ADATA Launches the SU700 SSD Range: Maxiotek MK8115, 3D TLC, Up to 960 GB

ADATA this week launched its Ultimate SU700-series SSDs that were briefly introduced at Computex 2016 about nine months ago. The new drives are based on 3D TLC NAND memory and are among the first retail products to use Maxiotek’s MK8115 controller for low-cost SSDs. The SU700 lineup will include various models with different capacities and performance.

The ADATA Ultimate SU700 drives appear to be one the first retail SSDs featuring the MK8115 without onboard DRAM. The products use Micron’s 3D TLC NAND flash memory and come in 120 GB, 240 GB, 480 GB and 960 GB configurations. The drives come in a 2.5”/7 mm form-factor and use the SATA 6 Gbps interface, thus are compatible with modern desktops and notebooks. When it comes to on-the-box sequential performance, we are talking about a typical 2017 entry-level SATA SSD rated for a sequential read speed of up to 560 MB/s as well as sequential write speed of up to 520 MB/s when pseudo-SLC caching is used. Random read/write performance of the SU700 drives is almost on par that of ADATA’s Ultimate SU800 featuring the Silicon Motion SM2258 controller and the same 3D TLC memory – up to 80K read IOPS and up to 80K write IOPS (see the table for details). Keeping in mind that even the name of the new drives implies that they are positioned slightly below the SU800, it is not surprising that they are slightly slower as well. The SU700 drives (unlike the SU800) support hardware AES-256 encryption, however.

The manufacturer rates its SU700 SSDs for 2 million hours MTBF and ships them with a three-year limited warranty. From endurance point of view, 3D TLC NAND memory is more durable than TLC NAND produced using a thin planar process technology (as the cells in 3D TLC are larger, allowing more room for voltage drift over the life of the NAND). As with all SSDs, ADATA leaves NAND for overprovisioning in a bid to ensure that the drives work fine even after prolonged usage – however it remains to be seen how the use of a controller featuring a BCH-based ECC technology plays out for a TLC-based SSD in general.

A Side Note about the MK8115 Controller

The Maxiotek MK8115 is a quad-channel NAND controller that supports SATA (technically SATA v3.2) as well as various types of SLC, MLC, 3D MLC, and 3D TLC NAND flash memory with Async, Toggle, and ONFi NAND interfaces (at up to 400 MT/s transfer rates). The MK8115 controller supports the developer’s AgileECC error correction (with programmable ECC parity that supports 1 KB code-word length correctable up to 76 bits, something that implies on BCH method) with virtual parity recovery. As with other controllers, the MK8115 supports modern security capabilities (AES-256, SM4, TCG-OPAL 2.0, IEEE1667) and other features, such as low-power modes (Slumber/Device Sleep, etc.), advanced static/dynamic wear-leveling and so on. So while the MK8115 formally supports AES-256 encryption (something that is not always supported by inexpensive controllers), from an ECC point of view it seems to be behind competitors that also support LDPC. All that being said, one of the key features that Maxiotek advertises about its MK8115 is the fact that it does not require additional onboard DRAM, thus allowing saving a few cents on the SSD bill of materials. We’re looking forward to when Billy gets a sample for review.

Pricing

ADATA had not announced MSRPs for the new drives. We understand that since the Ultimate SU700 family is positioned below the SU800 and SU900 series, it will  be a bit cheaper, but we cannot share recommended prices just now.

Gallery: ADATA Launches SU700: Maxiotek MK8115 Controller, 3D TLC NAND, Up to 960 GB

Related Reading:

• Maxiotek Unveils MK8115: Low-Cost SSD Controller for 3D NAND SATA SSDs
• The ADATA Ultimate SU800 SSD Review (128GB, 256GB, 512GB)
• ADATA’s XPG SX950 SATA SSDs: Up to 960GB, 3D MLC NAND, Six Year Warranty
• ADATA Announces Ultimate SU900: 3D MLC NAND, SMI Controller, SATA
• ADATA Launches XPG SX8000: High-End M.2 NVMe SSD Featuring 3D MLC NAND

Intel Launches Optane Memory M.2 Cache SSDs For Consumer Market

Last week, Intel officially launched their first Optane product, the SSD DC P4800X enterprise drive. This week, 3D XPoint memory comes to the client and consumer market in the form of the Intel Optane Memory product, a low-capacity M.2 NVMe SSD intended for use as a cache drive for systems using a mechanical hard drive for primary storage.

The Intel Optane Memory SSD uses one or two single-die packages of 3D XPoint non-volatile memory to provide capacities of 16GB or 32GB. The controller gets away with a much smaller package than most SSDs (especially PCIe SSD) since it only supports two PCIe 3.0 lanes and does not have an external DRAM interface. Because only two PCIe lanes are used by the drive, it is keyed to support M.2 type B and M slots. This keying is usually used for M.2 SATA SSDs while M.2 PCIe SSDs typically use only the M key position to support four PCIe lanes. The Optane Memory SSD will not function in a M.2 slot that provides only SATA connectivity. Contrary to some early leaks, the Optane Memory SSD uses the M.2 2280 card size instead of one of the shorter lengths. This makes for one of the least-crowded M.2 PCBs on the market even with all of the components on the top side.

The very low capacity of the Optane Memory drives limits their usability as traditional SSDs. Intel intends for the drive to be used with the caching capabilities of their Rapid Storage Technology drivers. Intel first introduced SSD caching with their Smart Response Technology in 2011. The basics of Optane Memory caching are mostly the same, but under the hood Intel has tweaked the caching algorithms to better suit 3D XPoint memory’s performance and flexibility advantages over flash memory. Optane Memory caching is currently only supported on Windows 10 64-bit and only for the boot volume. Booting from a cached volume requires that the chipset’s storage controller be in RAID mode rather than AHCI mode so that the cache drive will not be accessible as a standard NVMe drive and is instead remapped to only be accessible to Intel’s drivers through the storage controller. This NVMe remapping feature was first added to the Skylake-generation 100-series chipsets, but boot firmware support will only be found on Kaby Lake-generation 200-series motherboards and Intel’s drivers are expected to only permit Optane Memory caching with Kaby Lake processors.

Intel has published some specifications for the Optane Memory drive’s performance on its own. The performance specifications are the same for both capacities, suggesting that the controller has only a single channel interface to the 3D XPoint memory. The read performance is extremely good given the limitation of only one or two memory devices for the controller to work with, but the write throughput is quite limited. Read and write latency are very good thanks to the inherent performance advantage of 3D XPoint memory over flash. Endurance is rated at just 100GB of writes per day, for both 16GB and 32GB models. While this does correspond to 3-6 DWPD and is far higher than consumer-grade flash based SSDs, 3D XPoint memory was supposed to have vastly higher write endurance than flash and neither of the Optane products announced so far is specified for game-changing endurance. Power consumption is rated at 3.5W during active use, so heat shouldn’t be a problem, but the idle power of 0.9-1.2W is a bit high for laptop use, especially given that there will also be a hard drive drawing power.

Intel’s vision is for Optane Memory-equipped systems to offer a compelling performance advantage over hard drive-only systems for a price well below an all-flash configuration of equal capacity. The 16GB Optane Memory drive will retail for $44 while the 32GB version will be $77. As flash memory has declined in price over the years, it has gotten much easier to purchase SSDs that are large enough for ordinary use: 256GB-class SSDs start at around the same price as the 32GB Optane Memory drive, and 512GB-class drives are about the same as the combination of a 2TB hard drive and the 32GB Optane Memory. The Optane Memory products are squeezing into a relatively small niche for limited budgets that require a lot of storage and want the benefit of solid state performance without paying the full price of a boot SSD. Intel notes that Optane Memory caching can be used in front of hybrid drives and SATA SSDs, but the performance benefit will be smaller and these configurations are not expected to be common or cost effective.

The Optane Memory SSDs are now available for pre-order and are scheduled to ship on April 24. Pre-built systems equipped with Optane Memory should be available around the same time. Enthusiasts with large budgets will want to wait until later this year for Optane SSDs with sufficient capacity to use as primary storage. True DIMM-based 3D XPoint memory products are on the roadmap for next year.

Intel Launches Optane Memory M.2 Cache SSDs For Consumer Market

Last week, Intel officially launched their first Optane product, the SSD DC P4800X enterprise drive. This week, 3D XPoint memory comes to the client and consumer market in the form of the Intel Optane Memory product, a low-capacity M.2 NVMe SSD intended for use as a cache drive for systems using a mechanical hard drive for primary storage.

The Intel Optane Memory SSD uses one or two single-die packages of 3D XPoint non-volatile memory to provide capacities of 16GB or 32GB. The controller gets away with a much smaller package than most SSDs (especially PCIe SSD) since it only supports two PCIe 3.0 lanes and does not have an external DRAM interface. Because only two PCIe lanes are used by the drive, it is keyed to support M.2 type B and M slots. This keying is usually used for M.2 SATA SSDs while M.2 PCIe SSDs typically use only the M key position to support four PCIe lanes. The Optane Memory SSD will not function in a M.2 slot that provides only SATA connectivity. Contrary to some early leaks, the Optane Memory SSD uses the M.2 2280 card size instead of one of the shorter lengths. This makes for one of the least-crowded M.2 PCBs on the market even with all of the components on the top side.

The very low capacity of the Optane Memory drives limits their usability as traditional SSDs. Intel intends for the drive to be used with the caching capabilities of their Rapid Storage Technology drivers. Intel first introduced SSD caching with their Smart Response Technology in 2011. The basics of Optane Memory caching are mostly the same, but under the hood Intel has tweaked the caching algorithms to better suit 3D XPoint memory’s performance and flexibility advantages over flash memory. Optane Memory caching is currently only supported on Windows 10 64-bit and only for the boot volume. Booting from a cached volume requires that the chipset’s storage controller be in RAID mode rather than AHCI mode so that the cache drive will not be accessible as a standard NVMe drive and is instead remapped to only be accessible to Intel’s drivers through the storage controller. This NVMe remapping feature was first added to the Skylake-generation 100-series chipsets, but boot firmware support will only be found on Kaby Lake-generation 200-series motherboards and Intel’s drivers are expected to only permit Optane Memory caching with Kaby Lake processors.

Intel has published some specifications for the Optane Memory drive’s performance on its own. The performance specifications are the same for both capacities, suggesting that the controller has only a single channel interface to the 3D XPoint memory. The read performance is extremely good given the limitation of only one or two memory devices for the controller to work with, but the write throughput is quite limited. Read and write latency are very good thanks to the inherent performance advantage of 3D XPoint memory over flash. Endurance is rated at just 100GB of writes per day, for both 16GB and 32GB models. While this does correspond to 3-6 DWPD and is far higher than consumer-grade flash based SSDs, 3D XPoint memory was supposed to have vastly higher write endurance than flash and neither of the Optane products announced so far is specified for game-changing endurance. Power consumption is rated at 3.5W during active use, so heat shouldn’t be a problem, but the idle power of 0.9-1.2W is a bit high for laptop use, especially given that there will also be a hard drive drawing power.

Intel’s vision is for Optane Memory-equipped systems to offer a compelling performance advantage over hard drive-only systems for a price well below an all-flash configuration of equal capacity. The 16GB Optane Memory drive will retail for $44 while the 32GB version will be $77. As flash memory has declined in price over the years, it has gotten much easier to purchase SSDs that are large enough for ordinary use: 256GB-class SSDs start at around the same price as the 32GB Optane Memory drive, and 512GB-class drives are about the same as the combination of a 2TB hard drive and the 32GB Optane Memory. The Optane Memory products are squeezing into a relatively small niche for limited budgets that require a lot of storage and want the benefit of solid state performance without paying the full price of a boot SSD. Intel notes that Optane Memory caching can be used in front of hybrid drives and SATA SSDs, but the performance benefit will be smaller and these configurations are not expected to be common or cost effective.

The Optane Memory SSDs are now available for pre-order and are scheduled to ship on April 24. Pre-built systems equipped with Optane Memory should be available around the same time. Enthusiasts with large budgets will want to wait until later this year for Optane SSDs with sufficient capacity to use as primary storage. True DIMM-based 3D XPoint memory products are on the roadmap for next year.