Phison and Seagate have been collaborating on SSDs since 2017 within the shopper in addition to SMB/SME area. In April 2022, they’d introduced a partnership to develop and distribute enterprise NVMe SSDs. On the Flash Reminiscence Summit this week, the outcomes of the collaboration are being introduced within the type of the X1 SSD platform – an U.3 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD that’s backwards suitable with U.2 slots.
The X1 SSD makes use of a brand new Phison controller unique to Seagate – the E20. It integrates two ARM Cortex-R5 cores together with a number of co-processors that speed up SSD administration duties. Phison is touting the advance in random learn IOPS (claims of as much as 30% quicker that the competitors in its class) as a key driver for its slot in AI coaching and software servers servicing 1000’s of shoppers. The important thing specs of the X1 SSD platform are summarized within the desk beneath. The efficiency numbers quoted are for the 1DWPD 3.84TB mannequin.
| Seagate / Phison X1 SSD Platform | |
| Capacities | 1.92 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 TB (1DWPD fashions) 1.6 TB, 3.2 TB, 6.4 TB, 12.8 TB (3DWPD fashions) |
| Host Interface | PCIe 4.0 x4 (NVMe 1.4) |
| Kind Issue | U.3 (15mm / 7mm z-height) |
| NAND | 128L 3D eTLC |
| Sequential Accesses Efficiency | 7400 MBps (Reads) 7200 MBps (Writes) |
| Random Accesses Efficiency | 1.75M IOPS @ QD32T4 & 84us Latency @ QD1 (4K Reads) 470K IOPS @ QD32T4 & 10us Latency @ QD1 (4K Writes) |
| Uncorrectable Bit-Error Price | 1 in 1018 |
| Energy Consumption | 13.5W (Random Reads) 17.9W (Random Writes) 6.5W (Idle) |
Seagate equips the X1 with eTLC (enterprise TLC), power-loss safety capacitors, and consists of end-to-end knowledge path safety. SECDED (single error correction / double error detection) and periodic reminiscence scrubbing is completed for the inner DRAM as a part of the ECC characteristic. For the contents on the flash itself, the X1 helps the Information Integrity Subject / Information Integrity Extension / Safety Info (DIF/DIX/PI) for end-to-end knowledge safety. Varied different enterprise-focused options resembling SR-IOV assist, and NVMe-MI (administration interface) are additionally supported.
Seagate and Phison declare that the X1 SSD might be personalized for particular use-cases, and it presents the most effective efficiency at school together with the most effective vitality effectivity. Seagate is advertising the X1 SSD underneath the Nytro branding – the Nytro 5050 NVMe SSD series for knowledge facilities. The Nytro 5350 consists of the 1DWPD fashions, whereas the Nytro 5550 makes up the 3DWPD ones.
When it comes to competitors within the PCIe 4.0 / U.2 / U.3 area, the Nytro 5050 sequence goes up in opposition to Micron’s 7450 PRO and 7450 MAX (PDF), utilizing their 176L 3D TLC flash, and Kioxia’s CD7-V / CD7-R knowledge middle SSDs. On paper, Seagate / Phison’s efficiency specs simply surpass these platforms which were delivery for greater than a 12 months now.
