Solidigm launches first consumer-grade PCI-E 4.0 SSD
In fact, Intel sold its NAND-related business to SK Hynix a long time ago, and at the end of 2021, the first phase of the merger-related to the business of the two companies was launched. SK hynix established a subsidiary Solidigm to handle Intel’s NAND SSD-related business and took over the sales of Intel’s existing SSD products. Today, Solidigm officially released its first consumer-grade SSD, the P41 Plus.
The Solidigm P41 Plus is actually a direct successor to the Intel 670p SSD. Upgrading from PCI-E 3.0 of the previous generation to PCI-E 4.0, it has better performance and very high-cost performance. It has been adjusted for low queue depth and mixed read and write, which can meet the common storage requirements of common applications, including office and mainstream games.
The Solidigm P41 Plus’ firmware is in charge of the Solidigm team, and the flash memory is still 144-layer stacked 3D QLC based on the previous Intel production capacity. This SSD is available in three forms of M.2 2280/2242/2230 to meet various needs of retail and OEM markets. In terms of capacity, there are three kinds of 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB, using PCI-E 4.0 x4 interface, the maximum continuous reading speed of SSD is 4125MB/s, and the continuous writing speed is 3325MB/s. The maximum random read and write IOPS are 390K and 540K respectively, the durability is 200TBW per 512GB, and the warranty period is 5 years.
Like the previous Intel 670p, Solidigm P41 Plus still emphasizes the performance of low queue depth and the mixed read and write performance of SSD. The above figure shows the read/write ratio, continuous/random ratio, and queue depth when Solidigm counts the actual application of SSD. It can be seen that 90% of the daily applications are within the range of QD1-2, and will not exceed QD4. At present, most SSD manufacturers only identify the maximum IOPS of the product when promoting, but this maximum IOPS can only run out in the case of high queue depth. Basically, it is impossible to run the queue depth in daily life. In fact, continuous reading and writing will also have this situation.
Solidigm has also strengthened its investment in software to improve the user experience and launched the supporting Solidigm Synergy software, which can support cache management on the host side. According to the data category, important data is stored in the cache to further improve performance. In addition, the software also supports SSD status monitoring and management functions.
The most important thing about Solidigm Synergy is for some commonly used applications. For the SSD we usually use, it is generally in the situation that the capacity is used by 25%-50%, or even the capacity is full. In this case, the performance of the SSD will decrease. However, with the support of Solidigm Synergy software, P41 Plus can improve the response speed, especially the reading performance, it can keep the random read performance of the SSD within 50%. When the SSD usage reaches 25%, using Solidigm Synergy can increase the random read speed of the SSD by nearly 80%.
The PCMark 10 storage test score of the Solidigm P41 Plus is about 3000, which is almost 600 points higher than the previous generation Intel 670p, and about 500 points higher than the PCI-E 4.0 SSD with 3D TLC flash memory used for comparison. After turning on the Solidigm Synergy software, the performance of the P41 Plus can be further improved, possibly by about 100 points. The P41 Plus is noticeably faster than the 670p and comparison TLC SSDs, and with Solidigm Synergy software, performance is even better.
Solidigm P41 Plus will be launched in various regions of the world in early August, retail channels in the Asia Pacific will be launched in late August or around September, and the OEM market will be launched in October.
