Marvell Show the 88SS1079 Controller: An Updated 88SS1074

At CES, Marvell announced an updated version of its popular 88SS1074 SATA SSD controller in the 88SS1079. There’s no significant change to performance or features as far as we are told, but it moves a few components that were required on the PCB side onto the controller die, saving cost and perhaps to a small extent, power. Fewer components on the PCB will also make layout a bit easier for an M.2 SSD, but the space saved is not so large as to allow for an extra NAND package, We’ve seen the 88SS1074 on popular SSDs such as the Crucial MX300, SanDisk X400 and WD Blue, and we expect the successors to these drives to adopt the 88SS1079. Some SSD vendors may update their products relatively soon to cut costs as soon as possible and to offset the price impact of the ongoing NAND shortage, but at the very least all current users of the ‘1074 controller can be expected to use the ‘1079 when moving to the next generation of 3D NAND that will be hitting the market later this year. This is still a play for cents per GB, so a few cents off the cost of the controller will be helpful, especially for the mid-range SATA SSDs that aim to offer a significant performance boost over DRAM-less designs for a small extra cost.

While we saw a solution using the controller in our meeting with Marvell at CES, we were told to wait for partners to announce their solutions before taking pictures. When we get the 88SS1079 drives in to test, it will be interesting to see if any performance change has occurred (remember, Marvell stated that this should perform the same) or if any power difference to the 88SS1074 is observed due to moving components on die. While no retail SSDs with the new controller have been announced and Marvell cannot comment on their customers’ roadmaps, it shouldn’t take long for manufacturers to integrate the new controller into their designs given the slight hardware changes and the ability to use existing firmware as-is. We expect new products using the 88SS1079 controller to be announced by the middle of this year.

Marvell Show the 88SS1079 Controller: An Updated 88SS1074

At CES, Marvell announced an updated version of its popular 88SS1074 SATA SSD controller in the 88SS1079. There’s no significant change to performance or features as far as we are told, but it moves a few components that were required on the PCB side onto the controller die, saving cost and perhaps to a small extent, power. Fewer components on the PCB will also make layout a bit easier for an M.2 SSD, but the space saved is not so large as to allow for an extra NAND package, We’ve seen the 88SS1074 on popular SSDs such as the Crucial MX300, SanDisk X400 and WD Blue, and we expect the successors to these drives to adopt the 88SS1079. Some SSD vendors may update their products relatively soon to cut costs as soon as possible and to offset the price impact of the ongoing NAND shortage, but at the very least all current users of the ‘1074 controller can be expected to use the ‘1079 when moving to the next generation of 3D NAND that will be hitting the market later this year. This is still a play for cents per GB, so a few cents off the cost of the controller will be helpful, especially for the mid-range SATA SSDs that aim to offer a significant performance boost over DRAM-less designs for a small extra cost.

While we saw a solution using the controller in our meeting with Marvell at CES, we were told to wait for partners to announce their solutions before taking pictures. When we get the 88SS1079 drives in to test, it will be interesting to see if any performance change has occurred (remember, Marvell stated that this should perform the same) or if any power difference to the 88SS1074 is observed due to moving components on die. While no retail SSDs with the new controller have been announced and Marvell cannot comment on their customers’ roadmaps, it shouldn’t take long for manufacturers to integrate the new controller into their designs given the slight hardware changes and the ability to use existing firmware as-is. We expect new products using the 88SS1079 controller to be announced by the middle of this year.

Western Digital Announces WD Black PCIe SSD

Western Digital has announced the WD Black PCIe SSD, their first PCIe SSD for the consumer market. While the WD Green and WD Blue SSDs introduced last fall were relatively minor updates to existing SanDisk products, the WD Black is an all-new product. The WD Black is aimed at the cheaper half of the M.2 PCIe SSD market rather than competing for the highest performance: it will be available in 256GB and 512GB capacities for $109 and $199.99 respectively, making it cheaper than any currently available M.2 PCIe SSD except the Intel 600p. The WD Black most likely uses the Marvell 88SS1093 controller and 15nm TLC NAND, a combination that will also be found in Plextor’s upcoming M8Se (albeit with different firmware).

Write endurance ratings are 80 TB and 160 TB for the 256GB and 512GB models respectively, which are the lowest for this product class. On the other hand, the WD Black will carry a 5-year warranty and 1.75M hour MTTF rating.

The WD Black does not appear to include any heatspreaders, but Western Digital’s firmware includes advanced power and thermal management algorithms that WD claims will allow for consistent performance and low power consumption. The WD Black is rated for operating temperatures up to 70°C, so it may engage thermal throttling at a lower temperature than some other PCIe SSD. (For example, the OCZ RD400 throttles around 80°C.)

The WD Black PCIe SSD will be available in the first half of 2017. With this announcement, Micron’s Crucial is now the only major consumer SSD brand that does not have any PCIe SSDs. Last summer Micron abandoned plans for a Balistix TX3 product based on their 3D TLC NAND and Silicon Motion’s SM2260 controller.