On October 26 Intel announced that it had begun offering a new firmware for their second-gen X25-M SSDs. The new firmware offered support for the SATA TRIM command, a feature in Windows 7 and Linux which helps SSDs maintain consistent performance over the long haul. Less than 24 hours later, however, and Intel pulled the firmware in response to a flood of reports claiming the upgrade process was responsible for bricked drives. Fast forward to today, and Intel has announced that it has replicated the issue and is working on a fix.

“Intel has replicated the issue on 34nm SSDs – X25-M – and is working on a fix,” said Alan Frost of Intel’s NAND Solutions Group.

“Intel is pursuing the resolution of this as a high priority. Intel is seeking direct feedback on this issue from members of the [Intel Support Community]… asking them to send their drives directly to Intel to expedite the analysis of the issues. This action will enable us to more quickly generate a resolution for this issue.”

Frost went on to imply that the firmware–version 02HA–was not to blame, but rather the v1.3 flashing tool.

Crucial has begun offering a new firmware update which will add ATA TRIM support to the company’s lineup of M225-branded solid state disks.

The new firmware is stamped with version 1819 and delivers nearly 20 fixes and enhancements, in addition to TRIM. Supported models include:

Crucial M225 64GB (CT64M225)
Crucial M225 128GB (CT128M225)
Crucial M225 256GB (CT256M225)

The outfit also warned users that they may have to juggle firmware in certain circumstances:

Firmware 1711 – Important Notice: If your Crucial M225 Solid-State Drive has firmware 1711 you must first revert back to the 1571 firmware prior to updating to the new 1819 version. Please download the 1571 firmware and follow these instructions.

What is ATA TRIM?

An SSD’s total size is composed of thousands of smaller units called “blocks,” which average about 512k these days. SSDs deliberately try to spread written data across all of these blocks so as not to prematurely wear out the memory chips, which can only accept a limited number of writes. This technique is called wear leveling. Over time, wear leveling guarantees that every block on the SSD will become filled with a hodgepodge of active and deleted data. Once this happens, new writes force the drive to perform an intensive process called the read/erase/modify/write cycle.

An REMW cycle forces an SSD to scan its blocks for deleted files, copy active data to cache, purge the deleted files, append the new data to the data in cache, and then write the cache back to the new free space. This is called write amplification, and in serious cases, it can force an SSD to shuffle up to 20GB of data just to write 1GB of new information. This causes significant performance issues for SSDs.

The solution to this problem is to let SSDs physically erase files the moment they are deleted in the OS, and that is precisely what the TRIM command does. Windows 7 is the only Microsoft OS that supports it, and it must be used with a TRIM-compatible drive.

Following just behind the official launch of Windows 7, Intel has announced the immediate availability of firmware and a utility to give all Windows users access to the ATA TRIM command on the company’s lineup of X25-M G2 SSDs.

What is ATA TRIM?

An SSD’s total size is composed of thousands of smaller units called “blocks,” which average about 512k these days. SSDs deliberately try to spread written data across all of these blocks so as not to prematurely wear out the memory chips, which can only accept a limited number of writes. This technique is called wear leveling. Over time, wear leveling guarantees that every block on the SSD will become filled with a hodgepodge of active and deleted data. Once this happens, new writes force the drive to perform an intensive process called the read/erase/modify/write cycle.

An REMW cycle forces an SSD to scan its blocks for deleted files, copy active data to cache, purge the deleted files, append the new data to the data in cache, and then write the cache back to the new free space. This is called write amplification, and in serious cases, it can force an SSD to shuffle up to 20GB of data just to write 1GB of new information. This causes significant performance issues for SSDs.

The solution to this problem is to let SSDs physically erase files the moment they are deleted in the OS, and that is precisely what the TRIM command does. Windows 7 is the only Microsoft OS that supports it, and it must be used with a TRIM-compatible drive like the OCZ Vertex, G.SKILL Falcon and now the Intel X25-M G2.
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Today Micron unveiled a new line of MLC NAND cells which it claims improves write endurance over traditional cells by 600%.

Micron’s new MLC Enterprise NAND device achieves 30,000 write cycles–a 6x increase in endurance when compared to standard MLC NAND. And for enterprise applications that are more performance driven, Micron today also introduced a 34nm SLC Enterprise NAND device that achieves 300,000 write cycles – a 3x increase in endurance when compared to standard SLC NAND.

Additionally, leveraging the full performance capability of NAND, Micron’s newest Enterprise NAND products also support the ONFI 2.1synchronous interface, delivering a 4- to 5x improvement in data transfer rates when compared to legacy NAND interfaces. Micron’s 34nm Enterprise NAND portfolio includes a 32Gb MLC NAND chip and a 16Gb SLC NAND chip that can be configured into multi-die, single packages supporting densities up to 32GB MLC and 16GB SLC, respectively.

The new cells are an evolution of the company’s 34nm NAND technology developed in conjunction with Intel Corporation. Micron will begin sampling the new products this year, and will begin volume shipments in spring of 2010.

Reality check: Micron’s definition of “standard” MLC and SLC NAND cells is nebulous at best. For example, SSD OEM Mtron offers a 32G SLC NAND product with a 5,000,000 cycle write endurance. Put another way, that’s 100GB of data erased and written to the drive every day for 85 years. That is a complete rewrite of the disk’s contents three times a day.

Even Intel’s MLC-based X25-M G2 drive is estimated to have a 31,500 cycle write endurance, which is good for 20GB of erase/write sequences a day, every day, for five years. If that’s not enough, the company has included a 100GB/day margin of error.

So, when an OEM quotes an endurance figure at you–particularly in the funky fresh world of NAND–take a look around. It might not be as impressive as it seems.

SanDisk has released a new line of flash memory products based on an X4 MLC chip design. The new design allows four bits to be stored per NAND cell, for a total of 64Gb (8 gigabytes) per chip.

Initially revealed in February, the 4-BPC technology is a joint venture between SanDisk and Toshiba. In the future, SanDisk plans to use the new cells to produce flash memory products with capacities exceeding 64GB

As increases in bit density shorten NAND’s lifespan, data reliability has been a major concern for 4-BPC cells. However, SanDisk CEO Sanjay Mehrotra is confident that they have overcome any potential issues with their products saying,  “Our challenge with X4 technology was to not only deliver the lower costs inherent to 4-bits-per-cell but to do so while meeting the reliability and performance requirements of industry standard cards.”

Products based on the new cells, including standard SD cards and Memory Stick PRO Duos in 8GB and 16GB flavors, have already begun shipment.

It costs as much as your entire desktop.

After a redesign and six months on the burner, OCZ has finally released its PCI Express SSD solution.

Dubbed the “Z-Drive,” the new SSD product comes in two flavors: The e84 series with SLC NAND cells, and the p84 series with MLC NAND cells. Both variants are mated to 256MB of onboard cache and plug into a PCI Express x8 slot.

On the SLC front, the e84 drives offer the choice between 256GB or 512GB, with sustained performance at or around 800MBps read and 750MBps write, respectively. SLC is slightly quicker on the draw, and that’s reflected in the 16k IOPS to the 10k offered by the MLC cells in the e84.

The MLC-based e84, meanwhile, comes in 256GB-1TB flavors and tops out at 870/760MBps for the 1TB model. As we mentioned above, the p84s offer a “mere” 10k IOPS to the e84’s 16k.

The drives are available on the US side of the pond from Amazon and other retailers for $1560-$3370 USD.

Crucial recently entered the high-speed SSD game; how do their new goods stack up?

A firmware bug in Intel’s new 34nm SSDs prompted the firm to halt sales and shipments on July 31. The bug is now fixed and sales have resumed.

IM Flash Technologies, the joint venture between Intel and Micron, has announced volume production of 3-bit multi-level cell (MLC) NAND cells by the end of 2009.

While the current crop of flash drives and capacious SSDs use 2-bit cells, the 3-bit cell could improve capacities by fifty percent for the same physical dimensions.

IMFT has already released 32Gb (gigabit) evaluation chips that measure just 126mm². Each chip — about one fifth the size of your average postage stamp — contains nearly 11.5 billion of the new 3bpc cells.

“We see 3bpc NAND technology as an important piece of our roadmap,” said Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron’s memory group. “We also continue to move forward on further shrinks in NAND that will provide our customers with a world-leading portfolio of products for many years to come. Today’s announcement further highlights that Micron and Intel have made great strides in 34-nanometer NAND, and we look forward to introducing our 2xnm technology later this year.”

The 3bpc announcement comes just weeks after the introduction of 34nm cells which have slashed costs and improved storage density by over thirty percent. It is expected that these 3-bit multi-level NAND cells will get their sea legs in flash drives and flash cards.

For more information on NAND/flash memory, consider Icrontic’s primer entitled “The hows and whys of SSDs.”

Fusion-io, makers of really really fast SSDs, announced a new line of workstation storage cards, the ioXtreme. Marketed primarily towards workstations used in film and television production, as well as high-end gaming rigs, the ioXtreme has an 80 gigabyte capacity and screaming fast transfer speeds averaging around 520 MB/second.

Icrontic spoke with David Flynn, Chief Technology Officer at Fusion-io. David was very excited about the ioXtreme and quite confident of its performance. This was made evident by his passion for his work, as well as Fusion-io’s presentation on the show floor at their booth. In fact, I would suggest that Fusion-io has one of the most impressive booth setups at SIGGRAPH this year. There is a wall of LCD displays, and across this wall is a composite of 1,200 different DVD quality video feeds, all playing at the same time via a single ioXtreme card. The video is completely smooth, with not a single hiccup to be found.

That's 1,200 DVD quality videos streaming at once

David stressed that the ioXtreme is not to be considered much of a storage drive, but rather a high speed method for moving data on a computer. He says the speed of the ioXtreme allows unprecedented response. For instance, it allows compositors to work on HD video feeds in real time.

David explained to us that we are in a new world order of multiple core processors. We buy more cores rather than faster processors. As a result, I/O required an overhaul. Standard hard drives become a bottle neck. Disk drives are great at mass storage, but slow to move large sets of data. The ioXtreme’s strongest suit is pushing data quickly and reliably. The two types of storage devices working together creates an ideal setup that pushes information at blazing speeds.

The ioXtreme will retail at the manageable price of $895, besting most single level cell SSDs on the market today. Its release will be soon, and prospective buyers can join a mailing list on their site to be notified of when the card becomes available.

Intel has halted sales of its new 34nm SSDs as a result of a firmware bug which renders the drive’s data inaccessible if users configure and then alter or disable a BIOS password.

Enthusiasts are excited about the SSD’s tantalizing possibilities, but it’s true that most of us would rather take one square in the jewels than summon the bones for solid state. Might the SSD market soon emerge from the ninth level of pricing hell? If Intel — and their herculean manufacturing capacity — has anything to say about it, that just might be the case.

Intel has announced that the next generation of the X25-M SSD that stunned reviewers with its speed and reliability will soon launch to the tune of massive price cuts.

What’s the big deal?

While most NAND cells that lie at the heart of any SSD are fabbed on a 50nm process node, the new X25-M models use a brand new 34nm process. The transition to the 34nm process does nothing for the drive’s sustained sequential speeds which remain at 250/70MBps read/write, but it has improved read/write seek and read/write latency to 65µs/85µs and 4.2ms/4.7ms respectively.

Most importantly, however, the transition to 34nm allows for the production of some 30% more cells per wafer. As the PC industry is no stranger to the laws of supply and demand, the savings have been passed on to us in the form of a 60% price cut. That’s right: The new X25-M drives are 60% cheaper than their predecessors.

VP and GM of Intel’s NAND Solutions Group Randy Wilhelm explains that the transition was about performance and cost.

“Our goal was to not only be first to achieve 34nm NAND flash memory lithography, but to do so with the same or better performance than our 50nm version,” he said. “We made quite an impact with our breakthrough SSDs last year, and by delivering the same or even better performance with today’s new products, our customers, both consumers and manufacturers, can now enjoy them at a fraction of the cost.”

Cost and models

The new X25-M will be dropping in 80GB and 160GB flavors, though a 320GB model is expected by the beginning of next year.

Intel X25-M 80GB (SSDSA2MH080G2C1): $225.00 USD
Intel X25-M 160GB (SSDSA2MH160G2C1): $440.00 USD

Perks and musings

Once Windows 7 launches in volume, Intel has pledged to join manufacturers like OCZ and GSkill with a firmware update to support the heavily-touted ATA TRIM command. The new command will allow SSDs to keep tabs on the whereabouts of their free space so they can continue to maintain a consistent level of performance throughout their lifetime. Solid state disks without TRIM are doomed to performance decay that can only be righted through a hard wipe of the disk’s contents.

We can all agree that the $/GB ratio of the X25-M is not a stone’s throw away from toppling the mechanical drive. But we can agree that an instant 60% price cut to one of the market’s fastest drives is an exciting event. Between etailer markdown, future price cuts and competitor response, the SSD may just be finally coming into its own.