Technical Presentation on Solid State Drive

BY D.Rama Krishna Vivek 08B21A0408 ECE

Department of ECE KAKINADA INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING &TECHNOLOGY,

KORANGI, KAKINADA

ABSTRACT

SSD (Solid State Drive) units are storage devices that store files and programs just like hard disk drives, but use flash memory chips to store data, instead of storing data on a magnetic disk. Because data is stored electronically rather than magnetically, SSDs are way faster than hard disk drives for two reasons. First, no conversion between magnetic information into electronic information is needed. And second, there are no mechanical parts, so data is readily available, while on hard disk drives you need to wait until the heads move to the area where data is stored, which takes some time.

CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION
Solid state storage devices store computer data on non-volatile "flash" memory chips rather than by changing the surface properties of a magnetic or optical spinning disk. With no moving parts solid state drives (SSDs) -- are also very much the future for almost all forms of computer storage. Solid state drives are likely to replace spinning hard disks in most computers, with several manufacturers now offering hard-disk-replacement SSDs. These are often very fast indeed, extremely robust and use very little power. As pictured above, typically today most hard disk replacement SSDs are the same size -- and hence a direct replacement for -- a 2.5" hard drive. They also usually connect via a SATA interface. Solid State Drives are on the rise--if the trend continues, and it almost certainly will, SSDs will replace conventional hard drives in laptops and desktops in less than a decade. Solid state is an electrical term that refers to electronic circuitry that is built entirely out of semiconductors. The term was originally used to define those electronics such as a transistor radio that used semiconductors rather than vacuum tubes in its construction. Most all electronics that we have today are built around semiconductors and chips. In terms of a SSD, it refers to the fact that the primary storage medium is through semiconductors rather than a magnetic media such as a hard drive. Now, you might say that this type of storage already exists in the form of flash memory drives that plug into the USB port. This is partially true as solid state drives and USB flash drives both use the same type of non-volatile memory chips that retain their information even when they have no power. The difference is in the form factor and capacity of the drives. While a flash drive is designed to be external to the computer system, an SSD is designed to reside inside the computer in place of a more traditional hard drive. So how exactly do they do this? Well, an SSD on the outside looks almost no different than a traditional hard drive. This design is to allow the SSD drive to put in a notebook or desktop computer in place of a hard drive. To do this, it needs to have the standard dimension as a 1.8, 2.5 or 3.5-inch hard drive. It also will use either the ATA or SATA drive interfaces so that there is a compatible interface.

Problem of Traditional Hard Disk

Data storage: Data is stored on the surface of a platter in sectors and tracks. Tracks are concentric circles, and sectors are pie-shaped wedges on a track, like this: A typical track is shown in yellow; a typical sector is shown in blue. A sector contains a fixed number of bytes -- for example, 256 or 512. Either at the drive or the operating system level, sectors are often grouped together into clusters. The process of low-level formatting a drive establishes the tracks and sectors on the platter. The starting and ending points of each sector are written onto the platter. This process prepares the drive to hold blocks of bytes. High-level formatting then writes the file-storage structures, like the file-allocation table, into the sectors. This process prepares the drive to hold files.

The disassembled components of a hard disk drive (left) and of the PCB and components of a solid-state drive (right) So,for the storage of data in an traditional hard drive a lot of mechanical components are necessary such as head and motors for reading or writing of data. Inside an SSD Unit

In Figure 2, you can see the inside from an SSD unit. There are three main components available: flash memory, controller and buffer. We will give some more details about these components below.

click Figure 2: Inside an SSD unit. Flash Memory

to

enlarge

This is where data is stored. Flash memory, which is the kind of memory also found on USB drives (thumb drives) and memory cards from digital cameras, dont lose its contents when power goes off, differently to what occurs with the main RAM from your computer. SSDs are expensive because lots of this kind of memory is used. Flash memories can be manufactured under two different technologies, NAND and NOR. The type used on all devices listed above is NAND, and therefore you can see some manufacturers calling flash memory as NAND. NOR technology allows running program code and is basically used on cell phones. Buffer Memory One chip of low-power SDRAM memory is used to speed up the communications between the controller and the SATA interface. Controller This is the heart of the SSD and the component that will tell how fast the unit can be. A few companies manufacture this kind of chip and the most common are Indilinx, Intel, Samsung and JMicron. Controllers organize the flash memory array into channels, which in theory can be accessed independently. Thus a controller with 10 channels will probably be faster than a controller that organizes memory into eight channels. We say probably because performance depends also on other factors. The controller chip can be also called SOC or System on a Chip.

How It Works Like a traditional hard drive, a flash-based drive stores information in the computerreadable language of 0s and 1s. But instead of writing data by flipping magnetic poles on a spinning disk, flash memory just shuttles electrons around on a stamp-size microchip. With no moving parts (except, of course, the electrons), a flash drive eats less power and is more durable than an ordinary hard drive. It can even survive a 10-foot drop. (A hard drive can wipe out your data if its mechanical arm scratches its disk.) The cost per gigabyte is still high, but its falling fast, and flash drives are already starting to appear in some laptops. Flash Memory: In flash memory, each memory cell resembles a standard MOSFET, except the transistor has two gates instead of one. On top is the control gate (CG), as in other MOS transistors, but below this there is a floating gate (FG) insulated all around by an oxide layer. The FG is interposed between the CG and the MOSFET channel. Because the FG is electrically isolated by its insulating layer, any electrons placed on it are trapped there and, under normal conditions, will not discharge for many years. When the FG holds a charge, it screens (partially cancels) the electric field from the CG, which modifies the threshold voltage (VT) of the cell. During read-out, a voltage intermediate between the possible threshold voltages is applied to the CG, and the MOSFET channel will become conducting or remain insulating, depending on the VT of the cell, which is in turn controlled by charge on the FG. The current flow through the MOSFET channel is sensed and forms a binary code, reproducing the stored data. In a multi-level cell device, which stores more than one bit per cell, the amount of current flow is sensed (rather than simply its presence or absence), in order to determine more precisely the level of charge on the FG.

Flash Memory

NAND flash: NAND flash also uses floating-gate transistors, but they are connected in a way that resembles a NAND gate: several transistors are connected in series, and only if all word lines are pulled high (above the transistors' VT) is the bit line pulled low. These groups are then connected via some additional transistors to a NOR-style bit line array. To read, most of the word lines are pulled up above the VT of a programmed bit, while one of them is pulled up to just over the VT of an erased bit. The series group will conduct (and pull the bit line low) if the selected bit has not been programmed. Despite the additional transistors, the reduction in ground wires and bit lines allows a denser layout and greater storage capacity per chip. In addition, NAND flash is typically permitted to contain a certain number of faults (NOR flash, as is used for a BIOS ROM, is expected to be fault-free). Manufacturers try to maximize the amount of usable storage by shrinking the size of the transistor below the size where they can be made reliably, to the size where further reductions would increase the number of faults faster than it would increase the total storage available. NAND flash uses tunnel injection for writing and tunnel release for erasing. NAND flash memory forms the core of the removable USB storage devices known as USB flash drives, as well as most memory card formats and solid-state drives available today.

Flash Memory Programming Flash memory stores 0s and 1s in millions of miniature transistors, each 1,000 times as thin as a human hair. If the transistor conducts current, the chip reads it as 1; if not, its 0. The current flows just underneath the transistor along the chips base, or substrate [A]. When the chip is empty, all transistors are set to 1. But when you hit save, the chip records data by blocking the current to some transistors, turning them into a 0. To do so, the chip briefly applies 20 volts to a piece of silicon called a control gate [B]. This pulls electrons onto another silicon bit called a floating gate [C], leaving a positively charged area directly belowand breaking up the usual path of electrical current. The only way to move the electrons and change the pattern of 1s and 0sthereby changing your datais by applying precise voltages to the transistors. That means even kicking your laptop wont erase your file.

Types of Nand Flash:

SLC (Single Level Cell) MLC (Multi Level Cell)

Single Level Cell Flash memory stores data in individual memory cells, which are made of floating-gate transistors. Traditionally, each cell had two possible states, so one bit of data was stored in each cell in so-called single-level cells, or SLC flash memory. SLC memory has the advantage of faster write speeds, lower power consumption and higher cell endurance. However, because it stores less data per cell, it costs more per megabyte of storage to manufacture. Due to faster transfer speeds and longer life, SLC flash technology is used in high-performance memory cards. Multi Level Cell In electronics, a multi-level cell (MLC) is a memory element capable of storing more than a single bit of information. MLC NAND flash is a flash memory technology using multiple levels per cell to allow more bits to be stored using the same number of transistors. In single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash technology, each cell can exist in one of two states, storing one bit of information per cell. Most MLC NAND flash memory has four possible states per cell, so it can store two bits of information per cell. This reduces the amount of margin separating the states and results in the possibility of more errors. Multi-level cells which are designed for low error rates are sometimes called enterprise MLC (eMLC). The primary benefit of MLC flash memory is its lower cost per unit of storage due to the higher data density. However, software complexity can be increased to compensate for a larger bit error ratio. The higher error ratio requires an algorithm that can correct errors up to five bits and detect the condition of more than five bad bits. The most commonly used algorithm is Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH code). Other drawbacks of MLC NAND are lower write speeds, lower number of program-erase cycles and higher power consumption compared to SLC flash memory. A few memory devices go the other direction, and use two cells per bit, to give even lower bit error rates.

Advantages: Speed This is the biggest reason to go for an SSD; theyre much, much faster than conventional hard drives in two different ways. First of all, because there are no moving parts there is no wait. While the drive spins up or for a head to move to the correct place to start reading the data there is very little waiting time, or latency. Since data can be read from anywhere in the drive pretty much instantly, tasks which rely on lots of data being read from all over the place (such as loading the operating system when you start your computer, starting an application or loading a game) are completed much, much faster. As well as outperforming HDDs in random reads, SSDs also have the upper hand in sustained reading and writing (which is when youre reading and writing large files like videos, for example). A typical new magnetic hard drive will be able to read at 60-80 MB/s, whereas a midrange solid-state drive will be able to read at anywhere from 175250 MB/s.

Durability The other major advantage that SSDs have is again due to their lack of moving parts. When nothing moves theres very little that can physically go wrong with the drive, making it virtually invulnerable to vibrations, magnetism or being dropped things that would seriously damage a magnetic drive. This makes SSDs perfect for laptops and other smaller portable devices that get moved around a lot. Noise Yet another benefit of having no moving parts is the SSDs silence. Hard drives make a surprising amount of noise, especially when theyre flat out. Having a drive that completely outperforms a conventional hard drive while making no noise at all is a definite plus. Power Consumption One of the big things that defines a laptop is its battery life Luckily, most solid-state drives draw a third to a half less power than even low power hard drives. This puts less strain on your battery, allowing it to last longer. Temperature If youve ever been poking around inside a computer while its switched on youll have probably discovered that hard drives get hot when theyre in use for long periods of time. Really hot. Rotating platters 7200 times a minute isnt exactly the best way to keep a motor cool, and that heat has to go somewhere! Furthermore, hard drives (like other components) need to be kept cool extended periods of high temperatures reduce its reliability and lifespan. That means extra fans, which means extra noise (see above).

SSDs, on the other hand, generate very little heat and require no cooling. Whats not to like?

Disadvantages: Price Whats not to like? Well, unfortunately SSDs are still very much a developing market, so you still pay a massive premium for all those advantages. As of January 2011, youll pay about 0.03 ($0.05) per GB for a large-capacity hard drive, whereas even the cheapest 128GB SSD will set you back 1.40 ($2.20) per GB. Yes, they do aim to do different jobs, but it just goes to show that itll be a while before SSDs are ready to fully replace HDDs. Reliability/Longevity The other major problem SSDs have is with longevity. As fast as the technology allows solid-state drives to be, it limits them in that each transistor may only be written to a certain number of times before it becomes stuck and cannot be written to any more. Long Term Performance Due to the way that data is dealt with on an SSD (including wear levelling), over time the drive becomes full of data even when youve carefully managed your disk space and deleted any files that you arent using and according to the Operating System you still have plenty of free space left. While this doesnt stop you from continuing to add data to the drive until you have filled the capacity of the drive, over time the writing speed of the drive appears to become slower and slower. Put simply, this is because as the drives pages are all filled it needs to rearrange data to free more pages to write to. Data Recovery Usually it takes a long time for a hard drive to fail, giving you plenty of warning and the opportunity to back up the data to another source. You dont get that with a solid-state drive; when a drive fails, it fails completely and instantly. When that happens, its virtually impossible to retrieve the data. The easy solution to this is to take regular backups of your data (which you should technically be doing anyway!), but thats not always feasible, particularly in a laptop.

Conclusion: Solid-state drives have plenty of advantages than the disadvantages. If youre looking to upgrade your computer an SSD will give you by far the biggest performance increase. The added speed and the ruggedness make SSD an advantage, particularly in a laptop.