SSD Thread (Benchmarks, Brands, News, and Advice)

[chimpanzee]

this one fits your usage but is of little interest to most notebook/desktop users. eMLC is specially tuned to have very short 'live' in order to get the endurance number. Perfect for scratch disk or say database cache etc.

[tilleroftheearth]

What is a very short 'live'?

From what I understood of the article, it get's it's high endurance numbers by having 40% over-provisioned spare area - in addition to being hand picked (die screening) and increasing the page programming cycle (by making it longer, the nand cells last longer...).

Speaking of the 40% spare area Intel also states the following:

While 40% sounds like a lot, Intel recommends even more over-provisioning for write-heavy applications. If it were to set aside an additional 20% of the drive's NAND flash, write endurance would increase by another 50% or so.

I guess my research, direct experience and my gut feelings with various systems and SSD's (including the latest SNB platforms) guided me fairly accurately as I'm mimicking Intel's recommendations for high write scenario for a few months with my Intel 250GB 510 series drives partitioned to use less than 43% (100GB out of 232GB) of the available capacity. (If we count the percentage more accurately - it is 100/250 or 60% spare area - just like Intel is recommending in the quote above).

[chimpanzee]

What is a very short 'live'?

From what I understood of the article, it get's it's high endurance numbers by having 40% over-provisioned spare area - in addition to being hand picked (die screening) and increasing the page programming cycle (by making it longer, the nand cells last longer...).

eMLC is a specially tweaked NAND that has PE cycle that is not on the same league as MLC(not to SLC level but one or two order of mag more than MLC). That comes at the expense that if the cell doesn't get refresh, it would lose what it remember for I think within 3 months(forgot the exact duration but around that).

IOW, if you leave your notebook there and not using it for a while, you stuff can disappear.

That is why it is not marketed as a general purpose SSD but solely for enterprise where it is expected to be bang 24/7x365 and would be replaced, mainly for very volatile usage like the mentioned database cache, log or things like that.

[tilleroftheearth]

Great point (which I read, but promptly forgot)!

Thanks for bringing it front and center.

+rep!

[mdcruz88]

Does anybody have a copy of the Mushkin Maindiag.exe program for SSD firmware updates?

I tried the different links by 5150Joker, but no go.

Please help!

[Tomy B.]

I have something but I'm not sure if this is the right thing.

[tilleroftheearth]

Tomy B., he's cross-posted all over the place and 'solved' it himself.

Doesn't even share...

[Abula]

SF is sold - good or bad?

See:
LSI Set to Acquire SandForce in $370 Million Deal


If this means that the damage SF controllers can do to the general public will be decreased (by limiting SF to LSI products), this is a good thing.

Here are Anandtech thoughts on the subject,

The LSI SandForce Acquisition: Anand's Thoughts

I see the acquisition as a positive for SandForce. I believe that SandForce has the best technology in the industry but suffers from inferior validation. With existing design wins in the consumer hard drive and enterprise markets, LSI clearly understands the customer requirements for delivering a robust storage controller solution. If LSI can extend those learnings to SandForce, this acquisition will have a significant impact on the SSD industry going forward.

[hankaaron57]

Can anyone point to me benches/reviews comparing old Intels (first and second gen, SLC and MLC x-25E and x-25M) to the new ones currently available? I'm very curious to read how they compare and how they've improved aside from fitting more nand in there.

[tilleroftheearth]

Have you seen this?

See:
Intel SSD 710 Tested: MLC NAND Flash Hits The Enterprise : Intel On Enterprise Storage: No More SLC; Meet HET MLC