Evolution of SSD Controllers
Hi, Geektimes! For a long time in the computer market appeared solid-state drives. These silent and fast data storages began to gain popularity even before the beginning of 2010, but how many disks remained in working condition? The reliability of the first batches of SSD left much to be desired. What has changed since then? How have solid-state drive controllers evolved? Where was the technical progress and why some manufacturers have chosen their own way - I will tell under the cut.
The order of transfer of manufacturers of controllers is absolutely random and is not subject to analysis in order to identify patterns.
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One of the pioneers of the market for SSD controllers and a frequenter of the market for SATA controllers. Released in 2009, JMF612 was one of the most popular and during 2010 won a fair market share. JMicron was popular with ADATA, Western Digital, and now they are the main supplier for Silicon Power - JMicron JMF667H - a modern four-channel controller with SATA III support is used not only in conventional SATA drives, but also in mSATA, for example, in Transcend. The reputation, however, of the manufacturer is stained with unsuccessful JMF616, which often died without prior notice.
One of the most famous manufacturers of controllers for SSD-drives. Many manufacturers use this product in their disks: Crucial, Intel, Plextor. The key parameters are reliability and low price, but to achieve really cool results, serious revision of the firmware is required. At one time, Marvell controllers became the physical basis for the first OCZ Everest controllers. In addition, Marvell controllers are still used in the OCZ Intrepid 3000 Series Enterprise Storage Series. The current controller version, the Marvell 88SS9189, is the foundation of many popular models, for example the Crucial MX100. New controllers for PCI-E SSD drives presented at trade shows tell us that Marvell are on the right path and are ready for market competition.
As specialists of a wide profile, Samsung engineers introduced their products to the market rather quickly, but not entirely successfully. The first attempt at writing had low productivity, but then the Korean company, which possesses enormous capacities and the production of NAND and DRAM memory, made the right moves. The current flagship of the controller series - MEX, together with powerful developments in the field of memory chips, has turned Samsung into one of the industry leaders and even Apple has been ordering solid-state drives for its MacBook from its worst competitor for several years.
Before the bankruptcy of the company Indilinx, they supplied their controllers Corsair, Crucial, G.Skill and of course to the company OCZ. After the financial difficulties arose, Indilinx was bought by the OCZ Technology Group and then both became part of Toshiba. Key features of the new generation of controllers is reliability. Now the KitGuru website is conducting an experiment on five OCZ ARC100 disks - as of February 24, 3 disks have already died, but at the normal rate for each disk is 22 terabytes: the first one died at the mark - 322 terabytes, the second one - at 352 terabytes, the third at 384 terabytes. Two more disks continue to work. ( Pruflink ). It is also important to understand that OCZ essentially produces memory and controllers independently, and therefore does not depend on the market situation with the components. It is worth noting the high-quality firmware of the latest controllers that provide high-quality tidy of the disk, even if the TRIM command is turned off.
Before launching its own controllers, Intel released SSD drives based on third-party chips, such as Marvell and SandForce. It is a bit strange to see such a situation from one of the industry leaders, but the Intel S3500 drives that came out on their own controllers show that there are still many growth points. For example, in the field of linear recording.
Perhaps the most popular controller among manufacturers who do not have their own designs. SF-2281 became a hit for many reasons: low cost, high numbers of tests at the beginning of operation. When using high-quality firmware and fast synchronous memory, you can get very good results, but ... unfortunately SandForce comes complete with basic (not the best) firmware, which allows almost any manufacturer to assemble "own" disks. If all manufacturers paid due attention to software and component selection, the SF-2281 probably would not have gained a reputation as a “corn” controller. However, Marvell controllers also need to be able to write software, otherwise it’s not what users expect.
A new star in the sky controllers for SSD-drives. The company is a supplier of many OEMs, but SandForce is still far away. The leaders among the customers of Phison are Corsair, Kingston, Patriot. The cost of the controller plays an important role, but the advantage of Phison controllers is optimized software and good work with garbage on the drive. In the future, these controllers may well become a substitute for SandForce, since the latter have passed under the wing of Seagate and whether an independent controller manufacturer will remain is not yet known.
Why, actually, all the fuss? This post is for reference only and if you want to pick up the SSD based on the controller, you will have a great opportunity to assess the capabilities of manufacturers and get the necessary information. Of course, I did not cover all the manufacturers of controllers on the IT market, but the above described ones occupy the leading market share and are rightly considered the best choice.
Our previous posts:
» OCZ ZD-XL SQL Accelerator. Enlarge your SQL
» SSD SATA vs. SSD PCIe | part one: theoretical
» SSD SATA vs. SSD PCI-E | Part Two: Practical
» OCZ. We returned.
The order of transfer of manufacturers of controllers is absolutely random and is not subject to analysis in order to identify patterns.
Jmicron
')
One of the pioneers of the market for SSD controllers and a frequenter of the market for SATA controllers. Released in 2009, JMF612 was one of the most popular and during 2010 won a fair market share. JMicron was popular with ADATA, Western Digital, and now they are the main supplier for Silicon Power - JMicron JMF667H - a modern four-channel controller with SATA III support is used not only in conventional SATA drives, but also in mSATA, for example, in Transcend. The reputation, however, of the manufacturer is stained with unsuccessful JMF616, which often died without prior notice.
Marvell
One of the most famous manufacturers of controllers for SSD-drives. Many manufacturers use this product in their disks: Crucial, Intel, Plextor. The key parameters are reliability and low price, but to achieve really cool results, serious revision of the firmware is required. At one time, Marvell controllers became the physical basis for the first OCZ Everest controllers. In addition, Marvell controllers are still used in the OCZ Intrepid 3000 Series Enterprise Storage Series. The current controller version, the Marvell 88SS9189, is the foundation of many popular models, for example the Crucial MX100. New controllers for PCI-E SSD drives presented at trade shows tell us that Marvell are on the right path and are ready for market competition.
Samsung
As specialists of a wide profile, Samsung engineers introduced their products to the market rather quickly, but not entirely successfully. The first attempt at writing had low productivity, but then the Korean company, which possesses enormous capacities and the production of NAND and DRAM memory, made the right moves. The current flagship of the controller series - MEX, together with powerful developments in the field of memory chips, has turned Samsung into one of the industry leaders and even Apple has been ordering solid-state drives for its MacBook from its worst competitor for several years.
Indilinx (OCZ)
Before the bankruptcy of the company Indilinx, they supplied their controllers Corsair, Crucial, G.Skill and of course to the company OCZ. After the financial difficulties arose, Indilinx was bought by the OCZ Technology Group and then both became part of Toshiba. Key features of the new generation of controllers is reliability. Now the KitGuru website is conducting an experiment on five OCZ ARC100 disks - as of February 24, 3 disks have already died, but at the normal rate for each disk is 22 terabytes: the first one died at the mark - 322 terabytes, the second one - at 352 terabytes, the third at 384 terabytes. Two more disks continue to work. ( Pruflink ). It is also important to understand that OCZ essentially produces memory and controllers independently, and therefore does not depend on the market situation with the components. It is worth noting the high-quality firmware of the latest controllers that provide high-quality tidy of the disk, even if the TRIM command is turned off.
Intel
Before launching its own controllers, Intel released SSD drives based on third-party chips, such as Marvell and SandForce. It is a bit strange to see such a situation from one of the industry leaders, but the Intel S3500 drives that came out on their own controllers show that there are still many growth points. For example, in the field of linear recording.
SandForce (LSI)
Perhaps the most popular controller among manufacturers who do not have their own designs. SF-2281 became a hit for many reasons: low cost, high numbers of tests at the beginning of operation. When using high-quality firmware and fast synchronous memory, you can get very good results, but ... unfortunately SandForce comes complete with basic (not the best) firmware, which allows almost any manufacturer to assemble "own" disks. If all manufacturers paid due attention to software and component selection, the SF-2281 probably would not have gained a reputation as a “corn” controller. However, Marvell controllers also need to be able to write software, otherwise it’s not what users expect.
Phison
A new star in the sky controllers for SSD-drives. The company is a supplier of many OEMs, but SandForce is still far away. The leaders among the customers of Phison are Corsair, Kingston, Patriot. The cost of the controller plays an important role, but the advantage of Phison controllers is optimized software and good work with garbage on the drive. In the future, these controllers may well become a substitute for SandForce, since the latter have passed under the wing of Seagate and whether an independent controller manufacturer will remain is not yet known.
Results
Why, actually, all the fuss? This post is for reference only and if you want to pick up the SSD based on the controller, you will have a great opportunity to assess the capabilities of manufacturers and get the necessary information. Of course, I did not cover all the manufacturers of controllers on the IT market, but the above described ones occupy the leading market share and are rightly considered the best choice.
Our previous posts:
» OCZ ZD-XL SQL Accelerator. Enlarge your SQL
» SSD SATA vs. SSD PCIe | part one: theoretical
» SSD SATA vs. SSD PCI-E | Part Two: Practical
» OCZ. We returned.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/377381/
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