Solidigm is very bullish on QLC SSDs in data centers. Compared to other flash vendors, the continued use of the floating gate cell architecture (others have moved to charge trap configurations) has worked well for bringing QLC SSDs to the enterprise market. increase. The company recognized early on that the market wanted low-cost, high-capacity SSDs to drive capacity per rack. To address this issue using the 144L 3D NAND generation, Solidigm created the D5-P5316. The line-up also included a 30TB SKU for under $100/TB, but the typical QLC characteristics and use of 16KB indirect units (IUs) limited the use case to read-heavy large scale sequential/random it was done. Write your workload.
Solidigm sells data center SSDs in two families. The D7 line is for demanding workloads with 3D TLC flash. The D5 series, on the other hand, uses QLC flash and targets mainstream workloads and demanding specialized use cases where density and cost are more important. The company further divides this family into the ‘Essential Endurance’ and ‘Value Endurance’ lines. The popular D5-P5316 falls into the “Value Endurance” line.
The D5-P5430 introduced today is a direct TLC replacement drive in the “Essential Endurance” line. This means that the D5-P5430 uses his 4KB IU, unlike his 16K IU in the D5-P5316.The company had hinted at this effort at his Tech Field Day presentation last year.
Despite being a QLC SSD, Solidigm promises very competitive read performance and high endurance ratings compared to previous generation TLC drives from its competitors. In fact, Solidigm thinks the D5-P5430 is very competitive against TLC drives like the Micron 7450 Pro and Kioxia CD6-R.
| Solidigm D5-P5430 NVMe SSD Specifications | |||
| side | Solid Digum D5-P5430 | ||
| form factor | 2.5inch 15mm U.2 / E3.S / E1.S | ||
| interface, protocol | PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.4c | ||
| capacity | 3.84TB, 7.68TB, 15.36TB E1.S / U.2 / E3.S |
30.72TB U.2/E3.S |
|
| 3D NAND Flash | Solidigm 192L 3D QLC | ||
| Sequential performance (GB/s) | 128KB read @ QD 256 | 7.0 | |
| 128KB written on QD 256 | 3.0 | ||
| Random access (IOPS) | 4KB read @ QD 256 | 971K | |
| 4KB write @ QD 256 | 120K | ||
| Latency (typical) (us) | 4KB read on QD 1 | 108 | |
| Write 4KB on QD 1 | 13 | ||
| Power consumption (Watts) | 128KB sequential read | ?? | |
| 128KB sequential write | 25.0 | ||
| 4KB random read | ?? | ||
| 4KB random write | ?? | ||
| idle state | 5.0 | ||
| Durability (DWPD) | 100% 128KB sequential write | 1.83 | |
| 100% 4KB random writes | 0.58 | ||
| guarantee | 5 years | ||
Based on market positioning, the Micron 6500 ION, launched earlier today, will be the main competitor to the D5-P5430. Sequential writes and power consumption numbers aren’t particularly compelling for Solidigm drives on a comparative basis, but the D5-P5430 wins out in terms of endurance – 0.3 RDWPD for the 6500 ION vs. 0.58 RDWPD for the D5-P5430 ( Surprisingly) QLC drive). For a better estimate of endurance, Solidigm prioritizes the total NAND write limit, citing 32 PBW as an endurance rating for the D5-P5430’s highest capacity SKU. Another important point here is that the D5-P5430 currently only offers capacities up to 15.36 TB. The 30 TB SKU is expected later this year. By comparison, the 30 TB SKU of the 6500 ION is available now. The D5-P5430, on the other hand, is available in a variety of capacities and form factors, unlike the 6500 ION. That choice may ultimately depend on how each SSD performs in its intended use case.
