Evolved-evolved, but not evolved. How many current SSDs will live and who will replace them
Hi, Giktayms! Sometimes the future of computers is easy to predict: right up to the era of quantum PCs, processors will “more better” perform calculations per clock and slowly crawl into more advanced technical processes. The video cards will continue to evolve along the “new architecture - new labels for old architecture” cycle, and open source software will certainly triumph over all proprietary. But what if we talk about less obvious matters - about ways to improve modern SSDs, they are also SSDs, programmatically, and about the bright future of drives as a whole.
Nonche, as we know, is not the thing that just now: mysticism in computers is gradually giving way to routine, tambourines are used for inappropriate rituals, and instead of tapping and probing with a multimeter the status of a PC has to be diagnosed using special software. Brave independent geeks always compile a monitoring program that is convenient for them personally, but for regular owners of equipment from Kingston, the free utility Kingston SSD Manager is offered.
')
The functionality of the bundled software, sorry for the pun, complete - the drive reports to the owner about its serial number, technical condition through the SMART self-diagnostic technology, and the program also has the ability to completely erase the data on the drive and update the firmware. There are no hacks and undocumented features: from the "civilian" SSD models, you still won't be able to squeeze out any overclocking, but shouting "nothing works" from curious inexperienced users with secure software will be less than is usually the case with any control over state of hardware.
Advanced users, however, have the opportunity to use "toys" - for example, allocate some RAM to the RAM disk and reduce the number of calls to the SSD, thus extending its life. Storing temporary files in a fast, volatile memory is an exercise for the strong in spirit, but drive makers bringthis functionality over and over again for a unique invention. Therefore, it is well worth the arming of the required equipment to verify the effectiveness of such an upgrade.
Kingston SSD Manager - a simple software for monitoring the state of a solid-state drive
Outside of official monitoring programs and RAMdisk tuning of SSDs, there are a couple of convenient options for viewing SMART, and then the wasteland begins with “collective farm tweakers” that disfigure and slow down the operating system, ostensibly in order for the drive to live longer. Windows evangelists cry when they see the results of such "improvers", but they are not becoming less popular with users of this kind - long-standing traditions of automatic cleaning of service files and editing the registry at random won't just disappear.
Dataram RAMDisk - a universal way to combine SSD with RAM for faster performance
We have already dealt with issues of monitoring modern SSDs (see also the terms in the previous article ), so we wish them long-lasting health and try to predict the further development of solid-state drives.
The most vulnerable spot for SSD today is TLC - type memory — a massive, inexpensive, re-recording resource of about 3-5 thousand cycles looming before your eyes. Thanks to it, drives become even cheaper and, at a minimum, do not lose speed, only it wears out much earlier than its predecessor (MLC), and something needs to be done about it.
Some of the design flaws of TLC can be curbed with the use of a low density code (LDPC), which is very effective in dealing with memory errors. But this is just one of the measures that does not solve the problem radically - as the technical process improves, it becomes more and more difficult to keep the NAND rewriting resource within reasonable limits.
Therefore, you should ... combine outdated technical process with a new type of "building" of memory - a strange, but necessary solution for the IT industry. Multi-layer TLC NAND allows you to create capacious drives with adequate PCB sizes (after the debut of the M.2 standard, this is especially important), and the number of errors in the conditions of the "thick" process technology decreases.
Approximate scheme 3D NAND
We will be obliged to the same design when the capacity of mass SSDs will be measured by terabytes (by the way, for the nouveau riche 4 TB SSDs are offered today), and the drives themselves will begin to drastically make up their hard drives. Today, 3D-memory is still an expensive pleasure, so only a few manufacturers are experimenting with it with NAND court production. However, chipmakers do not sit idly by, therefore a wave of inexpensive and capacious drives is only gaining momentum. The maximum capacity of drives in M.2 format using 32-layer 3D-NAND today can potentially reach 3.5 TB, and a standard 2.5-inch SSD can be crammed up to 10 TB. There would be only a buyer for such an exotic ...
Do not expect from the "three-dimensional" SSD varieties of exorbitant speed: the first thing is to refine the reliability, and performance records - then. However, in the 3rd quarter of 2016, Intel promises to provide drives based on a really fast variety of three-dimensional memory, which will be many times faster than mass TLC-analogs, and it will be just as expensive. It's not that 3D XPoint comes close to the “must-take” category, especially in the industrial format and in the current economic situation, but any exhibition of technological advances and progress should be welcomed: the sooner technologies get into the pockets of wealthy enthusiasts, the sooner the exotic iron will fall in price to mass components.
Intel threatens to set new speed records with 3D XPoint memory
If the downgrade of the technical process in the name of preserving the longevity of NAND is still alarming, since the manufacturers could not dodge, “overcome” and went half-way, then the SATA III farewell on a well-deserved retirement would hardly offend anyone to the core. Because even a relatively new revision of SATA 3.0 has been on the pipeline for 8 years already - smartphones have changed in the deepest way during this time, the iPhone has since exchanged 8 updates, while netbooks have been born and died. And only computers are lagging behind and supplied with a pack of SATA connectors in any variations instead of SSD-shaped M.2.
SATA has reached the retirement age a long time ago, but it will not retire
Such slowness is explained by the laziness of motherboard manufacturers, the habit of buyers to buy solid-state drives in desktops instead of hard drives, and not in addition to them, and the still more affordable price for a fleet of SATA SSD representatives. In addition, with the expanses of our desktops, the miniaturization of components does not concern anyone.
Connector M.2 even in 2016 rarely found in desktops
But in laptops, the situation has changed rapidly - starting with well-fed “state employees” and continuing with skinny ultrabooks (which Cthulhu himself ordered), laptops of 2015-2016 have a connector M.2, sometimes with an SSD that works using the NVMe protocol. And this very NVM Expressin the house, which Jack built is not an example, fits better with the capabilities of SSD in comparison with the ancient AHCI, which was “sharpened” taking into account the inertia of hard drives.
In the short term, a sweet couple of SSD / HDD will not go anywhere - neither in user computers, nor in the corporate segment. Hard drives will be used to store files, as they say, in especially large sizes, SSD based on flash memory will remain a more agile and technological alternative to their mechanical counterpart - in the next 5-7 years for sure. NOR-memory is unlikely to be revived in a new form, and exotic, like holographic, ferroelectric memory or use of a memristor drive as memory cells is so far from the “people” that there is nothing even to tell about the prospects of introducing these technologies. Moreover, SSD in the form in which we know them, crawled long enough to the retail market, first from the scientific and defense industries, and then from corporate-grade computers.
It is possible that the story will spiral and we will again have many years of experimentation with drives based on volatile memory, until its innovative counterparts “mature”. In any case, it is better to experience deja vu than to observe the development of technology according to the Escobar axiom, as has happened with many varieties of computer hardware.
Thank you for your attention and stay with Kingston on Hiktatimes!
For more information about Kingston and HyperX products, visit the company's official website . In choosing your kit HyperX help page with visual aids .
We check the state of health of SSD and “sew” operational memory to it
Nonche, as we know, is not the thing that just now: mysticism in computers is gradually giving way to routine, tambourines are used for inappropriate rituals, and instead of tapping and probing with a multimeter the status of a PC has to be diagnosed using special software. Brave independent geeks always compile a monitoring program that is convenient for them personally, but for regular owners of equipment from Kingston, the free utility Kingston SSD Manager is offered.
')
The functionality of the bundled software, sorry for the pun, complete - the drive reports to the owner about its serial number, technical condition through the SMART self-diagnostic technology, and the program also has the ability to completely erase the data on the drive and update the firmware. There are no hacks and undocumented features: from the "civilian" SSD models, you still won't be able to squeeze out any overclocking, but shouting "nothing works" from curious inexperienced users with secure software will be less than is usually the case with any control over state of hardware.
Advanced users, however, have the opportunity to use "toys" - for example, allocate some RAM to the RAM disk and reduce the number of calls to the SSD, thus extending its life. Storing temporary files in a fast, volatile memory is an exercise for the strong in spirit, but drive makers bring
Kingston SSD Manager - a simple software for monitoring the state of a solid-state drive
Outside of official monitoring programs and RAMdisk tuning of SSDs, there are a couple of convenient options for viewing SMART, and then the wasteland begins with “collective farm tweakers” that disfigure and slow down the operating system, ostensibly in order for the drive to live longer. Windows evangelists cry when they see the results of such "improvers", but they are not becoming less popular with users of this kind - long-standing traditions of automatic cleaning of service files and editing the registry at random won't just disappear.
Dataram RAMDisk - a universal way to combine SSD with RAM for faster performance
Thick-thick NAND layer
We have already dealt with issues of monitoring modern SSDs (see also the terms in the previous article ), so we wish them long-lasting health and try to predict the further development of solid-state drives.
The most vulnerable spot for SSD today is TLC - type memory — a massive, inexpensive, re-recording resource of about 3-5 thousand cycles looming before your eyes. Thanks to it, drives become even cheaper and, at a minimum, do not lose speed, only it wears out much earlier than its predecessor (MLC), and something needs to be done about it.
Some of the design flaws of TLC can be curbed with the use of a low density code (LDPC), which is very effective in dealing with memory errors. But this is just one of the measures that does not solve the problem radically - as the technical process improves, it becomes more and more difficult to keep the NAND rewriting resource within reasonable limits.
Therefore, you should ... combine outdated technical process with a new type of "building" of memory - a strange, but necessary solution for the IT industry. Multi-layer TLC NAND allows you to create capacious drives with adequate PCB sizes (after the debut of the M.2 standard, this is especially important), and the number of errors in the conditions of the "thick" process technology decreases.
Approximate scheme 3D NAND
We will be obliged to the same design when the capacity of mass SSDs will be measured by terabytes (by the way, for the nouveau riche 4 TB SSDs are offered today), and the drives themselves will begin to drastically make up their hard drives. Today, 3D-memory is still an expensive pleasure, so only a few manufacturers are experimenting with it with NAND court production. However, chipmakers do not sit idly by, therefore a wave of inexpensive and capacious drives is only gaining momentum. The maximum capacity of drives in M.2 format using 32-layer 3D-NAND today can potentially reach 3.5 TB, and a standard 2.5-inch SSD can be crammed up to 10 TB. There would be only a buyer for such an exotic ...
Do not expect from the "three-dimensional" SSD varieties of exorbitant speed: the first thing is to refine the reliability, and performance records - then. However, in the 3rd quarter of 2016, Intel promises to provide drives based on a really fast variety of three-dimensional memory, which will be many times faster than mass TLC-analogs, and it will be just as expensive. It's not that 3D XPoint comes close to the “must-take” category, especially in the industrial format and in the current economic situation, but any exhibition of technological advances and progress should be welcomed: the sooner technologies get into the pockets of wealthy enthusiasts, the sooner the exotic iron will fall in price to mass components.
Intel threatens to set new speed records with 3D XPoint memory
There is no standard more promising than M.2, and the NVMe protocol is its prophet
If the downgrade of the technical process in the name of preserving the longevity of NAND is still alarming, since the manufacturers could not dodge, “overcome” and went half-way, then the SATA III farewell on a well-deserved retirement would hardly offend anyone to the core. Because even a relatively new revision of SATA 3.0 has been on the pipeline for 8 years already - smartphones have changed in the deepest way during this time, the iPhone has since exchanged 8 updates, while netbooks have been born and died. And only computers are lagging behind and supplied with a pack of SATA connectors in any variations instead of SSD-shaped M.2.
SATA has reached the retirement age a long time ago, but it will not retire
Such slowness is explained by the laziness of motherboard manufacturers, the habit of buyers to buy solid-state drives in desktops instead of hard drives, and not in addition to them, and the still more affordable price for a fleet of SATA SSD representatives. In addition, with the expanses of our desktops, the miniaturization of components does not concern anyone.
Connector M.2 even in 2016 rarely found in desktops
But in laptops, the situation has changed rapidly - starting with well-fed “state employees” and continuing with skinny ultrabooks (which Cthulhu himself ordered), laptops of 2015-2016 have a connector M.2, sometimes with an SSD that works using the NVMe protocol. And this very NVM Express
And if you dig deeper?
In the short term, a sweet couple of SSD / HDD will not go anywhere - neither in user computers, nor in the corporate segment. Hard drives will be used to store files, as they say, in especially large sizes, SSD based on flash memory will remain a more agile and technological alternative to their mechanical counterpart - in the next 5-7 years for sure. NOR-memory is unlikely to be revived in a new form, and exotic, like holographic, ferroelectric memory or use of a memristor drive as memory cells is so far from the “people” that there is nothing even to tell about the prospects of introducing these technologies. Moreover, SSD in the form in which we know them, crawled long enough to the retail market, first from the scientific and defense industries, and then from corporate-grade computers.
It is possible that the story will spiral and we will again have many years of experimentation with drives based on volatile memory, until its innovative counterparts “mature”. In any case, it is better to experience deja vu than to observe the development of technology according to the Escobar axiom, as has happened with many varieties of computer hardware.
Thank you for your attention and stay with Kingston on Hiktatimes!
For more information about Kingston and HyperX products, visit the company's official website . In choosing your kit HyperX help page with visual aids .
Our previous posts:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/392325/
All Articles