3D QLC NAND memory has obvious advantages in storage density and cost per GB over 3D TLC NAND, but its performance and endurance make it particularly suitable for all kinds of applications, especially in the data center space. not. However, Solidigm believes that the company’s controller and firmware innovations have made the QLC-based D5-P5430 SSD a strong contender for mainstream read-intensive data center applications with its combination of capacity, performance, power consumption, and TLC-class endurance. I think I will be a candidate.
Large capacity, excellent durability
Solidigm’s D5-P5430 drive relies on the company’s NVMe 1.4c compliant platform with a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and 192-layer 3D QLC NAND memory.
In terms of performance, Solidigm rates the new drives with sequential read/write speeds of up to 7,000/3,000 MB/s and random read/write 4K IOPS of up to 971K/120K. This is as slow as or slower than a direct drive. This is significantly slower when compared to the write performance of 3D TLC NAND-based enterprise SSDs. For example, the new D5-P5430 SSD features significantly slower write speeds than Micron’s 6500 ION SSD.
| row 0 – cell 0 | Solid Digum D5-P5430 | Solid Digum D5-P5316 | Samsung PM9A3 | micron 6500 ions |
| memory | 192L 3D QLC | 144L 3D QLC | 128L 3D TLC | 232L 3D TLC |
| Maximum capacity | 30.72TB | 30.72TB | 7.68TB | 30.72TB |
| sequential read | 7000MB/s | 7000MB/s | 6900MB/s | 6800MB/s |
| sequential light | 3000MB/s | 3600MB/s | 4100MB/s | 5000MB/s |
| Random read (4K, QD256/QD128) | 971K IOPS | 800K IOPS | 1.1 million IOPS | 1M IOPS |
| Random Write (4K, QD256/QD128) | 120K IOPS | ? | 200K IOPS | 200K IOPS |
| 70% random read/30% random write (4K, QD128) | ? | ? | ? | 400K IOPS |
| DWPD (random workload) | 0.58 (?KB) | 0.41 (64KB) | 1 | 0.3 (4KB) |
| PBW | 32PBW | 22.93 PBW | 14PBW | 16.4 PBW |
Solidigm’s D5-P5430 family of drives with capacity points of 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 TB, and 30.72 TB in 2.5 inch/15 mm U.2, E3.S 7.5 mm, and E1.S 9.5 mm formats It consists of element. Offering drives in a variety of form factors allows Solidigm to serve a wide range of applications and customers.
Solidigm positions the D5-P5430 SSD for both read-intensive workloads and mainstream workloads consisting of 80% reads (according to their own analysis). The main selling point of these drives is their ability to deliver high storage densities at 3D QLC NAND costs. At the same time, it offers read performance and reliability that matches or exceeds 3D TLC NAND-based drives. This placement is slightly different from that of his D5-P5316 with 3D QLC, but it’s justified as the company managed to significantly improve the durability of the new 3D QLC drives.
Solidigm says its new D5-P5430 SSD offers 50% higher storage density and 18% lower energy costs, resulting in a 27% lower total cost of ownership over typical object storage systems. That’s it. Additionally, compared to “top-of-the-line TLC SSDs,” Solidigm’s latest drives promise to deliver up to 14% more writes over their lifetime.
Based on figures released by Solidigm, the top-end D5-P5430 30.72TB can sustain up to 32 PBW (petabytes written) over its lifetime. That’s even higher compared to the previous generation, and even higher compared to Micron’s 6500 ION. 30.72TB drive with 3D TLC NAND memory. Solidigm didn’t disclose how they improved the endurance of the drives, but one way they did it is by increasing over-provisioning and implementing innovative algorithms in the controller.
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there is a pitfall
There are pitfalls in comparing these 3D QLC NAND based drives to 3D TLC NAND based drives. 3D QLC NAND stores 4 bits per cell, but has lower endurance and slower write speeds than 3D TLC memory due to longer cell erase and program times and faster cell wear. To alleviate these issues, high-capacity data center-oriented 3D QLC SSDs use large block sizes (64KB for the D5-P5316 as opposed to the standard 4KB blocks used in mainstream) flash conversion. Use a layer (FTL, also known as an indirect layer). SSDs and HDDs) to minimize the number of program/erase cycles, preserve drive life, reduce the amount of overhead, and increase data management efficiency. However, there are tradeoffs with larger block sizes.
First, 64KB blocks can cause write amplification (when the SSD writes more data to flash memory than the host is actually trying to write), leading to significant SSD wear.
Second, if the data to be written or modified is smaller than the block size, the SSD controller has to deal with partially filled blocks and the remaining space in the block cannot be used for other purposes, thus reducing storage space is used less efficiently. data. This is a problem for applications with small random write loads or applications that need to handle small file loads. That’s why Solidigm positions his 3D QLC SSDs for read-intensive “mainstream” workloads.
Third, if your application frequently modifies small amounts of data, SSDs with 64 KB FTL can have high performance variability. On the other hand, if your workload consists primarily of large sequential writes, SSDs will perform just fine. On the other hand, only major cloud service providers tend to support 64KB alignment, significantly shrinking the addressable market for 3D QLC NAND-based drives in data centers.
Solidigm doesn’t say that the new D5-P5430 drives indirectly use the 64KB layer, but the relatively poor performance may indicate that. If this is the case, then the new drives can compete well with Micron’s 6500 ION in data centers run by large hyperscalers, but machines run by small businesses that rely on 4KB data blocks will have real-world performance depends heavily on your exact workload. .
availability
Solidigm is already shipping PRQ parts for the D5-P5430 SSD in U.2 form factors with capacities of 3.84TB, 7.68TB and 15.36TB, and customers can order additional parts today. Production release qualification for the other D5-P5430 SKUs will be set in the second half of this year.
