SolidStateDriveArchitecture

Acomparisonandevaluationofdata
storagemediums
TylerThierolf
JustinUriarte

Outline
Introduction
StorageDeviceasLimitingFactor

Terminology
Internals

Interface
Architecture
Advantages
Disadvantages
Conclusions

Introduction
Togainafullunderstandingofsolidstate
drives(SSDs),onemustbeknowledgeableof
thecurrentgenerationofplatterbaseddrives
SSDsmirrorthefunctionalityoftheexisting
standardofharddiskdrives(HDDs)

StorageDevicesasLimitingFactor
CPUPerformancehasimprovedapproximately
60%everyyear
I/OSubSystemPerformancehasimprovedless
than10%eachyearduetolimitationsimposed
bythemechanicalcomponents
AmdahlsLawdictatesthatthediskI/O
bottleneckdiminishestheimprovements
introducedbyincreasedRAMandCPUspeedto
theoverallsystemperformance
Onlyasstrongasyourweakestlink

HDDvs.SSD
Sameformfactors
1.8,2.5,and3.5

Interface
SATA,PCIe,SCSI
Computerdoesntnecessarily
knowwhichisconnected

HDD
RotatingMagneticMedia
Onadiskcalledaplatter
Platterrotatesseveralhundredtimesasecond
5400,7200,10000,15000rpm

Plattercontainsmagneticdomainsonwhichdata
iswritten

HDD
Alwayscontainmorethanone
platter
Thereisaheadforeachplatter,
buttheheadscannotmove
independently
Cylinder Alltracksaccessible
withoutmovingthehead
assembly
Head Thedevicethatwrites
datatoandreadsthesurfaceof
onesideofaplatter

HDDDataStructure
Sector Asliceoftheplatterthat
containstheminimum
addressableread/writeportion
Typically512bytes

Track Thinconcentriccircular
stripsthatcontainportionsof
multiplesectors
Headcanaccessalldataonatrack
withoutmoving

HDDDataStructure
Blocks Theintersectionofa
trackandasector
Minimumaddressablesizeinthe
HDD
Addressesarespecifiedby
providingthecylinder,head,and
sectornumber

LogicalBlockAddressing(LBA)
Awayofaddressingblocks
thatsimplynumbersthem
linearlyratherthan
providingacylinder,head,
andsectornumber
Thisschemeisgenerally
replacingthelegacyblock
addressingscheme
althoughbothare
supportedoncurrentSSDs
andHDDs

HDDvs.SSD
SectorsofconcentriccirclesinHDDsrepresent
theLBAsinthesystem
InanSSDtheLBAsareactuallyinsideofthe
flashmedia
Theyrepresentindividualaddresses

Interface
SerialATA(SATA)
Serial:4Pin+grounds
Reduced40pinsofparallelATA(PATA)to4pinsto
increasespeed

Speeds(Maximum)
PATA:133MB/s
SATAI:125MB/s
SATAII:250MB/s
SATAIII:500MB/s

Interface
PCIExpress(PCIe)v2.0
500MB/sperlane
Upto16lanes

Verylowpowerandbroad
hardwaresupport

RegardingSSD
PCIe SSDsareusedonlyfor
extremelyhigh
performanceapplications
duetotheirenormouscost

Latencies
HDD
Seektime amountofthenecessarytomovethe
headtothedesiredcylinder
Rotationaltime amountoftimeneededforthe
mediatorotatetothecorrectsector

SDD
Singlefetchlatencythatisordersofmagnitude
lessthanHDDslatency

Latency
VideoDemonstration
6:40>7:54

SSDArchitecture
SSDscontainanumberofNANDflash
components
10toupwardsof60or70

SSDArchitecture
Controller
TakestherawdatastorageintheNANDflashand
makesitlookandactlikeharddiskdrive
Containsthemicrocontroller,buffer,error
correction,andflashinterfacemodules

ControllerComponents
Flashinterfacemodules(FIMs)physicallyandlogically
connectthecontrollertotheNANDflashdevices
FIMshavetheabilitytocommunicatewithmultipleNAND
flashdevicesandthereforeperformancecanbeincreased
byaddingadditionalFIMs

MicroController aprocessorinsidethecontroller
thattakestheincomingdataandmanipulatesit
Strippinganyerrors
Makingsureitiscorrectlymapped
Puttingitintotheflashorretrievingitfromtheflash

DRAMCache Reasonableamountofverylowlatency
memorythatgivestheprocessorsomeroomtowork

NANDFlashMedia
NANDFlashMediacontainsNANDcells
arrangedinmultipleplanes
TheplanesallowforparallelaccesstotheNAND
Theyalsoallowforinterleaving

Thedatamovesinandoutthroughacache
element

SSDsMLCvs.SLC
MLC(MultiLevelCell) Cheaperyetslower
andslightlylessreliable
SLC(SingleLevelCell) Fasterandmore
reliable,yetmoreexpensivethanSLC
AdvantagesofSLCaredwindlingdueto
advancementsincontrollerdesign,which
mitigatethedisadvantagesofMLC

AdvantagesSummary
Superlowlatency
Zeroseektime

Veryfastreadandwritespeeds
Physicallymorerobust
Shockresistance(1500Gs+)
Zeromovingparts
Completelysilent
Lowpowerconsumption

Excelatsmall/shortreadsandwrites
Immunetodatafragmentation

PerformanceComparison

PerformanceComparison

Disadvantages
CostperGBismuchhigherthanHDDs
64GBSSD$125$150
2TBHDD$90100

GeneralSize
3TBconsumer3.5HDDsareavailable(relatively
common)
1TBconsumer3.5SSDsareavailable(veryrareand
expensive)

Limitedwritecycles
1to2millionwritecyclesbeforewearoutforMLC
Upto5millionwritecyclesbeforewearoutforSLC

Conclusions
Althoughcostprohibitive,forperformance
applicationsSSDsholdagreatadvantageover
platterdrives
Commonconsumersetupstakeadvantageof
SSDsforprogramfileswhileusinglargercheaper
platterdrivestostoremediaandothergeneral
storage
Hybriddrives

SSDsrepresenttheevolutiontowardalleviating
thebottleneckthatisdatastorageinpresentday
systems

Questions?