Research and Markets: Solid State Drives: A Closer Look Includes a Comparison of SSDs in the Enterprise, Low Cost Mobile Notebook PC, Notebook PC and Desktop PC Segments

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d5ad86/solid_state_drives) has announced the addition of the "Solid State Drives: A Closer Look" report to their offering.

Author: Gregory Wong

Solid State Drives: A Closer Look provides a detailed overview of the technology, architecture and reliability of SSDs as well as techniques for improving the performance and endurance of SSDs. The report also describes measures to increase the endurance of NAND flash on the device level such as in the ultra high endurance server-grade NAND flash from Samsung.

Currently, there is a wide range of SSD performance and quality from various suppliers. An overview of SSD-related patents reveals which companies may have a long-term competitive advantage in this nascent market.

The report also includes a comparison of SSDs in the enterprise, low cost mobile notebook PC, notebook PC and desktop PC segments as well as a workload analysis of applications in the enterprise space. Detailed revenue, unit and price forecasts are provided for all segments.

In the January 2006 issue of IEEE Spectrum, the solid state drives being developed by Samsung were declared a “Loser: Too Little, Too Soon”. The article argued that SSDs were too expensive at $45/GB and that HDDs outclassed SSDs in performance. What a difference 2.5 years makes. A MLC NAND chip is now priced at $1.30/GB, sequential read and write performance is approaching SATA interface speeds and random performance is at least an order of magnitude better than HDDs for the best SSDs.

During this time, NAND flash vendors, flash card suppliers, controller makers and startups have piled into the market. Even HDD vendors are being forced to react to the stampede by developing their own SSD offerings. In all, there are may be eighty companies either offering or planning to offer SSD products.

Labeled the next killer application by NAND flash vendors hoping to create demand to soak up the additional supply coming from their megafabs, initial expectations were high. However, when the initial generation of products for PCs in 2006/7 failed to live up to expectations, 2008 was to be the year when the hockey stick ramp of SSD adoption is supposed to occur with the advent of lower cost MLC SSDs. We’re now already three-quarters of the way through 2008 and still no hockey stick. Now the hockey stick has been pushed back to 2009 and possibly 2010.

Is the IEEE article prescient in its analysis that SSDs are likely to remain viable only for niche applications or are these just the growing pains of a new technology and application?

This report attempts to provide an explanation of SSD technology, architecture and reliability and elaborate on the advantages and disadvantages of SSDs versus HDDs. Gating factors for mass adoption of SSDs in the enterprise, Low Cost mobile PCs, notebook PCs and desktop PCs are explored. In addition, an overview of the SSD landscape including a summary of SSD-related patents and standards is provided.

Key Topics Covered:

- Executive Summary

- Introduction

- NAND Flash Memory Overview

- NAND Flash

- Concept

- Technology Evolution

- NAND Flash Architecture

- NAND Flash Density Trend

- Page Size Trend

- Block Size Trend

- Read Time

- Program Time

- Endurance

- Retention

- Solid State Drives

- What is a solid state drive?

- The Memory Hierarchy

- SSD Overview

- SSD Architecture

- Controller

- Flash Translation Layer

- Mapping Schemes

- Bad Block Management

- Wearleveling

- Garbage Collection

- Error Correction

- Interleaving

- Power Loss Protection

- Techniques for Improving SSD Performance/Endurance

- Caching

- Flash File System Optimization

- Parallelism

- Flash Bus Width

- Overprovisioning

- Improved NAND Flash Memory

- Remapping of Drive Block

- Alternative SSD Architectures

- Chameleon

- Hybrid SSD

- HyperLink NAND

- SSD Reliability

- Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)

- Endurance

- Program Disturb

- Read Disturb

- Data Retention

- Bit Error Rate

- SMART

- SSD vs HDD

- Enterprise Applications

- PC Applications

- Low Cost Mobile PC Applications

- Price / GB

- SSD Landscape

- Chronology

- Vendor Landscape

- Standards

- IDEMA

- JEDEC

- NonVolatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCI)

- SNIA SSD Initiative

- SSD Alliance

- Technical Committee T AT Attachment

- Patent Overview

- Seagate vs STEC

- Computing Market and Applications

- Enterprise Market

- Transaction Processing

- Video Server

- High Performance Computing

- Internet/Network Server

- Application Workload Characteristics

- Serverattached vs Storageattached SSDs

- Enterprise SSD Forecast

- Low Cost Mobile PC Market

- Notebook PC Market

- Desktop PC Market

- Computing SSD Market

- References

- About the Author

List of Figures

- NAND Flash Cell Programming

- Multilevel Storage in NAND Flash

- NAND Flash Cell Reading

- NAND Flash Cell Erase

- NAND Cell String

- NAND Cell String

- NAND Flash Technology Evolution

- NAND Flash Memory Gap Fill

- Electrons Stored on the Floating Gate

- Samsung Gb CTF Memory

- NAND Flash Memory Architecture

- Gb NAND Flash Memory Organization

- NAND Flash Memory Density Trend

- NAND Flash Memory Chip Size Trend

- NAND Flash Page Size Trend

- NAND Flash Block Size Trend

- NAND Flash Random Access Time

- NAND Flash Read Performance Trend

- NAND Flash Program Time

- NAND Flash Write Performance Trend

- NAND Flash Endurance Trend

- NAND Flash Endurance Trend at nm Technology

- NAND Flash Endurance Trend at xnm Technology

- Memory Hierarchy

- NAND Flash vs DRAM Process Technology

- Major Components of SSD and HDD

- GB MLC SSD vs GB SLC SSD Bill of Materials

- NAND Flash as a % of Bill of Material

- SSD Architecture

- Twochannel, Fourway Interleaving

- Software Architecture

- SSD Controller Functional Block Diagram

- HDD vs SSD Address Mapping

- Flash Translation Layer

- Page Mapping

- Block Mapping

- Hybrid Mapping

- Wearleveling

- Garbage Collection

- SSD Operating Current

- MTron PATA SSD Functional Block Diagram

- High Speed NAND

- Improving Endurance through Reduced Vt Margins

- Chameleon SSD Architecture

- Chameleon SSD Performance

- Effect of Blocklevel and Pagelevel Write Buffer

- Hybrid SSD Concept

- Data/Control Flows in Hybrid SSD

- SSD Workload Profile

- Circular Log Space in SLC NAND flash

- Hybrid SSD Endurance

- HyperLink NAND SSD vs Conventional SSD Architecture

- Minimum SSD Capacity for Year Product Life

- Program Disturb

- Read Disturb

- Flash Error Rate Surface

- SSD vs HDD Bit Error Rates

- ECC Selection

- SSD vs HDD Random IOPS

- SSDs vs HDDs in the Enterprise – Performance Characteristics

- Enterprise SSD vs HDD Average Capacity

- SSDs vs HDDs in PCs – Performance Characteristics

- SSD Performance Trend

- Notebook PC SSD vs HDD Average Capacity

- Desktop SSD vs HDD Average Capacity

- SSDs vs HDDs in Low Cost Mobile PCs – Performance Characteristics

- LC Mobile PC SSD vs HDD Average Capacity

- SSD vs HDD Price Curve

- HDD and SSD Landscape

- SSD Patents by Type

- SSDrelated Patents by Company

- Applications Write/Read Workload

- Applications Sequential/Random Workload

- Total Enterprise SSD Units Forecast

- Total Enterprise SSD Revenue Forecast

- Enterprise Storage Drive Units Forecast

- Enterprise Storage HDD Unit Forecast

- Enterprise Storage SSD Unit Forecast

- Enterprise Storage SSD GB Forecast

- Enterprise Storage SSD GB / Unit Forecast

- Enterprise Storage SSD $ / GB Forecast

- Enterprise Storage SSD Revenue Forecast

- Enterprise Server Units Forecast

- Host Serverattached SSD Unit Forecast

- Host Serverattached SSD GB Forecast

- Host Serverattached SSD GB / Unit Forecast

- Host Serverattached SSD $ / GB Forecast

- Host Serverattached SSD Revenue Forecast

- Low Cost Mobile PC Unit Forecast

- Endurance vs SSD Capacity

- Low Cost Mobile PC SSD Unit Forecast

- Low Cost Mobile PC SSD GB Forecast

- Low Cost Mobile PC SSD Revenue Forecast

- Notebook PC Unit Forecast

- Notebook PC SSD Unit Forecast

- Notebook PC SSD GB Forecast

- Notebook PC SSD Revenue Forecast

- Desktop PC Unit Forecast

- Desktop PC SSD Unit Forecast

- Desktop PC SSD GB Forecast

- Desktop PC SSD Revenue Forecast

- Computing SSD Unit Forecast

- Computing GB Forecast

- Computing SSD Revenue Forecast

List of Tables

- SSD Bill of Materials

- ECC Trend

- HLNAND SSD vs Conventional SSD

- SSD Capacity as a Function of Writes / Day

- Enterprise Class SSD vs HDD

- PCClass SSD vs HDD

- Interface Transfer Speeds

- Interface Transfer Speeds

- Low Cost Mobile PC SSD vs HDD

- SSD Chronology

- Seagate’s Patent Claims against STEC

- Enterprise SSD vs HDD Key Metrics

- VideoonDemand SSD TAM

- Enterprise HDD:SSD Replacement Ratio

- SSD NAND Flash Technology under Four Scenarios

- LC Mobile PC SSD Capacity Unit Mix Forecast

- LC Mobile PC SSD Capacity GB Mix Forecast

- LC Mobile PC SLC SSD Price Forecast

- LC Mobile PC MLC SSD Price Forecast

- LC Mobile PC bit per cell SSD Price Forecast

- Notebook PC SLC SSD Capacity Unit Mix Forecast

- Notebook PC SLC SSD Capacity GB Mix Forecast

- PC SLC SSD Price Forecast

- PC MLC SSD Price Forecast

- PC SLC/bit per cell SSD Price Forecast

- Desktop PC SSD Capacity Unit Mix Forecast

- Desktop PC SSD Capacity GB Mix Forecast

Companies Mentioned:

- Samsung

- Toshiba

- SanDisk

- Hynix Intel

- Micron/Lexar

- Numonyx

- STEC

- LSI Logic

- Marvel

- Seagate

- Western Digital

- IBM HP

- Dell

- Sun Microsystems

- BitMicro

- Mtron

- Indilinx

- Phison

- Silicon Motion

- EMC

- Texas Memory

- Storagetek

- Fujitsu

- PQI

- Allion

- Solid Data Systems

- Mosaid

- Fusion IO

- Silicon Systems

- Skymedi

- TDK

- Asus

- Acer

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d5ad86/solid_state_drives