SSDs

ADATA Launches ISSS314 and IM2P3388 Industrial SSDs: 3D NAND, Extreme Temps
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ADATA Launches ISSS314 and IM2P3388 Industrial SSDs: 3D NAND, Extreme Temps

ADATA has introduced two new families of 3D NAND-based SSDs aimed at industrial applications. Dubbed the ISSS314 and the IM2P3388, these drives are designed to handle extreme temperatures as well as humidity levels, allowing them to work reliably in very tough environmental conditions. The more powerful IM2P3388 drives use a PCIe interface and offer high performance levels along with a powerful ECC engine and encryption, whereas the less speedy ISSS314 uses a SATA interface and offers very low power consumption that barely tops 2.5 W.

The IM2P3388: M.2, High Performance, Extreme Temps, Encryption, TCG Opal

The ADATA IM2P3388 is an M.2 drive that uses a NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and is based on 3D MLC NAND. This specific drive is designed to withstand ESD and EMI, up to 20 G vibration and 1500G/0.5ms shock, extreme temperatures from –40°C to +90°C, as well as high humidity (5%-95% RH, non-condensing). To put it into perspective: the IM2P3388 drives can operate in Antarctica or in the Lut Desert in Iran. In the real world, ADATA’s new SSDs will serve inside space-constrained industrial or commercial PCs, servers, military-grade systems, and embedded computers.

The IM2P3388 drives are based on a Silicon Motion controller that ADATA does not name, we suspect is the SM2260 with some additional customization. As for the NAND, the IM2P3388 SSDs use carefully selected 3D MLC that can handle high temperatures for prolonged amounts of time. The IM2P3388 takes advantage of all the capabilities of the controller and therefore supports AES-256 encryption, TCG Opal 2.0 spec, end-to-end data protection, and so on. In addition, the drive has multiple sensors that monitor its condition.

ADATA IM2P3388 SSD Specifications
Capacity 128 GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB
Model Number Commercial IM2P3388-128GB IM2P3388-256GB IM2P3388-512GB IM2P3388-001TB
Industrial IM2P3388-128GC IM2P3388-256GC IM2P3388-512GC IM2P3388-001TC
Controller Silicon Motion SM2260 (?)
NAND Flash 3D MLC NAND
Form-Factor, Interface M.2-2280, PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.2
Operating Temperature Commercial -10°C to 80°C
Industrial -40°C to C to 90°C
Vibration Resistance 20G (10 – 2000 Hz)
Shock Resistance 1500G/0.5 ms half sine wave
Operating Humidity 5% – 95% RH non-condensing
Sequential Read ~1000 MB/s (?) ~2000 MB/s (?) 2500 MB/s
Sequential Write ~300 MB/s (?) ~600 MB/s (?) 1100 MB/s
Random Read IOPS unknown
Random Write IOPS unknown
Pseudo-SLC Caching Supported
DRAM Buffer Yes, capacity unknown
TCG Opal Encryption Yes
Power Consumption Up to 4.8W
Power Management DevSleep, Slumber
Warranty unknown
MTBF >2,000,000 hours

As for performance, ADATA specifies the drive to offer up to 2.5 GB/s sequential read speeds and up to 1.1 GB/s sequential write speeds (when pSLC caching is used), but does not specify random performance. ADATA’s IM2P3388 will be available in 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB configurations. Keeping in mind the high density of modern flash chips, expect the entry-level models to be slower than their higher-capacity counterparts. In general, expect performance  of the IM2P3388 to be comparable to the XPG SX8000 drives featuring the SM2260 and 3D MLC.

The ISSS314: 2.5”, Extreme Temps, Low Power, Starting at 32 GB

The ADATA ISSS314 SSDs come in a traditional 2.5”/7 mm drive form-factor and use a SATA 6 Gbps interface. In order to satisfy the diverse needs of customers, ADATA will offer the ISSS314 in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB configurations. The higher-end models will provide up to 560 MB/s sequential read and up to 520 MB/s sequential write speeds, whereas the entry-level drives will be considerably slower. As for power consumption, the new SSDs are rated to only use up to 2.5 W, which puts them into the energy efficient category.

The ISSS314 SSDs are based on an unknown controller as well as 3D MLC and 3D TLC NAND memory sorted using ADATA’s proprietary A+ testing methodology to find the higher quality chips. The industrial ISSS314 drives based on 3D MLC memory are rated to withstand shock, EMI, and extreme temperatures from –40°C to +85°C, and thus are aimed at industrial applications. By contrast, commercial 3D MLC ISSS314 SSDs are rated for –10°C to +80°C operation. Meanwhile, the 3D TLC-powered ISSS314 is guaranteed to work in a temperature range from 0°C to +70°C, but can also withstand shocks, ESD, EMI, and so on. As for features, all the ISS314 SSDs have S.M.A.R.T, a temperature sensor, hardware power detection, and flash protection.

ADATA ISSS314 Specifications
Capacity 32 GB 64 GB 128 GB 256 GB 512 GB
Model Number MLC Commercial ISSS314-032GB ISSS314-064GB ISSS314-128GB ISSS314-256GB ISSS314-512GB
Industrial ISSS314-032GC ISSS314-064GC ISSS314-128GC ISSS314-256GC ISSS314-512GC
TLC Commercial – ISSS314-128GD ISSS314-256GD ISSS314-512GD
Controller Silicon Motion SM2258 (?)
Form-Factor/Interface 2.5″/7 mm/SATA
NAND MLC Commercial 3D MLC
Industrial 3D MLC
TLC Commercial – 3D TLC
Operating Temp. MLC Commercial -10°C to 80°C
Industrial -40°C to C to 85°C
TLC Commercial 0°C to 70°C
Vibration Resistance 20G (10 – 2000 Hz)
Shock Resistance 1500G/0.5 ms half sine wave
Operating Humidity 5% – 95% RH non-condensing
Sequential Read unknown 560 MB/s
Sequential Write unknown 520 MB/s
Random Read IOPS Up to 90K IOPS (taken from SM2258, actual will be lower)
Random Write IOPS Up to 80K IOPS (taken from SM2258, actual will be lower)
Pseudo-SLC Caching Supported
DRAM Buffer Yes, capacity unknown
TCG Opal Encryption No
Power Consumption Up to 2.5W
Power Management DevSleep
Warranty unknown
MTBF 2,000,000 hours

ADATA does not publish recommended prices for its industrial and commercial SSDs. Since such products rarely show up in mainstream retail, their actual prices for customers typically fluctuate depending on the order size and other factors.

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Memblaze Launches PBlaze5 SSDs: Enterprise 3D TLC, Up to 6 GB/s, 1M IOPS, 11 TB
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Memblaze Launches PBlaze5 SSDs: Enterprise 3D TLC, Up to 6 GB/s, 1M IOPS, 11 TB

Memblaze has introduced its new generation of server-class NVMe SSDs for mixed and mission critical workloads. The PBlaze5 SSDs are based around Micron’s 3D eTLC memory and paired with a Microsemi Flashtec controller. The SSDs come in PCIe 3.0 x8 AIC or 2.5” U.2 form-factors, carry up to 11 TB of 3D TLC NAND, and feature sequential read performance of up to 6 GB/s as well as random read performance of up to 1M IOPS.

The Memblaze PBlaze5 700 and 900-series SSDs are based on Microsemi’s Flashtec PM8607 NVMe2016 controller that features 16 compute cores, 32 NAND flash channels, and supports everything one might expect from a contemporary SoC for server SSDs (LDPC 550 bit/4KB ECC with a 1×10-17 bit error rate, NVMe 1.2a, AES-256 PCIe 3.0 x8/PCIe 3.0 x4 dual-port, etc.) along with a host of enterprise-grade features. Memblaze further outfits the card with their own MemSpeed 3.0 as well as MemSolid 3.0 firmware-based technologies. The MemSpeed 3.0 feature better ensures consistent performance and QoS, and comes with further priority que management optimizations over the previous version. As for the MemSolid 3.0, it is a stack of reliability and security features of the PBlaze5 900-series drives, which we are going to touch upon later.

Both the 700 and 900 series drives use the same kind of memory — Micron’s 32-layer 3D eTLC NAND flash (384 Gb). Memblaze tells us that the 3D eTLC memory offers higher endurance and reliability, but it does not go beyond that.

Given the same controller and the same kind of memory, performance and power consumption numbers for the PBlaze5 700 and 900-series SSDs are close (the 900-series offers 50% higher random write performance). The 2.5″ drive form-factor PBlaze5 D700/D900 feature sequential read speeds of up to 3.2 GB/s, sequential write speeds of up to 2.4 GB/s, as well as up to 760K random read IOPS. The PCIe card-based PBlaze5 C700/C900 offer considerably higher performance numbers due to two times wider interface (PCIe 3.0 x8): sequential reads up to 6 GB/s, sequential writes up to 2.4 GB/s, and 1.042M read IOPS, respectively. As for power consumption, all the drives use from 7 to 25 W of power, depending on the configuration, workload and settings. However, the similarities between the PBlaze5 700 and 900-series SSDs end here.

The PBlaze5 700 drives are designed for datacenters that require maximum performance, high density and capacity at low power and moderate costs. That said, the PBlaze 700-series are rated for 1 DPWD for five years and come with reliability features that are consistent with other SSDs for hyperscale datacenters.

By contrast, the PBlaze5 900-series drives are aimed at mission critical environments (databases, financial transactions, analytics, etc.) that need enhanced reliability. In addition to extended error correction code (with a 1×10-17 bit error rate), the PBlaze 900-series also supports T10 Data Integrity Field (DIF)-compliant end-to-end data path protection, which results in a Silent Bit Error Rate (SBER) lower than 10-23. In addition, the 900-series takes full advantage of all MemSolid 3.0 enhancements offering features like crypto erase, background scan protection, firmware encryption (one of the first SSDs to support this feature), whole disk encryption, metadata protection, read disturb protection, dual-port capability (U.2 drives only), and so on. For those who need to precisely manage the power consumption of their SSDs, the MemSolid 3.0-based drives offer distinct 15, 20 and 25 W modes. As for endurance, Memblaze guarantees 3 DPWD over five years for its PBlaze5 900-series SSDs.

Memblaze PBlaze5 Series Specifications
  PBlaze5 D700 PBlaze5 C700 PBlaze5 D900 PBlaze5 C900
Form Factors 2.5″ U.2 Drive HHHL AIC 2.5″ U.2 Drive HHHL AIC
Interface PCIe 3.0 x4 PCIe 3.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x4 PCIe 3.0 x8
Capacities 2 TB
3.6 TB
4 TB
8 TB
11 TB		 2 TB
3.2 TB
4 TB
8 TB
Controller Microsemi Flashtec PM8607 NVMe2016
Protocol NVMe 1.2a
NAND 3D Enterprise TLC NAND memory
Sequential Read 3.2 GB/s 6 GB/s 3.2 GB/s 6 GB/s
Sequential Write 2.4 GB/s 2.4 GB/s 2.4 GB/s 2.4 GB/s
Random Read (4 KB) IOPS 760,000 1,042,000 760,000 1,042,000
Random Write (4 KB) IOPS 210,000 304,000
Latency Read 90 µs
Latency Write 15 µs
Power Idle 7 W
Operating 23 W
ECC LDPC 550 bit/4 KB
Endurance 1 DWPD 3 DWPD
Dual-Port Support – + –
Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate <1 bit per 10-17 bits read
Silent Bit Error – <1 bit per 10-23 bits read
End-to-End Data Protection – T10 DIF/DIX
Crypto Erase – +
Firmware Signature – +
PCIe ECRC – +
Encryption AES-256
Power Loss Protection Yes
Proprietary Technologies MemSpeed 3.0 MemSpeed 3.0
MemSolid 3.0
MTBF 2.1 million hours
Warranty Five years
Additional Information Link Link

Traditionally, Memblaze does not publicly list the pricing of their enterprise SSDs, as pricing is dependent in part on the number ordered and just how the customer wants the drives configured. The company is currently working with its partners on deploying the PBlaze5 drives, and actual volume shipments will begin after their clients validate the SSDs with their respective applications.

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Mushkin Announces Availability Of SATA SSDs With 3D NAND
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Mushkin Announces Availability Of SATA SSDs With 3D NAND

As previewed early this year at CES, Mushkin is now launching their first SSDs using 3D NAND flash. The new Reactor ARMOR3D is the replacement for the successful Mushkin Reactor, which held on to its position as one of the most aggressively priced MLC SATA SSDs as the mainstream segment of the market migrated almost entirely to using TLC NAND flash. The value-oriented Mushkin Triactor hasn’t been around for quite as long as the Reactor but it too is being upgraded, to use 3D TLC NAND.

The new Mushkin drives continue the pattern of using Silicon Motion SSD controllers, with both new models incorporating the current SM2258 controller. The 3D MLC and 3D TLC NAND comes from Micron, the first flash manufacturer to provide 3D NAND in volume for independent drive manufacturers (Samsung has largely been keeping their 3D NAND for their own SSDs, and the rest are still ramping up production capacity). Both models use the first-generation 32-layer 3D floating gate NAND flash, not the upcoming 64-layer 3D NAND.

The major hardware components of the new Mushkin SSDs make them broadly similar to the ADATA SU800, SU900 and XPG SX950 SATA SSDs, all based on the SM2258 controller and Micron 3D NAND. There may be minor firmware differences between ADATA and Mushkin’s offerings and they don’t exactly match on overprovisioning ratios and usable capacity, but performance should be broadly similar between drives using the same NAND and similar capacity.

Mushkin has not announced MSRPs, but the usual online retailers should have these drives in stock soon with competitive pricing.

Mushkin Reactor ARMOR3D and Triactor 3D SSDs
Capacity Reactor ARMOR3D Triactor 3D
Capacities 240 GB – 960 GB 512 GB, 1 TB
Controller Silicon Motion SM2258
NAND Flash Micron 3D MLC NAND Micron 3D TLC NAND
Form Factor 2.5″ 7mm SATA
Sequential Read Up to 565 MB/s
Sequential Write Up to 510 MB/s Up to 525 MB/s
Random Read IOPS Up to 80k IOPS
Random Write IOPS Up to 80k IOPS Up to 82k IOPS
Pseudo-SLC Caching Supported
DRAM Buffer Yes
TCG Opal Encryption No
Power Management DevSleep
Warranty 3 years
MTBF 1,500,000 hours

Mushkin is initially offering a narrower range of capacities than ADATA, with 240–960GB for the Reactor ARMOR3D, and 512GB and 1TB for the Triactor 3D. Larger capacities are likely to be introduced when NAND prices get back down to reasonable levels, but that may not happen until it’s time to move to 64-layer 3D NAND. Mushkin is offering three-year warranties on both new models. ADATA’s 3D MLC SATA SSDs come with five and six year warranties, so Mushkin will have to beat them on price.

Mushkin also has their first NVMe SSD in the pipeline. The upcoming Mushkin Helix will pair the Silicon Motion SM2260 controller with Micron 3D MLC NAND, and like these new SATA drives its closest competition will be another ADATA drive, the ADATA SX8000.

Intel Announces SSD DC P4501 Low-Power NVMe SSD With 3D NAND
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Intel Announces SSD DC P4501 Low-Power NVMe SSD With 3D NAND

A month ago, Intel unveiled a new generation of enterprise SSDs based on their 3D TLC NAND and powered by a new generation of Intel NVMe SSD controllers. Intel’s first NVMe controller—introduced with the SSD DC P3700—had a great run, but it’s been showing its age for a while now. The new controller used on the P4500 and P4600 enables higher performance despite the new drives using 3D TLC NAND compared to the P3700’s 20nm planar MLC, and despite the newer controller having only 12 flash channels instead of 18.

More significantly, Intel’s second-generation NVMe controller is much smaller and more power-efficient, allowing it to be used in product segments that Intel’s first generation controller literally couldn’t fit in. Intel’s new SSD DC P4501 is a lower-power take on their new generation of NVMe technology, putting Intel controllers into M.2 and 2.5″ 7mm U.2 SSDs for the first time. With capacities from 500GB to 4TB, the P4501 delivers somewhat lower performance than the P4500 and P4600, but with reduced power consumption and substantially higher density.

Intel has previously shipped the SSD DC P3100 M.2 SSD, but despite using the same 3D TLC, it was not at all in the same league as the P4501. The P3100 is based on the same platform as the consumer Intel SSD 600p, with a Silicon Motion controller, poor sustained write speeds and no power loss protection. The P3100 was pitched as a boot drive for servers, but the P4501 can be a serious workhorse. The P4501 supports the same advanced feature set of its bigger siblings, including full power loss protection, NVMe Management Interface, and support for up to 128 queues for optimal performance even in systems with the highest CPU core counts. The P4501 even comes with a slightly higher endurance rating than the P4500.

Intel NVMe Datacenter SSD Comparison
  P4500 P4600 P4501
Form Factor PCIe HHHL or 2.5″ 15mm U.2 M.2 22110 or 2.5″ 7mm U.2
Interface PCIe 3.1 x4 NVMe 1.2
Memory Intel 384Gb 32-layer 3D TLC
Capacities (TB) 1, 2, 4 TB 1.6, 2, 3.2 TB (U.2)
2, 4 TB (HHHL)		 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB (U.2 only)
Sequential Read (64kB) (up to) 3290 MB/s 3280 MB/s 3200 MB/s
Sequential Write (64kB) (up to) 1890 MB/s 2100 MB/s 900 MB/s
Random Read (4kB) (up to) 710k IOPS 702.5k IOPS 360k IOPS
Random Write (4kB) (up to) 68k IOPS 257k IOPS 46k IOPS
Maximum Power Read 10.9 W 9.9 W 8–12.5W (U.2) 6–8.25W (M.2)
Write 18.3 W 20.7 W
Write Endurance Random workload 0.7 DWPD 2.9 DWPD 1 DWPD
Sequential workload 4.62 DWPD 4 DWPD 3 DWPD
Warranty 5 years 5 years

The M.2 version of the P4501 will provide capacities up to 2TB on a 110mm long card, larger than normal for consumer M.2 SSDs but typical for enterprise SSDs that include power loss protection capacitors. The 2.5″ U.2 version uses the same 7mm thickness as consumer SSDs and many of the more value-oriented enterprise SSDs, compared to the 15mm thick form factor that Intel’s previous enterprise SSDs have used for thermal dissipation reasons even when the extra volume was not necessary for higher storage capacity. The U.2 version of the P4501 will provide capacities up to 4TB.

The P4501 will support tunable power limits: the U.2 version can be capped at 8W, 10W or 12.5W while the M.2 version will support limits of 6W or 8.25W. Idle power is not a priority for datacenter SSDs, but the U.2 version is specified for less than 5W at idle and the M.2 version is specified for less than 3W.

Intel’s first-generation NVMe controller came to the consumer market in the SSD 750, the first consumer NVMe SSD. It raised the bar for consumer SSD performance, but as soon as truly client-oriented solutions like the Samsung 950 Pro hit the market, the SSD 750’s inconveniently large form factors, high power consumption and lower peak performance started to erode its cachet. The new Intel SSD DC P4501 shows that Intel is in a position to offer a new generation of high-end client NVMe SSDs that will be much better fit for today’s market. With new firmware optimized for client workloads and possibly with cost savings from dropping the power loss protection or using Intel’s upcoming 64-layer 3D TLC NAND, Intel could have a serious contender for the consumer market in the near future.

MSI Demos Prototype Hybrid Storage Card: M.2 & 2.5” SATA on a PCIe Card
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MSI Demos Prototype Hybrid Storage Card: M.2 & 2.5” SATA on a PCIe Card

Going a bit off the beaten path for this year’s Computex, MSI surprised us at the show with the prototype of a new hybrid storage array. The MSI Gaming Storage Card is all-in-one PCIe storage card that holds two M.2 NVMe SSDs and a 2.5″ HDD. Like existing motherboard drive caching implementations, the idea here is to offer a SSD-cache in front of a HDD, allowing for SSD-like performance of critical data without manually allocating files/programs between the SSDs and the HDD. Except now the entire storage array is on a stand-alone PCIe x8 card.

MSI tells us to expect up to 7,200 MBps from the dual NVMe SSD array, which runs in RAID 0. Using large capacity NVMe SSDs will cache a lot of data, so only very cold data will come to the host system directly from the HDD. To ensure data protection, the card features an array of super capacitors that preserve data in flight in the event of a host power fail condition. Meanwhile the NVMe SSDs should benefit from increased airflow from the custom blower style fan used to tame thermal throttling.

MSI tells us the card will ship in MSI branded desktop systems. The company doesn’t have plans to release the card as a standalone product, though it sounds like with enough consumer interest, that policy may not be set in stone. That said, we were told not to expect this anytime soon, as the card on display is only a prototype. The lead time could be as long as one year away, according to the product manager with whom we spoke.

Chris Ramseyer contributed to this report