Overcoming Hurdles
A paper, titled “The Bleak Future of NAND Flash Memory” was recently jointly published by the University of California and Microsoft Research. It has been picked up by many media outlets who all seem to be beating the same morbid drum, spinning tales of a seemingly apocalyptic end to the reign of flash-based storage devices. While I agree with some of what these authors have to say, I have reservations about the methods upon which the paper is based.
TLC and beyond?
The paper kicks off by declaring steep increases in latency and drops in lifetime associated with increases in bits-per-cell. While this is true, flash memory manufacturers are not making large pushes to increase bits-per-cell beyond the standard MLC (2 bits per cell) tech. Sure some have dabbled in 3-bit MLC, also called Triple Level Cell (TLC) which is a bit of a misnomer since storing three bits in a cell actually requires eight voltage level bands, not three as the name implies. Moving from SLC to MLC doubles density, but the diminishing returns increase sharply after that – MLC to TLC only increases capacity by a another 1.5x, but sees a 2-4x reduction in performance and endurance. In light of this, there is little demand for TLC flash, and where there is, it’s clear by the usage cases that it is not meant for anything beyond light usage. There's nothing wrong with the paper going down this road, but the reality is that increasing bits per cell is not the envelope being pushed by the flash memory industry.
Wait a second – where is 25nm MLC?
Looking at the above we see a glaring omission – 25nm MLC flash, which has been around for close to two years now, and constitutes the majority of shipping flash memory parts currently in production. SLC was also omitted, but I can see the reason for this – it’s hard to get your hands on 25nm SLC these days. Why? Because MLC technology has been improved upon to the point where ‘enterprise MLC’ (eMLC) is rapidly replacing SLC even despite the supposed reduction in reliability and endurance over SLC. The reasons for this are simple, and are completely sidestepped or otherwise overlooked by the paper:
- SSD controllers employ write combination and wear leveling techniques.
- Some controllers even compress data on-the-fly as to further reduce writes and provisioning.
- Controller-level Error Correction (ECC) has improved dramatically with each process shrink.
- SSD controllers can be programmed to compensate for the drift of data stored in a cell (eMLC).
Continue reading our editorial on the not-so-bleak future of NAND Flash Memory!!!
Upgrade your PS3 with an SSD... or just play on the PC.
Subject: General Tech, Storage | February 20, 2012 - 05:53 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: ssd, PS3
There is an interesting article down at Eurogamer which covers the possible benefits of upgrading a PS3 with a solid state drive. Those who know me can guess that I am snickering while crossing another perceived advantage off of my console versus PC list. Still, if for some reason you want to play exclusives to a disposable platform that are only exclusive because you let them be and you desire to upgrade your experience, check out the interesting article.
Isn’t “not needing to do this” the whole reason for having a console?
Consoles titles are naturally becoming as hard drive-intensive as they are allowed to be due to their abysmally small quantity of RAM. Developers have been using tricks to increase the usefulness of their available RAM such as disallowing split screen, streaming content as needed, and rendering at low resolutions.
The first Halo, for instance, was famous for their quick load times. The load speed is due in part to having their game assets copied multiple times on the disk which allows choice in loading whichever copy requires the least seek time to access. Also, having a hard drive helped Halo too.
The article itself focuses mostly on RAGE and Skyrim due to their harsh issues with lag and pop-in. Skyrim has had known issues with getting progressively worse as time progressed. This issue was mostly corrected in version 2.03 as was also demonstrated in Eurogamer’s article making an SSD almost unnecessary, but prior to 2.03 an SSD surprisingly helped substantially with the problem. It should also be no surprise that throwing faster storage at RAGE helped immensely just as it does on the PC.
If you were considering upgrading to a faster drive for your Sony console be sure to check out Eurogamer -- or the new Hardware Leaderboard and just play on the PC.
Intel Inside. Thecus' Next-Gen NAS introduced: N4800, N2800
Subject: General Tech, Systems, Storage | February 20, 2012 - 01:53 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: Thecus, NAS
Home users are starting to look at Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices to serve their home media needs. Also popular are products which allow you to browse the internet and play media on your TV. Just announced by Thecus are two NAS devices which fit both roles and many others. The N2800 contains a built-in media card reader while the N4800 has a built in mini Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), OLED status screen, and a second USB3.0 port.
I hear they're a NASty bunch...
The obvious selling features of the two devices are the inclusion of HDMI output to enable the above roles as well as an updated 3rd Generation Intel Atom CPU D2700. The D2700 is a 2.13GHz Dual Core and hyper threaded Intel Atom processor manufactured at 32nm.
Check out the highlights of their press release below.
02/20/2012- As part of the Intel Embedded Alliance, Thecus has precedence and access to a multitude of Intel prototypes and the latest technologies. Working on those products for months now, Thecus is delighted to finally release its Vision Series.
The new N2800 and N4800 are going to be some of the first Intel(r) Atom(tm) D2700 based NAS! They will set the standard for what's best in the market to help you build a true multimedia center: USB 3.0, Dual Gigabit Ports, SD Card reader (N2800), Mini-UPS (N4800), etc.
And the most important feature is the HDMI output. With Thecus Local Display module, it's now possible to connect the NAS directly to a monitor and control it through USB mouse/keyboard. Playing HD movies, browsing the web, controlling the NAS... everything is now possible directly from your TV! Thanks to this feature, Thecus is now creating a new standard among the NAS industry.
About Thecus(r)
Thecus(r) Technology Corp. specializes in IP Storage Server and Network Video Recorder solutions. The company was established in 2004 with the mission to make technology that is as transparent as it is easy-to-use and products that are not only the best on the market, but are accessible to experts and novices alike. Combining a world-class R&D team highly experienced in storage hardware and software development with a keen customer focus, Thecus(r) stays close to the market to develop high-quality products to fulfill the storage and surveillance needs of today's world.
VIA teams with Tensilica to roll their own SSD controller
Subject: Storage | February 16, 2012 - 09:51 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: Xtensa, VIA, Tensilica, ssd, DPU, controller
VIA has always been known for the 'slow and steady' approach to computing. They might not have the quickest stuff around, but they certainly tend to have the lowest power draw. While we haven't seen many releases from VIA as of late, they appear to be gearing up for a rediscovered purpose for their mantra - Solid State Storage.
VIA has brought on a company called Tensilica, who make a System on a Chip (SoC) architecture that has been purpose built for moving data around. The system, dubbed the Xtensa dataplane processor (DPU), has some particular math strengths that would be very beneficial if applied to the realm of an SSD controller. For example, the DPU is capable of performing multiple simultaneous table lookups within a single clock cycle. This is handy for increasing the IOPS rating of an SSD, since wear leveling and write amplification are handled by remapping the LBA's (sectors) to flash memory space. Each IO results in a necessary table lookup, which the DPU can perform very quickly.
Getting vibration-less storage without having to invest in an SSD
Subject: Storage | February 14, 2012 - 05:30 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: vibration, Tiché PC HDD Vibration Killer, hdd
At first glance they may just look like colourful metal 3.5" to 5.25" drive bay adapters but the Tiché PC HDD Vibration Killer kit includes a rubber suspension intended to stop the noise and vibrations generated by a spinning hard disk. It should help with cooling since the drives have more space around them in a 5.25" bay and it will help save space as three drives will fit in only two 5.25" slots. SPCR's testing disproved the first as they saw noticeably higher temperatures from the drives once installed in the mounts, but not worryingly so. They did see seriously positive results when they looked at the effectiveness of vibration reduction as well as noise reduction. If you've got a drive that shakes your house when you boot this kit is worth checking out.
"The Tiché PC HDD Vibration Killer is an aftermarket internal hard drive suspension system that is simple but effective and cost efficient."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Intel 520 Series 240GB @ Tweaktown
- Intel 520 Series Cherryville 240GB SSD Review @ HCW
- Intel 520 Series 240GB (Raid 0 update) @ SSD Review
- Intel 520 Series 240GB Solid State Drive Review @ eTeknix
- Intel 520 Series SSD @ The Inquirer
- Intel 520 SSD Review (Round Two) - RAID Testing at 1.5GB/s With Highpoint 2720SGL RAID Controller @ SSD Review
- OCZ Synapse Cache 64GB SSD Review@ HardwareLOOK
- OCZ Synapse Cache SATA III Solid State Disk @ Pro-Clockers
- OCZ Vertex 3 MaxIOPS 240GB SSD @ Funky Kit
- OCZ Technology Octane 512GB Solid State Drive with 1.13 Performance Firmware @ Tweaktown
- Understanding SSD Advertised Performance and Its Purchase Implications - An SSD Primer @ SSD Review
- A Look at Enterprise Performance of Intel SSDs @ AnandTech
- Synology DS212 NAS Server Review @ Techgage
- Buffalo CloudStation Pro Duo Network Storage @ X-bit Labs
- OCZ Technology Octane 128GB @ Tweaktown
- Meet Intel's Cherryville: 520 Series 240GB SSD Review @ Techgage
- Asus BW-12B1LT Internal 12X Blu-Ray Writer Review @ Tweaknews
- Diablotek SSD to USB 3.0 SATA Adapter @ TechwareLabs
- HornetTek Enterprise 4X @ LanOC Reviews @ LANOC
- Hitachi Touro Desk Pro 3TB USB 3.0 External HDD Review @ Madshrimps
- Serial Technologies SATA II to IDE Adaptor Review @ eTeknix
- Zalman ZM-VE300 2.5” USB3.0 External HDD Enclosure Review @ Madshrimps
OCZ Launches Z-Drive R4 CloudServ 16TB Solid State Storage System
Subject: Storage | February 14, 2012 - 02:46 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: z-drive R4 CloudServ, SandForce 2581, PCIe SSD, ocz
How does 6.4TB of Synchronous Mode Multi-Level Cell NAND storage sound to you? It is still a PCIe 2.0 device but it is capable of up to 6,000 MB/s which is none too shabby.
SAN JOSE, CA—February 14, 2012—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCI Express (PCIe) flash storage solution, designed to dramatically accelerate cloud computing applications and significantly reduce operating expenses in the data center. The new Z-Drive R4 CloudServ features monumental data throughput, and raises the bar in performance and capacity.
“The Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCIe solid state drive delivers game-changing performance and enables clients to process massive data-sets with up to 16TB of storage capacity on a single, easy-to-deploy card,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. “With this new solution, system architects are able to design more efficient and dynamic cloud computing infrastructures while simultaneously reducing system complexity and the high maintenance costs associated with traditional infrastructures.”
With increasing emphasis on cloud computing and the sheer growth in data, PCIe-based flash storage systems have the ability to bypass traditional storage overhead by reducing latencies, increasing throughput, and enabling efficient processing of massive quantities of data. The Z-Drive R4 CloudServ is capable of transferring multiple gigabytes per second and delivering over a million IOPS with a level of concentrated performance that enables system architects to design more productive infrastructures while lowering costs associated with hardware failure, maintenance, structural footprint, and energy consumption.
The latest evolution of the Z-Drive R4, the CloudServ, is specifically designed for the most demanding cloud computing applications with increased capacities and even greater bandwidth capabilities delivering up to 1.4 million IOPS. Melding hardware and software managed solutions with OCZ’s integrated Virtualized Controller Architecture™ (VCA) 2.0 and OCZ’s SANRAD VXL virtual acceleration caching software, the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ can be employed as a high-performing host-based flash cache that works in conjunction with the VXL to dynamically allocate flash resources to accelerate all virtual machines. This maximizes the performance of critical applications and provides a seamless migration from one host to another without the loss of cache data. As these virtual machines are migrated from one host to another, they must retain full access to the flash cache without loss of performance or interruption of service. OCZ’s SANRAD VXL software is the only software that allows for this seamless migration without loss of access to the flash cache.
The Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCIe SSD will be available in models ranging from 300GB-16TB capacities throughout OCZ's global channel in the coming weeks. As with all OCZ enterprise products, customer-specific configurations and functionality are available upon request.
Increased Hard Drive Write Speed and Density - Using Frickin' Lasers
Subject: General Tech, Storage | February 8, 2012 - 11:34 AM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: laser, hdd, Hard Disk
The big hoopla as of late has been wrapped around SSD's and flash memory technology, with constant die shrinks promising cheaper and faster solid state storage for your PC. Everyone seems to be slowly forgetting about good old HDD's, but spinning rust may have some life left after all.
A team of scientists formed iron and gadolinium into a series of alloy 'nanoislands'. These are basically isolated mini magnets. Each one carries a magnetic charge. Normally you would write to materials like this by hitting them with a much larger magnetic field (i.e. from your HDD write head). This team had a different trick up their sleeve - don't bother with the bigger magnet, just hit it with a burst of heat and get it to change state on its own.
Magnetic nanoislands getting hit by a frickin' laser.
Picture a sling shot, stretched out, and frozen in a block of ice. If you melt the ice, the rubber band will just snap back to its unstretched state and stay there. The same kind of thing happens when you heat a magnet - it becomes demagnetized. Now imagine if you could melt the ice, but flash freeze it while the rubber band has extended in the opposite direction. You've reversed the direction of the sling shot. Pull off the same trick with a magnet, and you can flip its poles. The trick is finding just the right length of time to heat the magnet and catch the 'flip' on the other end of its resonance. This team appears to have figured it out, and the magic number (for their material) is 60 femtoseconds. They can heep hitting the same spot repeatedly, and each time causes another flip in the poles.
Each pulse flips the bit.
To back this down into typical computer terms. A 1GHz CPU clock triggers every 1.00000 nanosecond, and 60 femtoseconds is 0.00006 nanoseconds. Ultrashort Pulse lasers have been around for a while. One was even used on my eyeballs a few years back. These pulses are so fast that the biggest issue would be getting information to the laser fast enough. The straight line theoretical speed of this technique ranges in the Terabytes per second, with densities limited by the capabilities of the nanotech used to create the islands.
To be clear, this isn't the first time heat or lasers has been used in magnetic media. TDK pioneered Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording tech years ago, but that tech is only heat *assisted*. This new breakthrough is writing, with heat, without the magnet at all. Now the only trick is figuring out how to read such a high density of tiny written bits. Since the laser writes much smaller than a magnetic head could accomplish, we might see a reversion back to optics for the reads.We're not sure how long before this technology appears on your desktop, but what we can say is that magnetic storage is not dead yet.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em; Intel goes Sandforce
Subject: Storage | February 6, 2012 - 01:12 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, SF-2281 controller, sandforce, Intel, 520 Cherryville, 25nm
While the Intel 320 Series did hold the top spot for quite a while it has been a while since Intel refreshed their SSD line and has fallen behind new controllers in performance. As of today that changes for the 520 Cherryville series has arrived and it is using none other than SandForce's SF-2281 controller. Using such a popular controller leaves Intel with a bit of a problem, how do they stand out in such a crowded market? One way that they have chosen is their home made 25nm synchronous NAND flash; Intel designs and fabs their own which gives them the opportunity to ensure the best flash chips make it into their drives. The other way they've chosen to differentiate themselves is with a 5-year warranty for owners of this new drive. Read how they did performance-wise at The Tech Report or else head straight to Al's review right here.
"Intel's newest solid-state drive pairs a SandForce controller with custom firmware and 25-nm NAND. We've tested the 60 and 240GB models to see how they fare against more than two dozen SSDs, hybrids, and mechanical drives."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Intel SSD 520 Series 240 GB Solid State Drive Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Intel 520 Series 240GB Review @ OCC
- Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB @ Techspot
- Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews
- Intel SSD 520 240GB @ Bjorn3D
- Intel 520 Series 240GB Solid State Drive @ Kitguru
- Intel 520 240GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD Launch Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Intel series 520 240GB @ Guru3D
- Intel 520 240GB SSD Review (Round One) - Intel Releases Amazing SATA 3 SandForce Driven SSD @ SSD Review
- Intel 520 'Cherryville' Series 240GB SSD Review in RAID 0 @ Legit Reviews
- Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 120GB SATA III SSD @ SSD Review
- Samsung's 830 Series solid-state drive @ The Tech Report
- MyDigitalSSD 'Bullet Proof' 128GB mSATA SATA 2 SSD @ SSD Review
- Corsair Performance Series Pro 128GB Solid State Drive @ Tweaktown
- SSD performance scaling across the spectrum @ The Tech Report
- Kingston SSDNow V+200 120GB Upgrade Kit Review @ Real World Labs
- Seagate Barracuda 3 TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Plextor PX-LB950UE External 12x Blu-ray Writer @ PCSTATS
- Synology DS212 2-Bay NAS @ Tweaktown
- Compact Network Attached Storage from Synology: DiskStation DS411 Slim @ X-bit Labs
- Synology DS-212 Two-Bay NAS Review @ Tweaknews
- Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 Thumb Drive @ Tweaktown
- Seagate GoFlex Turbo Review @ TechReviewSource
Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging
Introduction
Today we take a look at Intel's newest 6Gb/sec SATA SSD - the 520 Series. This is the second non-Intel controller to appear in one of their products. The first was the Marvell controller, which appeared in the 510 Series last March. This time around, Intel has gone with SandForce. This should leave at least one SATA 6Gb/sec model to be released. Taylorsville is the code name for the next SATA 6Gb/sec native-Intel controller, which has been on their roadmap since mid-2010 but has yet to actually materialize. While Taylorsville development continues, Intel has stop-gapped the 6Gb/sec slot with the 510 and now the 520 Series. Intel seemingly worked wonders with the stock Marvell firmware, and while the Marvell controller was much improved over stock, it still lagged far behind other higher performing SATA 6Gb/sec solutions. The SandForce was one of the much more capable controllers eating the 510's lunch, but how much further could Intel improve upon the SandForce firmware?
I guess a good question to answer up front is - What took them so long?!?! The answer is a bit complicated. Intel has actually been working on getting the 520 out the door for over a year now. They had to start with the same base SandForce firmware but accomplish two things for their version to be successful:
- Optimize to perform better than other equivalent SandForce models (from competitors).
- Pass Intel's stringent validation testing.
They didn't say so directly, but I can only imagine Intel's process was plagued by multiple 'back to the drawing board' moments. Trying to one-up competition like OCZ can't be easy as they've been tweaking SandForce firmware since the very beginning. There's also those nasty bugs that would cause random BSOD's or even permanently brick the drive. Such failures have no place in an Intel SSD. Intel's upper limit for each SSD line is a 0.75% annual failure rate, and we've seen SandForce SSD's failing at a higher rate than that this past year.
With each tweak made, Intel would have to once again pass their drives through another round of full validation testing. This is no small task for Intel. As an example: It took Intel just a couple of weeks to recreate and correct the long-term performance issue I discovered back in 2009, but despite mountingpressure, they could not release the updated firmware until it had successfully passed their validation a full three months later. Intel takes this testing very seriously, and that's what leads people to trust their reliability.
Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging
Introduction
A couple of days ago we looked at a pair of SSD's from Patriot. Next up is a pair of SSD's from Corsair. These are another two SandForce controlled units, but this time it's Async IMFT flash vs. Sync IMFT flash:
We'll carry the Patriot Pyro (IMFT Async) into the results for comparison, and keeping the other benchmark OCZ and Intel models in with the mix of results. The OCZ Vertex 3 and Agility 3 will again share the same SandForce controller, but OCZ has been known to add many performance tweaks to their firmware. Let's see if Corsair was able to use 'tweaked' firmware or instead went with the stock one provided by SandForce.
Specifications
The Corsair Force 3 and Force GT are both available in the following capacities:
- 60GB
- 90GB
- 120GB
- 180GB
- 240GB
- 480GB
The added capacity points are a bonus of how IMFT can stack their dies in 'odd' multiples (i.e. 3 per package, making a 24GB TSOP). Varying slightly from low to high capacities (and across the two models), specs range from 490 to 525 MB/sec writes and 550 to 555 MB/sec reads. 60GB models get 80,000 4K IOPS and the rest get a rating of 85,000 4K IOPS. Corsairs specs indicate IOMeter 2008 was used for this test, and it's important to note that 2008's writes were a repeating pattern that is easily and fully compressible by the SandForce controller, meaning those specs were derived using fully compressible data.
