastest 128 gigabyte (GB)2 (SATA III) BGA (ball grid array) SSD and an ideal storage solution for slim, powerful tablets and ultra-thin notebooks.

The new SSDs utilize the high-performance SATA III interface to improve application loading times, web-browsing speeds, multimedia synchronization, file-transfer rates and overall system responsiveness. The drives employ a low-power architecture that reduces power consumption to as low as 10mW1. This combination of high performance and low power allows OEMs to develop feature-rich products with longer battery life.

“Our deep involvement with key ecosystem stakeholders allows us to align our products with fast-moving market requirements,” said Rizwan Ahmed, director, SSD product marketing, SanDisk. “We develop low-power, high-performance SATA SSDs that optimally fit into a growing number of thin client devices.”

SanDiskÂ® SSD Series’ U100 Drive for Ultra-Thin Notebooks
The U100 drive builds upon the successful SanDisk P4 modular SSD series, which enjoyed widespread adoption among ultra-thin notebooks and other mobile computing platforms. U100 supports an array of design needs and is available in a variety of form factors, including Half-Slim SATA SSD, mSATA, mSATA mini, 2.5″ cased, as well as customized modules.

The U100 drive delivers fast SATA III performance with up to 450 megabyte per second (MB/sec)3 sequential read and up to 340MB/sec sequential write speeds3. The drive’s low-power architecture allows OEMs to extend their products’ battery life while maintaining high performance. The drive is available in 8GB to 256GB capacities, and OEMs, attracted to the outstanding price/performance value proposition, are already successfully integrating the new SSD into their next-generation platforms.

SanDiskÂ® iSSDâ„¢ for Tablets
The i100 drive is the smallest, fastest 128GB (SATA III) BGA-based SSD on the market and the newest product in the SanDisk iSSD integrated storage device series. The drive is available in 8GB to 128GB capacities, offering OEMs a flexible range of storage options. Measuring only 16mm x 20mm x 1.4mm (for up to 64GB) and 16mm x 20mm x 1.85mm (for 128GB), the drive allows OEMs to design sleek, high-performance tablets and ultra-thin notebooks.

The drive’s SATA performance achieves up to 450MB/sec3 sequential read and up to 160MB/sec sequential write speeds3. The i100 drive can improve sideloading rates, multitasking capabilities, real-time gaming experience and multimedia synchronization-all while extending battery life via its low-power architecture.

New SSDs Offer Additional Benefits

Drives support Power Classes for flexible performance and power-budget control capabilities
nCacheâ„¢ Acceleration Technology provides fast random burst write performance for improved system responsiveness and multitasking functionality
Based on a JEDEC-standard package for industry compliance

The i100 and U100 drives are sampling now with volume production scheduled for Q3 2011.

1 With Slumber (SATA PHY state) Power mode with DIPM enabled. Lower Power modes can be achieved by implementing advanced low power management techniques. Technical specifications are preliminary and subject to change.

2 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. Some capacity not available for data storage.

3 Based on SanDisk internal testing; performance may be lower depending upon host configuration. 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes. Technical Specification are preliminary and subject to change.

SanDisk’s product and executive images can be downloaded from

http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/media.asp

SanDisk’s web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com

Â© 2011 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder (s).

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including expectations for new product introductions, applications, features, markets, and customers that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: the market demand for our products may grow more slowly than our expectations or our products may not be available in the capacities that we anticipate, our products may not perform as expected and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and annual report on Form 10-K. We do not intend to update the information contained in this press release.