While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - |
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
Frore Unveils Waterproof AirJet Mini Sport for Smartphones Over the past couple of years, Frore Systems has demonstrated several ways that its AirJet solid-state active cooling systems can be used to improve cooling in fanless devices like laptops, tablets, SSDs, and edge computing devices. But there are a subset of those applications that need their cooling options to also be waterproof, and Frore is looking to address those as well. To that end, this week Frore introduced its AirJet Mini Sport, a waterproof, IP68-rated solid-state cooling device that is aimed at use in smartphones and action cameras. Introduced at MWC Shanghai to attract attention of China-based handset vendors, edge and industrial computing devices, and action cameras, the AirJet Mini Sport is an enhanced version of Frore's AirJet Mini Slim. This version has been fully waterproofed, offering IP68-level protection that allows it to work while being submerged in over 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. Internally, the AirJet Mini Sport can effectively dissipate 5.25 Watts of heat by generating 1750 Pascals of back pressure, while consuming 1 Watt of energy itself. Elsewhere, Frore claims that the AirJet Mini Sport can be used to provide 2.5 Watts of cooling capacity to smartphones. Which, although not enough to cover the complete power consumption/heat dissipation of a high-end SoC, would have a significant impact on both burst and steady-state performance by allowing those chips to run at peak clocks and power for longer periods of time. To ensure consistent performance of Frore's AirJet Mini Sport in diverse environments, the cooling device includes features such as dust resistance and self-cleaning. In addition, just like AirJet Mini Slim, the Sport-badged version its own thermal sensor to control its own operation and maintain optimal performance. As a result, Frore claims that smartphones and action cameras with the AirJet Mini Sport can achieve up to 80% better performance. "We are excited to announce the waterproof AirJet Mini Sport," said Dr. Seshu Madhavapeddy, founder and CEO of Frore Systems. "Consumers demand increased performance in compact devices they can use anywhere, on land or in water. AirJet unleashes device performance, now enabling users to do more with their IP68 dustproof and waterproof devices." Air Cooling
SK hynix: GDDR7 Mass Production To Start in Q4'2024 Update 06/13: SK hynix has sent a note to AnandTech clarifying that the company "plans to start mass production of GDDR7 in the fourth quarter of this year when the relevant market opens up." This article has been updated accordingly. Being a major JEDEC memory standard, GDDR7 is slated to be produced by all three of the Big Three memory manufacturers. But it seems that not all three vendors will be kicking off mass production at the same time. SK hynix was at this year's Computex trade show, showing off their full lineup of memory technologies – including, of course, GDDR7. SK hynix is the last of the major memory vendor's we've seen promoting their memory, and fittingly, they seem to be the last in terms of their mass production schedule. According to company representatives, the firm will kick off mass production of their GDDR7 chips in the last quarter of 2024. Comparatively, the company's cross-town rival, Samsung, is already sampling memory with the goal of getting it out the door in 2024. And Micron has been rather gung ho about not only starting mass production this year, but starting it early enough that at least some of their customers will be able to ship finished products this year. That said, it bears mentioning that with industry-standard memory technologies, mass production at one vendor does not indicate that another is late; it is just indicating that someone was first to validate with a partner and that partner plans to ship its product in 2024. And while mass production remains another 4+ months out, SK hynix does have sample chips for its partners to test right now, and the chips have been demonstrated at Computex. As far as SK hynix's floor booth at Computex 2024 is concerned, the company had GDDR7 chips on display along with a table essentially summarizing the company's roadmap. For now, SK hynix is planning on both 16Gbit and 24Gbit chips, with data transfer rates of up to 40 GT/s. Though when SK hynix intends to launch their higher-end configurations remains to be seen. Both of the company's rivals are starting out with 16Gbit chips running at 32 GT/sec, so being the first to get a faster/larger chip out would be a feather in SK hynix's cap. GPUs
G.Skill on Tuesday introduced its ultra-low-latency DDR5-6400 memory modules that feature a CAS latency of 30 clocks, which appears to be the industry's most aggressive timings yet for DDR5-6400 sticks. The modules will be available for both AMD and Intel CPU-based systems.
With every new generation of DDR memory comes an increase in data transfer rates and an extension of relative latencies. While for the vast majority of applications, the increased bandwidth offsets the performance impact of higher timings, there are applications that favor low latencies. However, shrinking latencies is sometimes harder than increasing data transfer rates, which is why low-latency modules are rare.
Nonetheless, G.Skill has apparently managed to cherry-pick enough DDR5 memory chips and build appropriate printed circuit boards to produce DDR5-6400 modules with CL30 timings, which are substantially lower than the CL46 timings recommended by JEDEC for this speed bin. This means that while JEDEC-standard modules have an absolute latency of 14.375 ns, G.Skill's modules can boast a latency of just 9.375 ns – an approximately 35% decrease.
G.Skill's DDR5-6400 CL30 39-39-102 modules have a capacity of 16 GB and will be available in 32 GB dual-channel kits, though the company does not disclose voltages, which are likely considerably higher than those standardized by JEDEC.
The company plans to make its DDR5-6400 modules available both for AMD systems with EXPO profiles (Trident Z5 Neo RGB and Trident Z5 Royal Neo) and for Intel-powered PCs with XMP 3.0 profiles (Trident Z5 RGB and Trident Z5 Royal). For AMD AM5 systems that have a practical limitation of 6000 MT/s – 6400 MT/s for DDR5 memory (as this is roughly as fast as AMD's Infinity Fabric can operate at with a 1:1 ratio), the new modules will be particularly beneficial for AMD's Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000-series processors.
G.Skill notes that since its modules are non-standard, they will not work with all systems but will operate on high-end motherboards with properly cooled CPUs.
The new ultra-low-latency memory kits will be available worldwide from G.Skill's partners starting in late August 2024. The company did not disclose the pricing of these modules, but since we are talking about premium products that boast unique specifications, they are likely to be priced accordingly.
MemoryKioxia's booth at FMS 2024 was a busy one with multiple technology demonstrations keeping visitors occupied. A walk-through of the BiCS 8 manufacturing process was the first to grab my attention. Kioxia and Western Digital announced the sampling of BiCS 8 in March 2023. We had touched briefly upon its CMOS Bonded Array (CBA) scheme in our coverage of Kioxial's 2Tb QLC NAND device and coverage of Western Digital's 128 TB QLC enterprise SSD proof-of-concept demonstration. At Kioxia's booth, we got more insights.
Traditionally, fabrication of flash chips involved placement of the associate logic circuitry (CMOS process) around the periphery of the flash array. The process then moved on to putting the CMOS under the cell array, but the wafer development process was serialized with the CMOS logic getting fabricated first followed by the cell array on top. However, this has some challenges because the cell array requires a high-temperature processing step to ensure higher reliability that can be detrimental to the health of the CMOS logic. Thanks to recent advancements in wafer bonding techniques, the new CBA process allows the CMOS wafer and cell array wafer to be processed independently in parallel and then pieced together, as shown in the models above.
The BiCS 8 3D NAND incorporates 218 layers, compared to 112 layers in BiCS 5 and 162 layers in BiCS 6. The company decided to skip over BiCS 7 (or, rather, it was probably a short-lived generation meant as an internal test vehicle). The generation retains the four-plane charge trap structure of BiCS 6. In its TLC avatar, it is available as a 1 Tbit device. The QLC version is available in two capacities - 1 Tbit and 2 Tbit.
Kioxia also noted that while the number of layers (218) doesn't compare favorably with the latest layer counts from the competition, its lateral scaling / cell shrinkage has enabled it to be competitive in terms of bit density as well as operating speeds (3200 MT/s). For reference, the latest shipping NAND from Micron - the G9 - has 276 layers with a bit density in TLC mode of 21 Gbit/mm2, and operates at up to 3600 MT/s. However, its 232L NAND operates only up to 2400 MT/s and has a bit density of 14.6 Gbit/mm2.
It must be noted that the CBA hybrid bonding process has advantages over the current processes used by other vendors - including Micron's CMOS under array (CuA) and SK hynix's 4D PUC (periphery-under-chip) developed in the late 2010s. It is expected that other NAND vendors will also move eventually to some variant of the hybrid bonding scheme used by Kioxia.
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