PCM Real-World Demo

By now, you’ve probably heard about phase change memory or PCM. PCM is an innovative new memory technology that blends the best attributes of EEPROM, NOR, NAND, and DRAM to deliver unprecedented features in one memory device.

But how do PCM’s unique features translate to user experience? The video below shows how PCM’s nonvolatility, high endurance, fast program performance, and overwrite capability can eliminate the need for multiple memory types in a digital video camera application and create a more reliable system.

I hope you find this quick explanation of PCM features useful. Be sure to check out my first post on PCM’s overwrite capability for more details on this key PCM feature.

An Enterprise-focused MLC SSD?

The enterprise SSD market used to be seen as a single tier in the storage market—a cohesive, expensive grouping above other storage options. That’s no longer true. The enterprise SSD market is also segmenting, largely because SSDs deliver several key features—low latency, reliability, and low power, to name a few—that can make dramatic differences in enterprise effectiveness across multiple applications and workloads, but they’re the most effective when they’re designed for specific applications.

Today we announced a new SSD aimed squarely at the entry level of enterprise solid-state storage. Our new RealSSD™ P400e was built for key server and blade applications, including read caching, DAS, and as a boot drive for virtual desktop infrastructures. It’s a slot that many storage architects previously attempted to fill with client SSDs, which really aren’t meant to handle 24/7, always-on workloads. Our P400e, however, was designed specifically for this space, and its excellent IOPs-per-dollar performance and low TCO makes it an easy choice to replace enterprise hard drives.

In the video below, I provide a quick explanation of enterprise SSD tiers and explain some of the key product features of the P400e SSD. As always, you can learn more about the specs of the P400e drive on micron.com.

Demonstrating Phase Change Memory

When we first talk to customers about phase change memory (PCM), we’re often asked two questions: how is PCM different, and why would I want to use it in my device?

PCM is a radically different memory technology that records information via the shifting state (phase change) of a unique material. PCM is able to merge the attributes of NOR, NAND, and DRAM in a single, nonvolatile memory chip. This allows designers to consolidate their different memory solutions and reduce the bill of materials.

Consolidation is good, but why else would you want to use PCM? The video below focuses on PCM’s overwrite capability and shows how it can also optimize your subsystem, improve performance time, and simplify the software structure.

Thanks for watching. As always, feel free to post any comments or questions below.

A Faster RealSSD™ C400

Like any innovative tech company, we’re always searching for ways to make our products better. We’ve engineered some big read performance gains that will make a noticeable difference for our C400 and m4 SSDs. We’re bundling the improvements into our latest firmware release, which is available now for all customers.

Like any firmware release, we built in the usual stability and reliability improvements that our testing team identified over the past months. But the real news is that the new code provides a significant boost in read performance across all capacities. Sequential reads are up by 20% for all drives (85 MB/s increase), putting the C400/m4 over the 500 MB/s mark. Random 4k reads are up, too. And PCMark scores—which we believe are one of the better measures of real-world usage—are up by 15%.

The table below summarizes the basic spec changes.

Of course, to appreciate these changes, you’ll need to be running the SSD on a system that provides a SATA 6 Gb/s connection (since SATA 3 Gb/s systems cap out at less than 300 MB/s).

Micron customers will be notified of the code change (and how to upgrade) through our usual PCN process. If you’re a retail customer, you can find instructions to download the latest code on Crucial’s website.

Our client SSDs are already a favorite among users who value stability, reliability, and good performance at a great price. This upgrade makes the C400/m4 SSDs an even more compelling choice, and is a great way to thank all of our customers for choosing Micron. Enjoy!

Glen Hawk Interview from FMS

I had a chance to sit down with Glen Hawk—our VP of NAND solutions—at this year’s Flash Memory Summit to talk about the conference and his keynote there. He had a lot to share about the growth of NAND, it’s place in a cloud-computing world, and where the technology is headed. His keynote also featured some great vignettes with several Micron customers who are using NAND in interesting new ways. If you weren’t one of the thousand who got to see the keynote in person, the video interview below should give you a good summary.

Award-Winning NAND

More exciting news from FMS: Yesterday Micron and Intel received the award for the Most Innovative Flash Memory Technology at the  Flash Memory Summit. The award recognizes our industry-leading 20nm NAND process technology.

Manufactured by our joint venture, IM Flash Technologies, the new device is a breakthrough in NAND process and design, providing approximately 50% more capacity than current technology And, for those who enjoy the gory details, the new 20nm 8GB device measures just 118mm2!

If you’re interested in reading more about our leading-edge NAND process technology, see our Innovations page.

It’s Time for the Flash Memory Summit!

I’m at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, California where final preparations are underway on the tradeshow floor. We’re a long-time participant in the Summit and are really excited for the opportunity to speak and meet with our partners and peers in the industry.

On Tuesday, Micron’s Vice President of NAND Solutions Group, Glen Hawk,  gave a keynote address to an overflowing crowd of nearly 1,000 tech industry enthusiasts. In his speech on the “Alchemy of NAND Flash” Hawk highlighted Micron’s leadership in cutting-edge technology and his optimism about our ability to scale the infamous memory wall.

“At Micron we plan on jumping right over the wall. We’re confident in the future because we’re making [the future],” said Glen Hawk.

Along with Hawk’s keynote address, Micron is engaged in 20 speaking opportunities over the duration of the three-day conference. Session topics range from Solid State Drives (SSDs) to NAND Interface Solutions and to The Future of Phase Change Memory.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog post featuring my interview with Micron’s Vice President of NAND Solutions, Glenn Hawk.

Is Bandwidth per Watt Important to You?

Today’s networking OEMs face the challenging task of designing for seemingly opposite goals—high performance in an energy-conscious “green” environment.

The EPA estimates* that in 2006 the nation’s servers and data centers used about 1.5% of the total U.S. electricity consumption—a whopping 61 billion kilowatt hours (kWh)—at a cost of $4.5 billion. In 2011 these figures could nearly double, reaching more than 100 billion kWh, at a staggering annual cost of $7.4 billion.

As one of the fastest-growing energy-use sectors in the nation, servers and data storage centers need a memory solution that can satisfy their rigorous performance demands while delivering the potential for significant improvements in energy efficiency. We put together these comparison charts to show how today’s leading memory technologies stack up in terms of bandwidth per watt:

Cyclical (or Random) Bank READs

1:1 READ-to-WRITE Operation

*Source: http://www.energystar.gov

750,000 IOPs from a Single SSD?

As promised, the video below is a live demo of the phenomenal performance you can get from our P320h PCIe SSD. It’s a simple and straightforward IOMeter measurement, but we wanted to show you how much of a leap our card makes over current solutions—the random reads output of the P320h is more than twice as fast as the nearest competitor.

It all hinges on the tight integration we’ve been able to make between our custom controller and high-performance SLC NAND. I’m looking forward to keeping you posted on what our customers are be able to achieve with it. Enjoy the video.

Our PCIe SSD—Out of the Lab and Into Production

If you’re an SSD fan who’s been following our blog for a while, you know that we posted a from-the-lab teaser video of a prototype PCIe SSD some time ago. Our design team has been hard at work on an ideal solution, and I’m happy to tell you that today we have production product to show you.

Of course PCIe drives aren’t anything new to the market, but I think you’ll agree that our solution offers some new breakthroughs in performance and efficiency. In the video below, I walk through some of the features of the P320h (you’ll quickly see why I’m so excited about this device).

And stay tuned; we’ll have more performance numbers and a demo posted soon.