the top SSD companies in
Q4 2011
Editor:- January 20, 2012 - StorageSearch.com today published
the new 19th quarterly edition of -
the Top 20 SSD Companies
List.
As I said to a couple of people yesterday - "In an
uncertain and disruptive market like SSDs - if you're looking to shortlist
partners, suppliers and investments - there's safety in numbers."
It's a good initial filter and starting point. I've always found it
very useful in telling me what's important (and what's not) as well as making
judgements about the comparative future market success of oems with similar
looking products and that's why I decided to share the list with readers back in
2007 when
there were only 55 companies in the SSD market. Today I talk to over 300 SSD
companies. You probably have better things to do with your time.
...read the article
world's first PCIe PCM SSD
Editor:- June 14, 2011 -
NVSL ( the Non-Volatile Systems
Lab at UCSD) recently
demonstrated
a prototype PCIe PCM (phase-change memory) SSD - with R/W speeds upto 1.1GB/s
and 327MB/s respectively and 8GB usable capacity.
A spokesperson for
the Moneta SSD design team - Professor
Steven Swanson said "...Moneta gives us a window into the future of
what computer storage systems are going to look like, and gives us the
opportunity now to rethink how we design computer systems in response."
Swanson says he hopes to build the 2nd generation of the Moneta
storage device in the next 6 to 9 months and says the technology could be ready
for market in just a few years as the underlying phase-change memory technology
improves.
Editor's comments:- in a white paper
Protoype
PCM Storage Array (pdf) the team outlines the design and architecture of
their PCM SSD prototype and also compares aspects of performance with entry
level PCIe flash SSDs from
Fusion-io. In a
recent article
I warned that you should not pay too much heed to comparative PCIe SSD
benchmarks - because from different arbitrary selected angles they can "prove"
different arbitrary performance rankings. I wouldn't be surprised if some
investors take fright that a PCM SSD scored higher than a Fusion-io SSD in some
of the published graphs. But for those who understand SSD architecture it
doesn't reveal anything new.
In my view this prototype clearly
demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of PCM as an SSD technology.
PCM SSD strengths vs flash
The granularity of writes
in PCM is smaller and faster - which means that small R/W operations have higher
IOPS. If you have apps where that is important you can simply buy
SSDs with various
ratios of integrated RAM cache. That would give you small block IOPS
better than PCM - end of story. PCM has higher
endurance
than SLC - which means that the
SSD controller
overhead applied to endurance can be lighter than in most flash systems. Hence
potentially faster latency through to the media.
PCM SSD
weaknesses vs flash
The prototype PCIe SSD card provides capacity
which is similar to RAM SSD
density - but with a large block R/W throughput which is much lower than
flash arrays. This
implementation used 16MB PCM chips.
Flash allows higher capacity writes
to a single chip - and this gives better peak performance results than PCM when
exploited in parallel architecture arrays. You can't get those flash peak
performance numbers from a PCM array in the same board footrpint - because many
PCM chips have to be written to concurrently to achieve the same capacity R/W
as a single flash chip. That means with today's technologies - flash SSDs
have a higher proportion of ready to write memory chips in the same chip count
population as PCM SSDs.
For more about alternative SSD technologies -
see SSD's past phantoms.
SANBlaze ships PCIe to 1.8" SSD RAID adapter
June
13, 2011 - SANBlaze
Technology is shipping a new
rear
transition module which connects upto 8x
1.8" SSDs to
PCIe with
RAID options.
new report looks at NAND flash succession
Editor:-
January 11, 2011 - Forward Insights
and its research collaborators have compiled an in-depth, independent analysis
which analyzes the options for various
non volatile memory
technologies which could become viable in storage after floating gate NAND flash
hits fundamental scaling limitations
What's after
NAND? (pdf outline) is the product of experts in floating gate and charge
trap flash, and resistive and emerging memory technologies. This new report
(price $10k) evaluates 3D NAND and cross point memory concepts from Hynix,
Intel, Macronix, Micron, Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba and Unity and concludes with
a roadmap till the end of the decade.
Toshiba integrates ECC into raw flash
Editor:-
April 5, 2011 - Toshiba
announced it is sampling
SmartNAND
- 24nm flash memory chips (with upto 64GB capacity) with integrated ECC
controllers to simplify the design of consumer products which need storage.
"Toshiba's
new SmartNAND will provide our customers a smoother design experience into 24nm
generation and beyond," said Scott Nelson, VP, Memory Business
Unit, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. "By enabling the system
designer to directly manage the NAND using a standard or custom host NAND
controller, while leaving the function of error correction within the NAND
package, SmartNAND results in faster time to market, access to leading
geometries and potentially lowers design costs when compared to conventional
NAND flash implementations with external ECC."
will Micron's enhanced flash really eliminate error concerns?
Editor:-
December 3, 2010 - Micron
recently announced availability of enhanced 16GB to 64GB 25nm
MLC
flash memory chips with integrated error management - which the company
says - removes the burden of ECC from the host and simplifies the use of flash
in enterpise apps.
Editor's comments:- as discussed in my recent article -
bad block
management in flash SSDs good blocks and less good blocks have always
coexisted in flash memory. But as device geometries shrink (to increase
capacity and speed) the margin of error between usable and non usable cells has
shrunk too. In practical terms this means that the raw media quaility of new
flash chips has declined in the past decade from under 1% defects, then 2%, 5%
and I've seen projections as high as 10% for emerging MLC.
read longer version of
comments
new book - Inside NAND Flash
Editor:- November 17,
2010 - Forward
Insights (an SSD
analyst company) is one of the contributers to a new book called -
Inside
NAND Flash Memories.
The publishers say that
SSD designers must
understand flash technology in order to exploit its benefits and countermeasure
its weaknesses. The new book is a comprehensive guide to the NAND world -
from circuits design (analog and digital) to
reliability.
Web-Feet reports on Storage Class Memories
Editor:-
October 18, 2010 - Web-Feet
Research has just released its latest technology assessment report on
Flash Memory, DRAM and the rise of alternative Non Volatile Memories and Storage
Class Memories in -
MTS650FT-2010
(summary pdf) - price $7,500.
This new report evaluates the
most promising SCM memories: PCM, STT-RAM, MRAM, Z-RAM, ReRAM, CBRAM, QsRAM,
and FeRAM. The manufacturability of SCM storage is evaluated for: CMOx, PCM-S,
RRAM-S, 3D NAND and some claims that SST-MRAM can fulfill the storage function.
new Samsung phone flash
Editor:- September 7, 2010 -
Samsung Electronics
today introduced high-performance 16GB
e-MMC
4.41 compatible
moviNAND
embedded memory chips for use in smartphones.
A new feature enables the
host to interrupt a previously written write so as to respond sooner to
a higher priority read.
SSD readers intro to Nanocrystal Memories
Editor:-
June 30, 2010 - a recent blog from
Denali Software
describes the
characteristics
of nanocrystal memories - a flash-like
nv memory technology from
Freescale
Semiconductor.
This
comparison
table on Freescale's web site suggests 10x faster write cycle - and
upto 30x
endurance
(10 million cycles) than traditional flash. The technology is shipping in some
embedded microprocessors.
Macronix research pushes flash density
Editor:- June
16, 2010 - Macronix
today
announced
its research results related to its patented BE SONOS (barrier engineering)
charge-trapping technology which could make terabit NAND flash feasible.
Using 3D stacking, NAND Flash may achieve higher data storage capacity
and effectively lower fabrication cost without relying on advances in
lithography technology. Consequently some memory manufacturers have invested in
3D research recently.
Samsung ships 512Mb PRAM
Editor:- April 28, 2010 - Samsung Electronics
today
announced
shipments of a 512Mb PRAM MCP which is is backwards compatible with 40nm
NOR flash memory in both
its hardware and software functionality allowing mobile handset designers the
convenience of retrofitting the 3x faster writing PRAM into exisiting
designs based on NOR.
Everspin samples industry's first 16Mb MRAM
Editor:-
April 19, 2010 - Everspin
Technologies
announced
it is sampling a 16Mb MRAM.
The MR4A16B is a 3.3-volt, parallel I/O
non-volatile RAM that features 35ns access times with unlimited read/write
cycles. Data is always non-volatile after each write for more than 20 years. In
addition, MRAM is immune to soft error rates associated with cosmic rays that
impact other memories. The 16Mb MRAM is organized as 1,048,576 words of 16 bits.
Pin and function-compatible with asynchronous SRAM, the MR4A16B targets
industrial automation, robotics, network and data storage, multi-function
printers and a host of other systems traditionally limited to SRAM-based
designs. | |
