The Solidigm D7-P5810 is a fast SLC SSD for write-intensive tasks
The D3- SATA offerings from Solidigm are for legacy servers, the D5- QLC-based offerings (with various models offering various trade-offs between cost and endurance), and the D7- NVMe drives for the best performance and endurance ratings.
TLC NAND has so far been used by the business in the D7 drives. The D7-P5810, which uses the company’s established 144L SLC 3D NAND, was recently added to the D7 portfolio for particularly write-intensive applications.
Hyperscalers have employed storage-class memory (SCM) solutions like Optane for a range of use-cases including write-caching, HPC workloads, journaling, online transaction processing (OLTP), etc. The Optane product line’s discontinuation has created several chances for SSD companies to enter the market with devices that are similar to near-SCM.
Earlier this year, Micron unveiled their XTR NVMe SSDs, which used their 176L 3D NAND in SLC mode. The business had developed specs for near-Optane performance in Microsoft SQL Server analytical applications and optimised the firmware on the drives. With the D7-P5810, Solidigm is using a similar strategy, but with adjustments for a new use-case.
Solidigm determined that the Optane drives were significantly over-engineered for the criteria fulfilled by Alibaba’s (Optane + QLC) deployment for local discs in their cloud servers. As an instance, Optane offered 100 DWPD whereas Alibaba’s workload only required 37.
Alibaba’s setup resulted in the Optane drive producing 20K IOPS per tenant, however the 4K random write needs were only 8K IOPS per tenant. Solidigm has improved the firmware of the D7-P5810 to provide 50 DWPD worst-case durability and 10K IOPS per tenant at capacities comparable to the Optane SSDs used by Alibaba in order to fulfil these criteria.
Below is a summary of the D7-P5810’s specs. The 1.6 TB version of the drive is anticipated to debut in the first half of 2024, while the 800 GB model is already in widespread production.
At Storage Field Day 26, the firm gave a few engaging presentations. In one of them, the company displayed a slide contrasting the D7-P5810 with its rivals.
It is obvious from the slide above that Competitor A is Kioxia’s FL6 Series and that Competitor B is Micron’s XTR NVMe SSD. The demands for sequential speeds, random access IOPS, longevity, and power consumption vary depending on the corporate SSD use-case. Vendors are beginning to provide specialised drives with firmware that is tailored for a certain use-case as a consequence.
The vendor’s optimisation for various use-cases might be blamed for the disparities in the aforementioned comparison. Apart from the fundamental variations in the flash packages (176L in Micron’s XTR vs. 96L BiCS in Kioxia’s FL6 vs. 144L in Solidigm’s D7-P5810), it is possible that these suppliers may reach other compromises with the firmware of their drives if necessary.
The Cloud Storage Acceleration Layer (CSAL) team from Intel was bought by Solidigm earlier this year. The team at Intel had been working on Optane as a companion drive for slower media and had open-sourced their work in the Storage Performance Development Kit.
The company’s focus has changed from Optane to SLC after joining Solidigm, with a focus on utilising drives like the D7-P5810 as a complement to their high-density QLC drives.
The D7-P5810 may be utilised in a broad range of situations, including metadata storage, caching, and data placement depending on service-level agreement (SLA) needs, in addition to the aforementioned use-case in deployment at Alibaba.
The D7-P5810 has been added to the Solidigm enterprise SSD product line, expanding its product portfolio to include a wide range of endurance ratings that are appropriate for a variety of applications and use-cases.
It is encouraging to see companies like Micron and Solidigm moving up to offer SLC-based solutions, even though Optane may soon be coming to an end. The makers are also able to provide business SSD users a cost-effective option by refraining from over-engineering for certain use-cases that are already covered by Optane drives.
