Denali Memory Report:
The Denali Memory Report is produced by Cadence Design Systems, Inc. It delivers memory market news, discussions of market trends, products and product strategies of the memory vendors, plus information about alliances and industry consortia.
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Recent Posts
- Some great analysis on SSD wear leveling and power consumption
- The Economist covers PCM – must be something real
- Add OCZ to the growing list of SSD vendors differentiating their drives with a proprietary controller
- IDT announces DDR4 register chip for DDR4 registered DIMMs and 3D die stacks
- Western Digital sampling 5mm, 2.5-inch, 500Gbyte hybrid HDD with NAND Flash
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Category Archives: SSD
Some great analysis on SSD wear leveling and power consumption
Some great analysis by Cullen Logan at Amazon.com appeared on LinkedIn over the weekend in response to my post “Are Enterprise SSDs a “bad” idea? Four tips and counter-tips for your consideration”: “To put some raw data out there, consider … Continue reading
Posted in NAND, SSD
Tagged ECC, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, Solid-state drive, Wear leveling
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Western Digital sampling 5mm, 2.5-inch, 500Gbyte hybrid HDD with NAND Flash
Western Digital just started shipping 7mm, 2.5-inch HDDs earlier this year and has now announced that it is sampling a 5mm, 2.5-inch, 500Gbyte hybrid HDD with integrated NAND Flash caching. The drive will be showcased during Western Digital’s Investor Day … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, SSD
Tagged Acer, Asus, Flash memory, Solid-state drive, Ultrabook, Western Digital
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Using SSD controller technology as a differentiator: Kingston adds another data point with SSDNow Enterprise-class drives
Memory and SSD vendor Kingston Technology has just announced enterprise-class SSDs called the SSDNow E100 in capacities of 100, 200, and 400 Gbytes. What I find interesting about this announcement are the emphasis on endurance and reliability (“10x improvements … … Continue reading
Posted in SSD, Storage
Tagged Kingston Technology, RAID, SandForce, Serial ATA, Solid-state drive, SSD
1 Comment
The top 21 things you probably didn’t know about Flash memory, from the Flash Memory Summit
Last week’s Flash Memory Summit ended with a session titled “The top 10 things you need to know about Flash memory today. Richard Goering summarized the panel in his blog titled “Flash Memory Panelists Challenge Conventional Thinking About NAND and … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Floyd, NAND Flash, Scaling limit, Solid-state drive, SSD, Western Digital
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Need yet another argument for designing your own SSD controller?
A Web site called legitreviews.com recently reviewed the ADATA XPG SX900 128Gbyte SSD and this review contains additional justification for seriously considering developing your own SSD controller for new storage products. The review starts off this way: “ADATA is long … Continue reading
Posted in SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Hitachi Data Systems, LSI, SandForce, Serial ATA, Solid-state drive, SSD
2 Comments
Want to know why SK hynix is placing its bets on three different alternatives to DRAM and Flash?
Last week at the Flash Memory Summit, Dr. Sung Wook Park spoke about memory. No surprise there, but there were several surprises in Park’s presentation. The first surprise popped up in the slide immediately following the keynote presentation’s title slide: … Continue reading
Add Hitachi Data Systems to the growing list of companies developing their own SSD controllers
According to this Computerworld article, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) announced last week that it is developing its own SSD controller for MLC NAND Flash to be used in its SSD arrays. The objective is a 4x improvement in read/write throughput, … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MLC, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged Computerworld, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, HDS, Hitachi, Hitachi Data Systems, Solid-state drive
3 Comments
Tweaktown review of 1.6Tbyte SMART Storage Optimus SSD reveals a few secrets. Wanna see them?
Tweaktown.com attended last week’s Flash Memory Summit and has published some great photos of the internals of the 2.5-inch SMART Storage 1.6Tbyte Optimus SSD. The drive has dual SAS ports with accompanying specs of 1Gbps sequential read and 500MGbps sequential … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MLC, NAND, SAS, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, Skyera, SMART Storage, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Want to know Rado Danilak’s and Skyera’s plan for total enterprise-class SSD world domination?
This week, I reported on a new high-end, high-performance 44Tbyte SSD for data centers and server farms from Skyera. (See “44Tbyte Skyera Skyhawk SSD employs Everspin MRAM as write cache” and “How Skyera developed the 44Tbyte, enterprise-class Skyhawk SSD from … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, MLC, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, SandForce, Skyera, Solid-state drive, SSD
1 Comment
How Wired’s Mat Mohan got his personal data back from his SSD after his MacBook Air was hacked. Hint: $1690 in recovery fees.
Mat Mohan knows how to transform adversity into opportunity. He’s a senior writer for Wired’s Gadget Lab and his Apple account was ingeniously hacked through a scam perpetrated on Amazon to get the necessary information to hack into Apple’s system. … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, SSD, Storage
Tagged Apple, Data recovery, DriveSavers, Hard disk drive, Solid-state drive, SSD, Wired
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Marvell’s DragonFly NVRAM and NVCACHE provide high SSD IOPS for large storage apps
Marvell has just announced two new versions of its DragonFly PCIe board series: the DragonFly NVRAM and the DragonFly NVCACHE. Both boards contain a mixture of PCIe controller, SDRAM, SLC NAND Flash, supercapacitors, and software to create plug-in boards for … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, Marvell, SAS, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, IOPS, PCI Express, Servers, Solid-state drive, SSD, Storage
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44Tbyte Skyera Skyhawk SSD employs Everspin MRAM as write cache
NAND Flash memory would be perfect for nonvolatile storage because except that Flash write speeds are slow enough to create a window of time when write transactions could be lost during a power failure. This problem is especially acute for … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MRAM, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Flash Memory Summit, MRAM, NAND Flash, Skyera, Skyhawk
3 Comments
Seen on the street: WD needs SSD Engineers
Drinking coffee with my friend Ira Feldman on Friday at the Starbucks behind Cadence, this advertising truck pulled up and parked for a while. Must be some sort of sign about the growing popularity of SSDs. I wonder how many … Continue reading
Plextor blog walks you through the design process for the PX-M5S SSD: better, faster, cheaper
Plextor has just published an extremely interesting blog post that walks you through some of the high-level design decisions behind the company’s new PX-M5S SSD. According to the design goals, the prioritized objectives are: 1) speed 2) reliability 3) price … Continue reading
Posted in NAND, ONFI, SSD, Toggle
Tagged Flash memory, Hynix, Plextor, SandForce, Solid-state drive, SSD, Toshiba
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Beware of Geeks bearing gifts (SSDs)?
I love this article in Bloomberg Businessweek titled “Samsung Sends Out Geeks to Revamp Laptops With New Drives.” It reports that Samsung placed a roving pan-European army of “geeks” in the UK, France, and Germany to ambush pedestrians and offer … Continue reading
Posted in Samsung, SSD
Tagged Bloomberg Businessweek, France, Geeks, Germany, Samsung, Solid-state drive
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Are Enterprise SSDs a “bad” idea? Four tips and counter-tips for your consideration.
I ran across a commentary on the Kaminerio Web site, “Is SSD Really a Bad Idea? BE CAREFUL WHOSE ADVICE YOU TAKE” by Eyal Markovich, which is a reaction to a blog posting by Phil Goodwin on the SearchSolidStateStorage.com Web … Continue reading
Posted in SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, IOPS, MLC, Multi-level cell, Solid-state drive, SSD
1 Comment
Virident Systems introduces PCIe SSD with capacities to 2.2Tbytes, high IOPS
Virident Systems has announced the Virident FlashMAX II, the company’s next-generation PCIe SSD for enterprise environments. According to the company, the FlashMAX II features the highest capacity (550Gbytes to 2.2Tbytes) in a low-profile PCIe plug-in card format, with industry-leading performance … Continue reading
Posted in PCIe, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, FlashMAX II, IOPS, PCI Express, Solid-state drive, Virident Systems
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How many SSDs does it take to saturate PCIe Gen 3? Would you believe 16 drives?
It’s now possible to conduct some interesting performance tests on real PCIe Gen 3 products and the video below shows you a PCIe Gen 3 RAID card talking to 16 SSDs, which is the number of drives needed to saturate … Continue reading
Posted in PCIe, SSD, Storage
Tagged Disk array controller, PCI Express, RAID, Sandy Bridge, Serial ATA, Solid-state drive, Storage
3 Comments
Flash Memory Summit: Great Program on Non-Volatile memory.
The Flash Memory Summit rolls into Silicon Valley – August 21-23. Here’s a summary of topics covered in the program: Flash Memory-Based Architectures Next-Generation Flash and SSD Controllers Solid-State Drive (SSD) Technology Enterprise SSDs Testing/Performance/Endurance NVMe LDPC Coding Enterprise Storage … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, mSATA, NAND, NOR, NVM Express, NVMe, SSD, Storage, Toggle
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Unigen (and others) continue to roll out new mSATA SSDs
The Mini-SATA or mSATA form factor and interface standard for SSDs has been around since September, 2009 and it now seems to be gaining substantial traction in the form of several new product introductions over the last couple of months. … Continue reading
Who do you want to see at Memcon?
As the emcee for the Memcon event on September 18, I’ve been given the opportunity to personally invite a few, select exhibitors to the show and to cut them a very sweet deal. To do that, I’d like to know … Continue reading
Cool case instantly transforms 2.5-inch HDD or SSD into WiFi-connected network storage
Patriot Memory is now selling the Gauntlet Node, a cool name for a cool disk-drive case that transforms a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD into a WiFi-connected network storage device. The enclosure has an internal SATA port and can accommodate drive … Continue reading
Posted in HDD, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged Hard disk drive, HDD, Patriot Memory, SATA, Solid-state drive, SSD, Wi-Fi
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StorageSearch.com names top 25 SSD companies. Guess who?
StorageSearch.com has been following SSDs for a long, long time so they’ve got as much right to name their top picks as anyone. Here’s the 2Q 2012 version with a few you might not have heard about, yet: Fusion-io Violin … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
2 Comments
Korg introduces SSD-based music workstation, the Korg Kronos X, with 62Gbyte drive and option for a second SSD
File this under places you might not expect to find SSDs: Korg USA has announced the Kronos X Music Workstation, a music keyboard and workstation with a 62Gbyte SSD for storing sound samples in sound libraries. That’s a lot of … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Korg, Music, Solid-state drive, Workstation
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Three Golliaths and a host of Davids meeting up on the storage battlefield. Who wins?
If you want to read a short, interesting overview of the combined HDD/SSD storage battlefield, look no further than a new article on The Register’s Web site. The article, titled “Will the titans of storage decide to flash their bits?” … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, Micron, Samsung, SSD
Tagged Flash, Hard disk drive, Hynix, OCZ Technology, Samsung, Solid-state drive, Toshiba, Western Digital
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Jim Handy, The Memory Guy, writes that Flash memory is dead…but perhaps not just yet
My good friend Jim Handy—who writes several blogs including The Memory Guy and The SSD Guy—recently published a blog titled “The End of Flash Scaling.” He writes: “Everyone knows that flash memory is about to hit its scaling limit – … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, Flash, Memristor, MRAM, ReRAM, SSD
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Hynix, NAND Flash, SSD
1 Comment
Whoa, Momma! Flash memory maker SK Hynix enters the SSD market. Take a look at these performance charts!
Jim Handy, the “SSD Guy” and the “Memory Guy,” just published a short blog post alerting us to the fact that Flash memory maker SK Hynix has entered the SSD market just four days after announcing the purchase of Link_A_Media, … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, mSATA, ONFI, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Hynix, IBM, Phase-change memory, SK Hynix
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Registration opens for the Flash Memory Summit 2012. Read on for program highlights
The Flash Memory Summit takes place on August 21-23 here in Silicon Valley at the Santa Clara Convention Center and it’s now opened its registration. However, before you register, you might want to know what’s being covered. A reasonable request … Continue reading
SSD prices: More affordable? Steady, substantial decline? In free fall? Just what is going on here?
Senior Writer Vincent Chang over at CNET writes that “SSDs are more affordable than ever” and has the charted data to prove it. Clayton Vallabhan at ITPnet.com goes even further, writing “SSD prices in freefall.” For an even more extensive … Continue reading
SK Hynix to acquire SSD controller vendor Link_A_Media for $248 million. That makes four.
Memory Industry Analyst Jim Handy took the unusual step of sending out an alert yesterday. The topic of the alert was the announced acquisition of Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD) by SK Hynix for a reported US $248 million. LAMD is a … Continue reading
Will cache SSDs rule the world in notebook storage? IHS iSuppli’s Magic 8 Ball says “Signs point to Yes”
An excellent article by Hot Hardware’s Joel Hruska (see “Analysts Predict Skyrocketing SSD, Cache Drive Sales, But What Happened To Hybrid Hard Drives?”) contains several tasty bits of data and a quote from Ryan Chien, analyst for memory and storage … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, SSD, Storage
Tagged cache SSD, Flash memory, HDD, Hybrid drive, IHS iSuppli, Seagate, SSD
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Violin Memory’s Narayan Venkat writes about why Flash-based storage is doing well in data centers: time and money
Narayan Venkat, VP of product management at Violin Memory, recently published a guest blog post titled “6 Reasons Solid State Memory Is The Biggest Story In Computing” over at Forbes.com. The rhetoric in the article should be familiar stuff to … Continue reading
Flash Memory Summit 2012, Santa Clara, CA. Registration now open
Every year, the Flash Memory Summit rolls into Silicon Valley to discuss the latest in Flash memory, SSDs, and possibly up-and-coming alternative non-volatile memory technologies. This year, the event takes place on August 21-23 at the Santa Clara Convention Center … Continue reading
Corsair does the Neutron dance with new line of fast SSDs based on Toggle NAND Flash
PC hardware maker Corsair has introduced a new line of 2.5-inch, 7mm SSDs called the Neutron GTX series. I find it very interesting that the first fact put forth in the Corsair press release for this new series is about … Continue reading
Will SSDs be the first big market for 3D NAND Flash memories?
I’ve been meaning to write about a comment regarding NAND Flash memory and SSDs written by Thomas McCormick in LinkedIn’s Solid State Storage Group and this seems like the perfect time. McCormick is an Integrated Hardware/Software Product Development Leader at … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, DDR, DRAM, Flash, Memristor, MRAM, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged DRAM, Flash, Flash memory, memristor, MRAM, NAND Flash, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Toshiba launches family of thin 2.5-inch and mSATA SSDs based on 19nm Toggle NAND Flash
Toshiba has just launched a new SSD family called the THNSNF series based on the company’s 19nm Toggle NAND Flash multi-level cell (MLC) devices. The SSDs are offered in capacities from 64 to 512Gbytes. All members of the family employ … Continue reading
DRAMeXchange tests this year’s crop of 120Gbyte SSDs. Guess which one wins…
Yesterday, DRAMeXchange published some performance tests on five 120Gbyte SSDs. The results may surprise you. Click here: DRAMeXchange’s 2012 SSD Ranking – 120 GB SSD (SATA 2)
MRAM spotted in Buffalo Memory SSD—for cache
Several sources including TomsHardware.com have reported the appearance at the 15th Embedded Systems Expo in Japan of an SSD built by Buffalo Memory Company with MRAM for cache memory. The drive uses 8Mbytes of MRAM (magnetic RAM) as a cache … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MRAM, SSD
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Magnetoresistive random access memory, MRAM
1 Comment
This SSD will self destruct…immediately. On Command (See the video)
In case you need an SSD that can be wiped quickly, RunCore has introduced the InVincible SSD with two modes of erasure: non-destructive and destructive. Two buttons—one red, one green—activate the erasure. The two buttons apparently connect to the SSD’s … Continue reading
NVM Express (NVMe) controller subsystem points the way to an SSD future
Cadence introduced an NVM Express (NVMe) controller subsystem this week. The Denali Memory Report and the EDA360 Insider have covered NVMe developments several times already (see below for the links) and it’s clear that one way to maximize SSD performance … Continue reading
SSD Review: Intel 910 PCIe SSD a “game changer”
It’s always great fun to see a company hit one out of the ballpark with a new product and that’s exactly what Intel has done with its new 910 PCIe SSD, if you believe this recent article by Paul Alcorn … Continue reading
Posted in NVM Express, PCIe, SSD, Storage
Tagged Intel, NVMe, PCI Express, PCIe, SAS, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Second Speedy SAS SSD Shows at STA (SCSI Trade Association). Tomorrow
Seagate has become the second company to announce that it will be showing its Pulsar.2 12Gbps SATA SSD at tomorrow’s SCSI Trade Association meeting in Santa Clara, California. The first was Western Digital. (See “WD’s HGST to demo 12Gbps SAS … Continue reading
Posted in SAS, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged PMC-Sierra, SAS, SCSI, Seagate, SerDes, Western Digital
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Tiny RunCore single-chip SSDs cram 8 to 64Gbytes onto small SATA cards that fit anywhere
RunCore has announced a line of small single-chip SSDs in a format that the company calls “Mini DOM” (miniature disk on module). The high-speed SATA SSDs are available with capacities from 8 to 64Gbytes in three form factors: a 7-pin … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, Mini DOM, NAND Flash, RunCore, SATA, Solid-state drive
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WD’s HGST to demo 12Gbps SAS SSD at SCSI Trade Association Technology Showcase next week in California
HGST, the Western Digital subsidiary formerly known as Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, has announced a new 12Gbps SAS SSD and will be demonstrating it at the SCSI Trade Association Technology Showcase next week on May 9 at the Hyatt Hotel … Continue reading
Posted in SAS, SSD, Storage
Tagged Cadence, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, NVM Express, PMC-Sierra, SAS, SCSI, Serial attached SCSI, Solid-state drive, SSD, Western Digital
1 Comment
Do you know the advantages and disadvantages of the six different use cases for SSDs?
Marc Staimer, founder and senior analyst at Dragon Slayer Consulting, has just published an excellent primer on locating SSD storage within a server and storage network. With the advent of PCIe-based SSD storage based on NAND Flash memory, the number … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, SSD
Tagged Cache, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Hard disk drive, NAS, Network Attached Storage, PCI Express, SAN, Solid-state drive, SSD, Storage area network
1 Comment
BIWIN America introduces 12x20mm e-MMC SSDs with on-chip controller, power-on boot, explicit sleep mode
BIWIN America has just announced a “single-chip” SSD device employing the e-MMC interface. The device is available in capacities from 2 to 64Gbytes, all packed into a 169-ball BGA package measuring 12x20x1mm. An integral SSD controller provides built-in BCH error … Continue reading
Posted in eMMC, Flash, NAND, SSD
Tagged e-MMC, Flash memory, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, Solid-state drive, SSD, Wear leveling
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Low-cost Intel 330 series SSDs sport SandForce SF-2281 SSD Controller
According to this extremely informative article on the Anandtech.com site, Intel’s just-released 330 series SSDs push Intel into the low-cost SSD zone using the SandForce SF-2281 SSD controller. Apparently, Intel’s 520 SSD series also employs this controller, but the use … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged AnandTech, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Intel, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, SandForce, Solid-state drive
1 Comment
Intel jumps on the PCIe SSD bandwagon with the fast, new 910 Series
Intel has just announced an SSD family based on the PCIe expansion-card form factor and interface. The SSD family is called the 910 Series and it’s based on Intel High Endurance Technology and MLC (multi-level cell) 25nm NAND flash memory … Continue reading
Micron’s mSATA RealSSD C400 and RealSSD C400v drives get huge performance from their SATA 6Gbps interfaces and 25nm MLC NAND
Micron’s new RealSSD C400v and RealSSD C400 mSATA SSDs can operate as SSDs in ultralight, ultrathin notebooks and can also be used as a Flash caches in SSD/HDD hybrid systems. The drive fits the 3×5 cm, 3.75mm-thick mSATA form factor … Continue reading
Want to tour the Kingston SSD factory with TweakTown?
Kingston Technology manufactures SSDs in Taiwan’s Hsin Chu Science Park and TweakTown’s Cameron Wilmot recently went for a visit. With his camera. Although Wilmot wasn’t allowed to shoot video, he did shoot a lot of photos that are included in … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, Kingston, Kingston Technology, Solid-state drive, SSD, Taiwan, TweakTown
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Interview with Whiptail’s CTO James Candelaria demonstrates how SSD controllers can greatly improve NAND Flash endurance by managing write amplification
As NAND Flash geometries continue to shrink, device endurance specs have suffered, which is a significant challenge when using these devices in SSDs. This interview with Whiptail’s CTO James Candelaria discusses how his company’s approach to buffering writes in SSD … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
Tagged Flash, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, RAID, Solid-state drive, SSD, Whiptail, Write Amplification
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Free 2-day SSD Summit already started. Today’s the last day. Click here now, quick.
Yesterday, Avnet Embedded opened an online SSD Summit with a ton of free info. The trouble is, I just found out about it and it ends today. I count eight technical Webinars to watch and seven live chat sessions on … Continue reading
Posted in SSD, Storage
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Supertalent USB 3 SSD memory-stick drive virtually “saturates” USB 2 port using 8-channel LSI SandForce SSD controller
In a sea of undifferentiated USB memory sticks, Supertalent is coming on very strong by differentiating its USB 3.0 Express RC8 drive through its use of an LSI SandForce SSD controller with 8 channels of NAND Flash memory. As a … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD, USB
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Forbes.com publishes article on growth areas for SSDs and NAND Flash devices: mobile and cloud
Tom Coughlin, the President and founder of Coughlin Associates, has just published a good background piece on growth paths for SSDs and Flash memory. I commend it to your attention and I particularly want to call your attention to several … Continue reading
50-company PCIe SSD task force takes on interoperability issues with PCIe-connected SSDs
PCIe interfaces give SSDs are real performance boost. It’s easy to scale that performance immediately by adding PCIe lanes—unlike the SAS and SATA disk-interface specs, SSD vendors need not wait for the next, faster release of the PCIe spec to … Continue reading
LSI Corp releases multiple PCIe SSD and Flash-cached RAID storage cards in Nytro portfolio
LSI Corp has just announced a number of products in its Nytro line of PCIe-based storage cards. The LSI Nytro WarpDrive is a second-generation SSD card available in capacities of 200Gbytes to 3.2Tbytes using a memory-stacking architecture to load the … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, PCIe, SAS, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, Hard disk drive, LSI, PCI Express, RAID, SandForce
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Micron releases video on using PCIe for fast, enterprise-class SSDs like its P320h SSD
As yet another example of how new, fast interfaces are changing the way SSDs fit into the enterprise storage arena, here’s a new video showing Gary Gentry, General Manager of Micron’s Enterprise SSD Division, explaining how and why Micron has … Continue reading
Posted in HDD, NAND, NVMe, PCIe, SAS, SATA, SSD
Tagged Enterprise storage, Flash memory controller, Hard disk drive, Micron, PCI Express, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Cadence adds 12Gbps SAS and NVM Express verification IP to its VIP catalog
Today, Cadence announced the addition of two storage-oriented verification IP products: 12Gbps SAS and NVM Express (NVMe). SAS is currently the interface of choice for enterprise-class hard disk drives and 12Gbps is the next click on the interface-speed dial. NVMe … Continue reading
NVMe storage-optimized PCIe interface gets an Interoperability Lab at University of New Hampshire
The drive to adopt NVMe (a storage-optimized variant of the PCIe interface standard for SSDs) led by the NVMe Work Group now has an interoperability lab at the University of New Hampshire. The UNH-IOL—a “neutral, third-party laboratory dedicated to testing … Continue reading
More on developing your own SSD controller chip. Is rolling your own right for you?
A couple of days ago, I described the new STEC MACH16 SSD and noted that STEC had developed its own SSD controller and firmware. (See “STEC’s MACH16 Slim 2.5-in SATA SSD requires small footprint, fits in small embedded spaces”) I … Continue reading
Micron introduces Enterprise-class, 2.5-inch SSD with PCIe interface
This week, Micron announced a hot-swappable, 2.5-inch SSD that employs a PCIe interface instead of the more widely used SATA or SAS disk interfaces. Dell announced that it has selected this drive for its 12th generation PowerEdge server line. Both … Continue reading
Posted in NAND, SLC, SSD, Storage
Tagged Dell, Dell PowerEdge, Flash memory, Micron, PCI Express, Serial ATA, SSD
5 Comments
Is Flash memory nearing end of life and if so what solid-state storage is waiting in the wings? Will that be the salmon or the rosemary chicken?
On Thursday, May 17, the inaugural Storage Valley Supper Club sits down for its first dinner in Milpitas, California to discuss the state of the storage industry (“Because it’s all about storage!”). Anyone with present or past affiliations in the … Continue reading
Objective Analysis White Paper covers the basics of SSD design. Do you know what’s important?
Jim Handy at Objective Analysis has just published a White Paper about SSDs titled “Enterprise Reality, Solid State Speed.” The White Paper provides an excellent introduction to issues surrounding SSD design. The key issue here is the basic wearout failure … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, SSD
Tagged ECC, Flash, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, LSI Corp, NAND Flash, SandForce, Solid-state drive
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SanDisk’s founder and retired CEO Eli Harari says that the future of SSDs, computer memory, and everything else belongs to memristors at 11nm
The SSD Review reports that SanDisk’s founder and retired CEO Eli Harari delivered some explosive predictions at last week’s ISSCC in San Francisco. In sharp contrast to the recent and highly publicized paper predicting the slowdown of SSD speed and reliability … Continue reading
SMART Storage Systems’ Optimus Ultra SSD taps consumer-grade NAND Flash memory with magic wand named Guardian to make enterprise-class SSD
A lead from Computerworld put me onto the announcement by SMART Storage Systems of a new enterprise-class Optimus Ultra SSD based on consumer-grade MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash devices. Using consumer-grade silicon to make this drive cuts the OEM cost … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
Tagged DIF, ECC, Flash, Flash memory, MLC NAND Flash, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash
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The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Paper predicts the bleak future of SSDs and NAND Flash memory
An interesting and disturbing paper titled “The Bleak Future of NAND Flash Memory” written by two researchers at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, and one Microsoft employee uses current trends with … Continue reading
Flash Memory Summit 2012: Call for presentations
Planning is now underway for the Flash Memory Summit 2012, which will be held in Santa Clara, CA in August. There’s no better show devoted exclusively to NAND Flash semiconductor memory and applications of NAND Flash—particularly SSDs. The organizers have … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, Semiconductor memory, Solid-state drive, SSD
2 Comments
SanDisk launches X100 SSD in 2.5-inch, mSATA, and custom form factors. Capacities to 512Gbytes.
SanDisk has just jumped into full-fledged OEM mode with the X100 SSD series that is available in 2.5-inch (7 or 9.5mm thick), mSATA, and custom form factors and capacities of 32 to 512Gbytes. All drives are based on MLC (multi-level … Continue reading
Posted in MLC, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, SanDisk, Serial ATA, Solid-state drive, X100
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Why is the NVMe SSD interface inherently more efficient than disk-based protocols such as SATA?
The speed at which the electronics industry moves sometimes masks other developments that are incredibly slow-paced and the conversion of storage I/O protocols from hard-disk-centric to solid-state disks (SSDs) is a shining example. Most SSDs currently employ I/O protocols originally … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, NAND, NVM Express, NVMe, SSD
Tagged ATA, Flash memory, NAND Flash, NVM Express, NVMe, PCI Express, SATA, Serial ATA
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Do you know the new lessons that SSDs are teaching us?
IT Web recently ran a thoughtful article titled “Storage trends for 2012.” What struck me about this article is that it incorporates some pretty important lessons for anyone designing with SSDs or other forms of NAND Flash storage. Here are … Continue reading
Watch out SSDs, here comes the NVM Express!
I was reading an article on the Information Week Web site about using SSDs for accelerating enterprise storage and came across this statement: “For the most part, the type of SSD that you use in the storage system does not … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NVM Express, NVMe, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, Hard disk drive, NVM Express, PCI Express, SAS, SATA, Serial ATA, SSD
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Hitachi Global Storage unleashes 2.5-inch, 100 to 400Gbyte enterprise SSDs with Intel 25nm SLC NAND Flash
This week, Hitachi GST (Global Storage Technology) announced a new line of 2.5-inch, 100 to 400Gbyte enterprise SSDs, called the Ultrastar SSD400S.B, based on Intel 25nm SLC (single level cell) NAND Flash devices. The endurance specs of the Flash devices … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, SSD
Tagged Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Hitachi GST, Intel, IOPS, Multi-level cell, Solid-state drive
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Unbelievable but true: bad embedded SSD controller firmware can crash a PC. Next stop—Blue Screen of Death!
According to this article by Anand Lal Shimpi on the eponymous Anandtech.com, several SSD vendors including Intel have recently discovered that it’s possible for an SSD to crash a Microsoft Windows system and invoke the dreaded Blue Screen of Death … Continue reading
Posted in SSD
Tagged Anand Lal Shimpi, Blue Screen of Death, BSOD, Firmware, Intel, Microsoft Windows, SSD, Windows
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Free half-day SSD seminars across North America and the UK
Demartek, a research and analysis firm, will be holding seven free half-day seminars on SSD basics across North America (and one in the UK) during 2012. These seminars look to be pretty basic, so they’re an introduction for people who … Continue reading
Can MLC NAND Flash work in enterprise SSDs? Yes, with the right storage algorithms says Seagate
MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memories provide 2x or 3x the storage for slightly more than the cost of SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memories. Consequently, there’s a big economic case to be made for MLC NAND Flash devices in … Continue reading
Posted in eMMC, Flash, NAND, SLC, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, MLC, MLC NAND Flash, Multi-level cell, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Review of Samsung SM825 Enterprise SSD reveals backup supercapacitors inside
Data security is everything for enterprise storage and that’s why this StorageReview.com teardown analysis of the Samsung SM825 Enterprise SSD is so interesting. Sure, the drive has a sleek aluminum case that’s worthy of a SuperBowl commercial but inside you’ll … Continue reading
Tom’s Hardware: Even a low-end SSD beats the pants off of a high-end HDD.
Andrew Ku at Tom’s Hardware published a little gem of an article that discusses SSD performance relative to HDD performance in a very interesting and very sane way. Ku writes: “As a point of comparison, a file operation completes 85% … Continue reading
Nexsan forecasts five SSD trends for 2012
Storage-system provider Nexsan recently issued a press release predicting five major SSD trends for 2012. They are: SSD storage system innovations to improve IOPS and reduce end-to-end latency. How? High-speed interfaces such as Infiniband and PCIe, block-level duplication, auto tiering, … Continue reading
Will this be a good year for SSDs? Take the poll!
Earlier in the week, Western Digital’s CEO John Coyne was quoted in the SSD Review as saying that he did not believe that SSDs would play a large role in Ultrabooks. Specifically, he reportedly said: “I expect ultrabooks to have … Continue reading
SSDs as HDD caches to grow like topsy say Intel and IHS iSuppli
Intel has made a significant change in the way its chipsets handle SSDs and the result, according to analyst firm IHS iSuppli, will be a 100x increase in the annual number of drives sold in the PC space between now … Continue reading
Ever get the thrill of seeing a Tesla coil torture an SSD? ioSafe wants to be sure you get the opportunity
One reason for the success of the Robot Wars and Battlebots TV shows among engineers is because they love to see engineered products get destroyed, usually as long as they didn’t have a hand in designing and building them. They … Continue reading
Crucial updates SSD firmware that allows drives to cruise past 5184 hours
After 5184 hours of active use, users of Crucial SSDs were experiencing intermittent blue screens of death (BSODs). Now the company has released a field-installable firmware update that appears to solve the problem. Check it out here. As SSDs become … Continue reading
New Swiss Army Knife: knife blade, scissors, a nail file, and a 1Tbyte SSD. $3000???
According to this article on http://www.psfk.com, Swiss Army Knife vendor Victorinox introduced a new pocket knife at this week’s CES with a knife blade, scissors, a nail file, and a 1Tbyte SSD. The SSD is built into a pop-out, clear … Continue reading
High-Speed HDDs versus SSDs: Is there even a question?
Manek Dubash recently published a blog post on the UK ZDNet Web site that discusses the impact SSDs will have on high-speed hard disks in the enterprise storage market. He writes: “Each approach has its own attractions and dis-benefits, with … Continue reading
SSDs present problems to forensic experts
Perhaps you’re familiar with the construction of hard disks and SSDs. However, it may not have occurred to you that the radical differences between a spinning hard disk and the stacks of Flash memories in SSDs would present a problem … Continue reading
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Need an objective way to evaluate SSD performance? SNIA has one
SNIA, the Storage Networking Industry Association, has just published a White Paper titled “Understanding SSD Performance Using the SNIA SSS Performance Test Specification” as a companion piece to the association’s SSD Performance Test Specification (PTS). As the White Paper’s introduction … Continue reading
Marvell brews ARM-based native PCIe SSD Controller IC: 88NV9145 handles direct PCIe to NAND Flash I/O for high-performance, low-overhead SSD designs
It looks like 2012 is the year for native PCIe (PCI Express) interfaces to NAND Flash devices. Hot on the heels of the PCIe-based XQD memory card specification from the Compact Flash Alliance (see “Nikon D4 camera and Sony H … Continue reading
Denali Memory Report 