Solid State Drives: A Closer Look

• Publication date: October 2008
• Report size: 115 pages

Solid State Drives: A Closer Look provides a detailed overview of the technology, architecture and reliability of SSDs as well as techniques for improving the performance and endurance of SSDs. The report also describes measures to increase the endurance of NAND flash on the device level such as in the ultra high endurance server-grade NAND flash from Samsung. Currently, there is a wide range of SSD performance and quality from various suppli...

Solid State Drives: A Closer Look provides a detailed overview of the technology, architecture and reliability of SSDs as well as techniques for improving the performance and endurance of SSDs. The report also describes measures to increase the endurance of NAND flash on the device level such as in the ultra high endurance server-grade NAND flash from Samsung.
Currently, there is a wide range of SSD performance and quality from various suppliers. An overview of SSD-related patents reveals which companies may have a long-term competitive advantage in this nascent market.
The report also includes a comparison of SSDs in the enterprise, low cost mobile notebook PC, notebook PC and desktop PC segments as well as a workload analysis of applications in the enterprise space. Detailed revenue, unit and price forecasts are provided for all segments.

Portable Music Industry

Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Executive Summary
Introduction
NAND Flash Memory Overview
NAND Flash
Concept
Technology Evolution
NAND Flash Architecture
NAND Flash Density Trend
Page Size Trend
Block Size Trend
Read Time
Program Time
Endurance
Retention
Solid State Drives
What is a solid state drive?
The Memory Hierarchy
SSD Overview
SSD Architecture
Controller
Flash Translation Layer
Mapping Schemes
Bad Block Management
Wear-leveling
Garbage Collection
Error Correction
Interleaving
Power Loss Protection
Techniques for Improving SSD Performance/Endurance
Caching
Flash File System Optimization
Parallelism
Flash Bus Width
Over-provisioning
Improved NAND Flash Memory
Re-mapping of Drive Block
Alternative SSD Architectures
Chameleon
Hybrid SSD
HyperLink NAND
SSD Reliability
Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
Endurance
Program Disturb
Read Disturb
Data Retention
Bit Error Rate
SMART
SSD vs. HDD
Enterprise Applications
PC Applications
Low Cost Mobile PC Applications
Price / GB
SSD Landscape
Chronology
Vendor Landscape
Standards
IDEMA
JEDEC
Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCI)
SNIA SSD Initiative
SSD Alliance
Technical Committee T13 AT Attachment
Patent Overview
Seagate vs. STEC
Computing Market and Applications
Enterprise Market
Transaction Processing
Video Server
High Performance Computing
Internet/Network Server
Application Workload Characteristics
Server-attached vs. Storage-attached SSDs
Enterprise SSD Forecast
Low Cost Mobile PC Market
Notebook PC Market
Desktop PC Market
Computing SSD Market
References
About the Author
About Forward Insights
Services
Contact



List of Figures
Figure 1. NAND Flash Cell Programming
Figure 2. Multi-level Storage in NAND Flash
Figure 3. NAND Flash Cell Reading
Figure 4. NAND Flash Cell Erase
Figure 5. NAND Cell String
Figure 6. NAND Cell String
Figure 7. NAND Flash Technology Evolution
Figure 8. NAND Flash Memory Gap Fill
Figure 9. Electrons Stored on the Floating Gate
Figure 10. Samsung 32Gb CTF Memory
Figure 11. NAND Flash Memory Architecture
Figure 12. 8Gb NAND Flash Memory Organization
Figure 13. NAND Flash Memory Density Trend
Figure 14. NAND Flash Memory Chip Size Trend
Figure 15. NAND Flash Page Size Trend
Figure 16. NAND Flash Block Size Trend
Figure 17. NAND Flash Random Access Time
Figure 18. NAND Flash Read Performance Trend
Figure 19. NAND Flash Program Time
Figure 20. NAND Flash Write Performance Trend
Figure 21. NAND Flash Endurance Trend
Figure 22. NAND Flash Endurance Trend at 70nm Technology
Figure 23. NAND Flash Endurance Trend at 3xnm Technology
Figure 24. Memory Hierarchy
Figure 25. NAND Flash vs. DRAM Process Technology
Figure 26. Major Components of SSD and HDD
Figure 27. 128GB MLC SSD vs. 128GB SLC SSD Bill of Materials
Figure 28. NAND Flash as a % of Bill of Material
Figure 29. SSD Architecture
Figure 30. Two-channel, Four-way Interleaving
Figure 31. Software Architecture
Figure 32. SSD Controller Functional Block Diagram
Figure 33. HDD vs. SSD Address Mapping
Figure 34. Flash Translation Layer
Figure 35. Page Mapping
Figure 36. Block Mapping
Figure 37. Hybrid Mapping
Figure 38. Wear-leveling
Figure 39. Garbage Collection
Figure 40. SSD Operating Current
Figure 41. MTron PATA SSD Functional Block Diagram
Figure 42. High Speed NAND
Figure 43. Improving Endurance through Reduced Vt Margins
Figure 44. Chameleon SSD Architecture
Figure 45. Chameleon SSD Performance
Figure 46. Effect of Block-level and Page-level Write Buffer
Figure 47. Hybrid SSD Concept
Figure 48. Data/Control Flows in Hybrid SSD
Figure 49. SSD Workload Profile
Figure 50. Circular Log Space in SLC NAND flash
Figure 51. Hybrid SSD Endurance
Figure 52. HyperLink NAND SSD vs. Conventional SSD Architecture
Figure 53. Minimum SSD Capacity for 5 Year Product Life
Figure 54. Program Disturb
Figure 55. Read Disturb
Figure 56. Flash Error Rate Surface
Figure 57. SSD vs. HDD Bit Error Rates
Figure 58. ECC Selection
Figure 59. SSD vs. HDD Random IOPS
Figure 60. SSDs vs. HDDs in the Enterprise – Performance Characteristics
Figure 61. Enterprise SSD vs. HDD Average Capacity
Figure 62. SSDs vs. HDDs in PCs – Performance Characteristics
Figure 63. SSD Performance Trend
Figure 64. Notebook PC SSD vs. HDD Average Capacity
Figure 65. Desktop SSD vs. HDD Average Capacity
Figure 66. SSDs vs. HDDs in Low Cost Mobile PCs – Performance Characteristics
Figure 67. LC Mobile PC SSD vs. HDD Average Capacity
Figure 68. SSD vs. HDD Price Curve
Figure 69. HDD and SSD Landscape
Figure 70. SSD Patents by Type
Figure 71. SSD-related Patents by Company
Figure 72. Applications Write/Read Workload
Figure 73. Applications Sequential/Random Workload
Figure 74. Total Enterprise SSD Units Forecast
Figure 75. Total Enterprise SSD Revenue Forecast
Figure 76. Enterprise Storage Drive Units Forecast
Figure 77. Enterprise Storage HDD Unit Forecast
Figure 78. Enterprise Storage SSD Unit Forecast
Figure 79. Enterprise Storage SSD GB Forecast
Figure 80. Enterprise Storage SSD GB / Unit Forecast
Figure 81. Enterprise Storage SSD $ / GB Forecast
Figure 82. Enterprise Storage SSD Revenue Forecast
Figure 83. Enterprise Server Units Forecast
Figure 84. Host Server-attached SSD Unit Forecast
Figure 85. Host Server-attached SSD GB Forecast
Figure 86. Host Server-attached SSD GB / Unit Forecast
Figure 87. Host Server-attached SSD $ / GB Forecast
Figure 88. Host Server-attached SSD Revenue Forecast
Figure 89. Low Cost Mobile PC Unit Forecast
Figure 90. Endurance vs. SSD Capacity
Figure 91. Low Cost Mobile PC SSD Unit Forecast
Figure 92. Low Cost Mobile PC SSD GB Forecast
Figure 93. Low Cost Mobile PC SSD Revenue Forecast
Figure 94. Notebook PC Unit Forecast
Figure 95. Notebook PC SSD Unit Forecast
Figure 96. Notebook PC SSD GB Forecast
Figure 97. Notebook PC SSD Revenue Forecast
Figure 98. Desktop PC Unit Forecast
Figure 99. Desktop PC SSD Unit Forecast
Figure 100. Desktop PC SSD GB Forecast
Figure 101. Desktop PC SSD Revenue Forecast
Figure 102. Computing SSD Unit Forecast
Figure 103. Computing GB Forecast
Figure 104. Computing SSD Revenue Forecast




List of Tables
Table 1. SSD Bill of Materials
Table 2. ECC Trend
Table 3. HLNAND SSD vs. Conventional SSD
Table 4. SSD Capacity as a Function of Writes / Day
Table 5. Enterprise Class SSD vs. HDD
Table 6. PC-Class SSD vs. HDD
Table 7. Interface Transfer Speeds
Table 8. Interface Transfer Speeds
Table 9. Low Cost Mobile PC SSD vs. HDD
Table 10. SSD Chronology
Table 11. Seagate’s Patent Claims against STEC
Table 12. Enterprise SSD vs. HDD Key Metrics
Table 13. Video-on-Demand SSD TAM
Table 14. Enterprise HDD:SSD Replacement Ratio
Table 15. SSD NAND Flash Technology under Four Scenarios
Table 16. LC Mobile PC SSD Capacity Unit Mix Forecast
Table 17. LC Mobile PC SSD Capacity GB Mix Forecast
Table 18. LC Mobile PC SLC SSD Price Forecast
Table 19. LC Mobile PC MLC SSD Price Forecast
Table 20. LC Mobile PC 3-bit per cell SSD Price Forecast
Table 21. Notebook PC SLC SSD Capacity Unit Mix Forecast
Table 22. Notebook PC SLC SSD Capacity GB Mix Forecast
Table 23. PC SLC SSD Price Forecast
Table 24. PC MLC SSD Price Forecast
Table 25. PC SLC/3-bit per cell SSD Price Forecast
Table 26. Desktop PC SSD Capacity Unit Mix Forecast
Table 27. Desktop PC SSD Capacity GB Mix Forecast