In a new blog post from Phison, the DRAM controller maker reiterates how PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs will face higher temperatures and require active cooling solutions.
In discussions, Phison sets a temperature limit of 125°C for PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD controllers, active cooling, and new connector
Last year, Phison I showed Good detailed information about PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs. Sebastian Jean, Phison’s chief technology officer, announced that the first 5G solutions will be delivered to customers by the end of this year.
For PCIe Gen 5 SSDs, it has been reported that PCIe Gen 5 SSDs will deliver speeds of up to 14Gbps and current DDR4-2133 memory will provide speeds of up to 14Gbps per channel. Although SSDs will not replace system storage solutions, memory and dynamic memory can now run in the same space, and a unique perspective is provided in the form of L4 cache. Current CPU architectures consist of L1, L2 and L3 cache, so Phison believes that Gen 5 SSDs and later with 4kb cache could act as LLC (L4) cache for a CPU due to a similar design architecture.
Phison now states that to keep the power cap in check, they’re dropping from 16nm to 7nm to reduce wattage while meeting their performance goals. Relying on enhanced 7nm process nodes can help lower the performance limit, and another way to save power is to reduce NAND channels on an SSD.
“In practice, you no longer need eight channels to saturate Gen4 and even Gen5 PCIe interfaces. You can saturate the host interface with four NAND channels, and reducing the number of return channels reduces overall SSD performance by 20 to 30 percent.”
Temperatures remain a constant concern for SSDs as we move forward. As we’ve seen with 4th generation PCIe NVMe SSDs, they tend to run hotter than previous generations and therefore require massive cooling solutions. Most high-end devices come with a heatsink these days, and motherboard manufacturers have emphasized the use of their own heatsinks, at least for the primary solid-state drive.
Laut Phison arbeitet NAND typischerweise bei bis zu 70-85 °C und mit Gen 5 sind die Grenzen des SSD-Controllers auf 125 °C festgelegt, aber die NAND-Temperaturen können nur auf 80 °C steigen, danach wird es in eschine köl He goes.
When the SSD is full, it becomes more sensitive to heat. Gan recommends keeping your SSD and SSD below 50°C (122°F). He said, “The controller and all the other components… are fine up to 125°C (257°F), but the NAND is not, and the SSD intervenes during a critical shutdown if it detects that the NAND temperature is above 80°C (176°F) or Then.”
The heat is bad, but the extreme cold is not great either. “If most of your data is written really hot and you read it really cold, you have a lot of temperature swing,” January said. So the maximum productivity is lower. The ideal location for a hard drive is between 25 and 50 degrees Celsius (77 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit). “
As such, Phison mentioned that they recommend Gen 4 SSD manufacturers to get a heatsink, but for Gen 5 it’s a must. There’s also a chance we’ll see active fan-based cooling solutions for next-generation SSDs, due to the higher power requirements that lead to increased heat dissipation. Gen 5 SSDs have an average TDP of about 14W, while Gen 6 SSDs have an average TDP of about 28W. In addition, it is reported that thermal management is a major challenge for the future.
“I’m expecting fifth-generation heatsinks,” he said. “But at some point we also need a fan that pushes the air directly over the heatsink.”
Regarding server-side form factors, Gan said, “The most important thing is to get good airflow through the enclosure itself, and the heatsinks basically reduce the need for crazy high-speed fans because it gives you a much more dissipation area.” EDSFF E1 and E3 specifications Contains form factor definitions that include heat sinks. Some insecticides are willing to replace the density of canister storage with a heat sink and reduce the need for high-speed fans. “
“For example, if you look at the bigger question of where computers are headed, there is an understanding that the M.2 PCIe Gen5 card as it is today has reached the point where it can go. The bottleneck for achieving higher speeds in the future,” Jen said. So new connectors are being developed and will be available in the next few years. It will greatly improve both signal integrity and heat dissipation ability by connecting to the motherboard. These new connectors may allow us to avoid fans on SSDs.”
Currently, 30% of the heat is dissipated through the M.2 connector and 70% through the M.2 screw. This is where the new interfaces and interface slots will play a major role. Phison is currently investing in a new connector type that could allow for full use of the fans, but for users who crave faster speeds, there are still AICs and NVMe SSDs that support better cooling designs. As mentioned earlier
news source: Tomcharder
