Application No-3

Study of Solid-State Drive

1.Introduction: -

An SSD, or solid-state drive, is a type of storage device used in computers. This non-volatile
storage media stores persistent data on solid-state flash memory. SSDs replace traditional hard
disk drives (HDDs) in computers and perform the same basic functions as a hard drive. But SSDs
are significantly faster in comparison. With an SSD, the device's operating system will boot up
more rapidly, programs will load quicker, and files can be saved faster.

A traditional hard drive consists of a spinning disk with a read/write head on a mechanical arm
called an actuator. An HDD reads and writes data magnetically. The magnetic properties,
however, can lead to mechanical breakdowns. By comparison, an SSD has no moving parts to
break or spin up or down. The two key components in an SSD are the flash controller and NAND
flash memory chips. This configuration is optimized to deliver high read/write performance for
sequential and random data requests.

Figure 3.1 Samsung 2TB SSD

SSDs are used anywhere that hard drives can be deployed. In consumer products, for example,
they are used in personal computers (PCs), laptops, computer games, digital cameras, digital
music players, smartphones, tablets and thumb drives.

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2.History:

Table 3.1 History of SSDs

Year Event
1976 First DRAM Bulk Core SSD Introduced, Storage-2MB

1978 First semiconductor SSD StorageTek STC 4305 storage-45MB

1991 the introduction of the first commercial flash-based SSD released by

SunDisk

1995 Flash based SSD introduced by Israeli-based company M-systems

1998 SunDisk released the first SSD with PATA interfaces

2003 Rises in cheap flash SSDs, it was introduced by Transcend and it

included 40 or 44 PATA connector.

2006 Samsung introduced one of the first mass market flash SSD, and
SanDisk also released their own version of flash SSD (SATA 5000).

2009 SSDs became so fast,DDrive X1 introduced.It offers 4GB of DRAM

and 4GB of flash memory as backup.

2012 2nd generation of flash-SSDs (FlashMAX II) were introduced by

Virident Systems.

3. Available Technologies in The Field:-

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Solid-state drives. Basic SSDs deliver the least performance. SSDs are flash devices that
connect via Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) or serial-attached SCSI (SAS)
and provide a cost-effective first step into the solid-state world. For many environments, the
performance boost in sequential read speeds from a SATA or SAS SSD will suffice.

PCIe-based flash. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express-based flash is the next step
up in performance. While these devices typically offer greater throughput and more
input/output operations per second, the biggest advantage is significantly lower latency. The
downside is that most of these offerings require a custom driver and have limited built-in data
protection.

Flash DIMMs. Flash dual in-line memory modules reduce latency, going further than PCIe
flash cards by eliminating the potential PCIe bus contention. They require custom drivers
unique to flash DIMMS, with specific changes to the read-only I/O system on the motherboard.

NVMe SSDs. These SSDs use the non-volatile memory express (NVMe) interfaces
specification. This accelerates data transfer speeds between client systems and solid-state drives
over a PCIe bus. NVMe SSDs are designed for high-performance non-volatile storage and are
well-suited for highly demanding, compute-intensive settings.

NVMe-oF. The NVMe over Fabrics protocol enables data transfers between a host computer
and a target solid-state storage device. NVMe-oF transfers data through methods such as
Ethernet, Fibre Channel or InfiniBand.

Hybrid DRAM-flash storage. This dynamic random access memory (DRAM) channel
configuration combines flash and server DRAM. These hybrid flash storage devices address
the theoretical scaling limit of DRAM and are used to increase throughput between application
software and storage.

Floating gate and Charge trap technology A floating gate and a charge trap are types
of semiconductor technology capable of holding an electrical charge in a flash memory device,
but the chemical composition of their storage layers differs and they add and remove electrons
in different ways.Flash devices that use floating gate transistors in the memory cells store
electrons in an isolated polycrystalline silicon conductive layer. The charge of the floating gate
changes when electrons are programmed into it to create a threshold voltage shift in the
transistor.Devices that use charge trap technology typically store electrons in a nonconductive
silicon nitride insulation layer. Forcing electrons into the nitride layer also generates a
threshold voltage shift, and the electrons are held captive in the nonconductive material.

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 Figure3.2 Flash gate Memory cell

Figure3.3 Charge trap memory cell

4.Working and Basic Concept: -

SSDs serve the same purpose as HDDs: they store data and files for long-term use. The
difference is that SSDs use a type of memory called "flash memory," which is like RAM. But,
unlike RAM, which clears its data whenever the computer powers down, the data on an SSD
persists even when it loses power. If you took apart a typical HDD, you'd see a stack of
magnetic plates with a reading needle—kind of like a vinyl record player. Before the needle
can read or write data, the plates have to spin around to the right location.

Whereas SSDs use a grid of electrical cells to send and receive data quickly. These grids are
separated into sections called "pages," and these pages are where data is stored. Pages are
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clumped together to form "blocks." Furthermore, SSDs are called "solid-state" because they
have no moving parts.

Why is this necessary to know? Because SSDs can only write to empty pages in a block. In
HDDs, data can be written to any location on the plate at any time, and that means that data
can be easily overwritten. SSDs can't directly overwrite data in individual pages. They can
only write data to empty pages in a block.

So then, how do SSDs handle data deletion? When enough pages in a block are marked as
unused, the SSD commits the entire block's worth of data to memory, erases the entire block,
then re-commits the data from memory back to the block while leaving the unused pages blank.
Note that erasing a block doesn't necessarily mean the data is fully gone, but you can
still securely delete data on an SSD.

However, the consequence of how SSDs operate means that your SSD will become slower
over time.

When you have a fresh SSD, it's loaded entirely with blocks full of blank pages. When you
write new data to the SSD, it can immediately write to those blank pages with blazing speeds.
However, as more and more data gets written, the blank pages run out, and you're left with
random unused pages scattered throughout the blocks. Since an SSD can't directly overwrite
an individual page, every time you want to write new data from that point on, the SSD needs
to:

1. Find a block with enough pages marked "unused"

2. Record which pages in that block are still necessary
3. Reset every page in that block to blank
4. Rewrite the necessary pages into the freshly reset block
5. Fill the remaining pages with the new data

So, in essence, once you've gone through all of the blank pages from a new SSD
purchase, your drive will have to go through this process whenever it wants to write
new data. This is how most flash memory works.

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 Figure 3.4 Working principal of Solid State Drive

5. Study on various parameters like cost, speed and performance: -

Speed &Performance SSD is drawing user's attention all over the world since it has many
advantages such as fast read-write speed, no noise, lower consumption, portability, etc. Due to
this, many of you may plan to use an SSD as the system disk so that Windows can start up very
quickly.

Figure 3.5 Speed of different PCIe generation

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But as to SSD prices, from the second half of 2016 to 2017, the prices of SSD solid-state drives
skyrocketed. This makes many users who want to upgrade their computers postpone the
operation.

These days, solid state drives can work as they were always meant to, thanks to NVMe — a
new type of SSD interface collectively developed by Intel, SanDisk, and other leading
manufacturers. Whereas older SATA drives allow the transfer of information only along one
channel, NVMe makes use of multiple channels that can read and write at the same time.In
theory, if more data is written to a cell, it wears out faster. A current SSD cell can handle
approximately 3,000 write cycles, which doesn’t sound like much at first. But thanks to the
principle of wear levelling, the SSD spreads write operations evenly across all cells to
minimize cell death and prolong the lifespan of the drive.

Cost
Table 3.2 Costs of different SSDs

S.No. Brand And Model Specification Unit Price(rupee)

1. WD 1TB SATA For Desktop PC 3700

2. SEAGATE 1TB With 64 MB cashe and 3600

SATA 2year warranty

3. HP 500 GB Made by Toshiba 2699

4. Kingston 120GB with SATA 7200

SV300S37A/120G interface 6.0 gbps
Internal Hard Drive
5. Samsung SSD 128 GB with SATA 6.0 9000
gbps

6. Samsung 860 EVO 1TB storage with SATA III 12000

6gbps

6. Market Study: -

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Today, buying an SSD is far more cost effective than it used to be even if you purchase a large
SSD more than 1TB. This trend indicates that SSD prices will continue to fall or drop in the
latter half of 2018. This is caused by competition in the market and oversupply of the NAND
Flash memory chips used in the manufacture.

Figure 3.6 Price Chart of SSDs

According to the report, the main culprit is smartphones, especially a lack of growth in that
sector. Due to the lower-than-average differentiation between new models and old,
replacement demand is sluggish. And annual shipments expectedly can only meet, rather than
exceed last year’s. As a result, the ever-expanding NAND supply is left with more stock than
needed.

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7. Future Advancement on SSD: -

In layman’s terms, that means a dedicated fan for your NVMe storage drive (or whatever new
standard comes after the PCIe gen 5 drives). “I would expect to see heatsinks for [PCIe] Gen5,”
says Sebastien Jean, Phison’s CTO. And indeed, performance M.2 drives already come with
some beefy heat spreaders and heatsinks, and you can add even bigger ones via the aftermarket
if you’re concerned about heat dissipation. There are even a few designs available with heat
pipes and tiny fans, which look like miniature CPU coolers. “But eventually we’ll need to have
a fan that’s pushing air right over the heatsink, too,” he continued, suggesting the go-to cooling
solution that’s been used for CPUs and GPUs for decades.

The issue arising is that those lightning-fast data read and write speeds require more complex
memory and controllers, which require more electricity and thus more heat. Temperature
sensors attached to NAND memory begin to throttle down performance if they detect excess
heat, eventually shutting down completely to prevent data loss. And the storage drive itself
isn’t the only problem. A lack of proper ventilation plus proximity to high-heat components
like the GPU could exacerbate issues with a drive that doesn’t have an adequate cooling
solution. Laptops, server blades, and other designs with space constraints require extra
engineering to work around these issues.

How hot is too hot? According to Jean, about 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). After that
performance will begin to degrade, with the NAND storage hitting potential failure and
shutdown at 80° C (176° F). Future advances in controller technology and connection standards
might alleviate the issue without the need for a huge heatsink or dedicated fan. But if you’re
looking to hit the best storage speed possible with PCIe Gen5, you might want to leave a little
room above your M.2 slots.

8.Conclusion: -

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The requirements for data storage are changing. It is normal for a home user to download
several GB daily. The average web page size has grown to 2 MB from a hundred KB earlier.
Servers need to have a larger capacity. The level of workloads and infrastructure options has
set off the need for storage devices with a spectrum of performance, capacity, device features,
form factors, and prices.

Finally, SSDs are an incredible device that uses non-volatile flash memory making devices
perform at a much greater speed.There are many benefits from using a SSD such as making
systems faster, making your computer more reliable, and has better system cooling. All of these
benefits are significant because it will save you time and money in the future.Overall, everyone
can benefit from having a SSD. Whether, you are a student, faculty member, or staff, SSDs are
a device that can be useful to you.

As storage devices evolve, the assessment and consideration will not be about HDD vs SSD
but about finding the most appropriate solution to support your needs.

9.Indian Contribution :-

Khalid Wani, Director – Sales, India, Western Digital (WD), “Basis of the latest report by
CMR, both internal as well as external SSD markets have witnessed an exponential growth
when compared to CY2018. Various factors such as the growing Internet penetration,
increasing awareness of the latest technologies, WFH and LFH trends and need for higher
productivity are the key drivers behind the growth in demand for SSDs.”

Figure 3.7 About India’s SSD

Sachin Sharma, Country Manager – India at ADATA Technology (India) Pvt Ltd, “Modern
PC storage is rapidly shifting from traditional HDD technology to SSDs. Compared to their
traditional HDD counterparts, the SSDs are gaining considerable attention due to their
performance benefits. India’s storage device market has been predominantly driven by demand
for primary storage. Though the SSD market in India is presently at a growing stage, due to

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price constraints the major demand is derived mainly from the enterprise application segment
at present.”

10.References: -

[1]. SSD(solid-state drive) Available at:

https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/SSD-solid-state-drive on 28-09-2022.

[2]. The Development and History of Solid State Drives (SSDs) Available at:
https://www.symmetryelectronics.com/blog/the-development-and-history-of-solid-state-
drives/ on 28-09-2022.

[3]. Technologies Available at: https://forum.huawei.com/enterprise/en/types-of-

ssds/thread/780277-891 on 29-09-2022 .

[4]. How do Solid-State Drive works? Available at:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/solidstate-drives-work-makeuseof-explains/ on 29-9-2022.

[5]. Performance Available at: https://www.minitool.com/news/ssd-prices-fall.html .&costs

Available at: https://www.nehruplacemarket.com/price-list/harddisk-price-list.html on 29-09-
2022.

[6]. Market Size And Forecast Available at: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product

/ on 29-09-2022.

[7].Future SSDs by PC world Available at: https://www.pcworld.com/article/626798/your-

next-ssd-upgrade-might-need-active-cooling.html on 29-09-2022 .

[8]. Conclusion Available at: https://uwaterloo.ca/arts-computing-newsletter/winter-

2018/feature/everything-you-need-know-about-solid-state-drives-ssd. on 29-09-2022 .

[9]. SSDs – Growing on a Solid Turf in India Available at: https://www.ncnonline.net/ssds-

growing-on-a-solid-turf-in-india/ on 29-09-2022.

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