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Micron Positions QLC to Transition from Hard Disk Drives to Solid State Drives
Micron announced the next step towards market leadership for its quad-level cell (QLC) NAND technology with an immediate broad market availability of the popular Micron 5210 ION enterprise SATA SSD, the first QLC SSD, began shipping May this year.
Available through global distributors, the Micron 5210 ION enterprise SATA SSD further accelerates Micron's lead in the QLC market, enabling replacement of hard disk drives (HDDs) with SSDs and building on Micron's recent launch of the Crucial P1 NVMe QLC SSD for consumer markets.
Enterprise storage needs are increasing as data center applications deliver real-time user insights and intelligent and enhanced user experiences, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data and real-time analytics. At the same time, there is a growing consumer need for higher storage capacity to support digital experiences. QLC SSDs are uniquely designed to address these requirements.
"Since launching the world's first QLC SSD and now making it available broadly to the market, Micron is enabling the rapid shift from slow, power-hungry HDDs to solid state drives," said Derek Dicker, Micron's corporate vice president and general manager of the Storage Business Unit. "QLC technology will become ubiquitous as today's enterprise and consumer segments start reaping the inherent advantages of SSDs over HDDs, now delivered at similar price points offered by HDDs."
High-density Micron QLC 64-layer 3D NAND flash media achieves densities of one terabit on a single chip, enabled by next-generation cell architecture, and offers an attractive option to AI and machine learning professionals. Providing the ease of SATA with the economics and speed of QLC NAND, the Micron 5210 ION SSD has already hastened the speed at which AI learns.
"By switching to QLC SSDs from hard disk drives, our machine learning workloads complete eight times faster for TensorFlow processing, TFRecord creation, ingest and image classification," said Gautam Shah, CEO of Colfax International, a leading machine learning solution provider. "We found that a 2.3TB, 100,000 image dataset took 15.17 hours on our HDD platform while the Micron 5210 ION completed the same task in just 1.87 hours, resulting in 13 hours of savings on an everyday task. The more machine learning you do and the bigger your dataset, the more your time savings will compound."
"With AI and deep learning transforming every industry, we see exponential demand for deep-learning-specific, GPU-accelerated compute and high-performance storage solutions," said Dr. Rene Meyer, vice president of technology at AMAX, a leading deep learning solutions provider. "Fast training data access is crucial to efficient model training. Replacing a traditional 64TB HDD centralized shared storage array with an all-flash Micron 5210 array, we found a 10x bandwidth increase and a notable reduction of model training times. The drive's combination of fast read performance coupled with cost-reducing QLC NAND and the SATA interface make the 5210 an easy choice for shared centralized storage solutions."
- Worldwide availability of the Micron 5210 ION enterprise SATA SSD through global distributors, resellers and system builders, enabling the continued transition from hard drives to flash-based SSDs
- Product targeted at read-intensive applications such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, real-time analytics, big data, business intelligence, NoSQL databases, object stores and media streaming
- Delivers 175 times faster random reads, 30 times faster random writes, 2 times more sequential throughput and 3 times more energy efficiency than the largest 10K RPM HDDs
- MSRPs similar on a $/GB basis to 2.4TB 10K HDDs
- Full enterprise feature set for improved security: AES 256-bit encryption, end-to-end data path protection, power-loss protection and 5-year warranty
- Available in affordable and HDD-compatible 2.5-inch form factor in capacities of 1.92TB, 3.84TB and 7.68TB
Key Features and Target Workloads of the Micron 5210 ION SSD
The Micron 5210 ION arrives in capacities up to 7.68TB in the affordable and HDD-compatible 2.5-inch (7mm) SATA form factor. Accessing data at the speed of flash, the Micron 5210 ION delivers sequential read speeds of 540 MB/s and up to 90,000 random read IOPS. Compared to the largest 10K RPM HDDs available, the Micron 5210 ION delivers 175 times faster random reads, 30 times faster random writes and 2 times faster sequential throughput.1 It's also three times more energy efficient, fueling a lower terabyte-to-terabyte total cost of ownership. The slim 2.5-inch form factor also allows users to pack twice as many Micron 5210 ION SSDs into the typical 2U rack and save on power, cooling, licenses and floor space.2
Ideal for read-intensive workloads such as the data lakes that feed AI, machine learning, deep learning and other read-intensive environments — real-time analytics, big data, object stores, business intelligence, NoSQL databases, media streaming and more — the Micron 5210 ION is architected to meet the needs of the fastest-growing enterprise workloads.
Availability
The Micron 5210 ION SSD is now in mass production and immediately available through leading global distributors, resellers and system builders — at prices comparable to 10K HDDs.
Micron Provides Statement on Fujian Province Patent Litigation - 07/06/2018 04:31 PM
Micron announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court, Fujian Province, China today notified two Chinese subsidiaries of Micron that it has granted a preliminary injunction against those enti...
DRAM Prices Might Go Up Again As MIcron Plant Has Issues - 07/06/2017 08:16 AM
One out of the two Micron's DRAM plants is out of production after they had to close it down after a nitrogen gas dispensing system. That malfunction contaminated equipment and wafer production. The ...
Micron P410m Enterprise SAS SSD - 02/28/2013 10:18 AM
Micron has announced a new line of enterprise SAS SSDs namely the P410m. Coming in 100GB, 200GB and 400GB sizes, these high endurance 2.5-inch SSDs are equipped with 25nm MLC NAND Flash memory chips, ...
Micron P400m SSD released for data centers - 01/23/2013 10:05 AM
Micron presents the P400m, a new solid state disk for data centers and storage platforms. This new model uses 25nm MLC NAND flash memory and is the first disk to feature Micron XPERT, a technology to ...
JMicron preps SATA 6Gbps SSD controller - 07/28/2011 10:10 AM
Taiwan-based JMicron Technology has successfully developed SATA 6Gbps controller ICs for use in solid state drives (SSD), and will begin small-volume shipments in the third quarter, according to indus...
JonasBeckman
Senior Member
Posts: 17563
Joined: 2009-02-25
Senior Member
Posts: 17563
Joined: 2009-02-25
#5605886 Posted on: 11/12/2018 12:24 AM
Yeah there are safeguards in place at least including a good number of spare cells similar to the spare sectors on HDD's and TRIM ensures continued high performance and even distribution of the writes so from that alone a decade or more of total lifetime is possible although like all electronics other wear and tear and gradual breakdown is also a concern and I think as a previous post already pointed out that storage is still a concern if the device is powered off, HDD's eventually succumb too but not as quickly.
Never really know when these devices will fail though same as HDD's I suppose in that way, SMART can look fine and the stats and such showing standard wear and then it just no longer boots up or can be accessed at all if things go badly although as seen by the stress test performed a year or two ago by now they can take a pretty good amount of wear before they fail catastrophically, often even above the rated threshold although bad batches do exist so in the end I guess it all comes down to the usual and you have to keep important data backed up if loss is a concern. Although with current utilities and the tech in these devices a check every now and then is usually enough to gauge overall healthiness of the device and there's not much to do if it just breaks down from some other error or fault.
(Sadly recovering the data just isn't that easy depending on the nature of the error, a few bad sectors or cells are manageable but once they start declining that's usually it and of course sudden immediate and usually total failures where it's just dead and can't be accessed at all anymore.)
Component shrinkage also accelerates this to some degree although exactly how much can only be speculated about, new features such as using helium instead of air on HDD's can have advantages but can also see components brought even closer so a small nudge on the platter can have bad results and for SSD's well the multiple cell layers do have far lower write counts although TLC and QLC are probably both still more durable than regular HDD's far as longevity goes under regular circumstances.
Suppose that's just stating the obvious though, data loss and recovery is always a problem too and sometimes there's no good way to recover data depending on the nature of the damage. Wonder if taking security into consideration that's going to be a incentive for more of a push to cloud storage and data centers in the future as the tech here also matures and sees bigger server farms?
(Personal or sensitive info would be a possible concern of course so a USB stick or separate storage drive might be better with how profitable certain exploits and malicious software can be these days thus why there's so much of it.)
RAID is a thing as well come to think of it, keeping the data synced and cloned and resistant to errors plus newer file systems like ReFS was it whenever Microsoft actually gets that into something that can be used regularly or even replace NTFS eventually.
(Early Windows 10 builds supported it and then it got some updates with additional features though it still can't be a boot drive and then support kinda disappeared outside of Enterprise systems last I heard about it.)
EDIT: Well depending on which RAID mode is used plus it needs more drives and that does incur a extra cost in hardware since SSD's can still be pretty pricey although affordability has improved a lot.
EDIT: Well that's a lot of text for hardware eventually fails just be prepared and don't lose any info that you consider important.
Much of this is pretty standard stuff too I suppose, will be interesting to see how the SSD and HDD technology develops in 2020 and beyond though, 20+ TB HDD's for storage would potentially be a lot of data that might be lost if things go badly and for SSD's I wonder what's next beyond QLC although I suppose Intel Optane is also a interesting concept although quite expensive for now and for more specialized demands or future developments.
NVME and PCIE 4.0 is also a combination that can probably see even greater speed gains though I suppose software actually requiring that level of throughput isn't too common yet although bandwidth saturation would also be less of a concern I guess.
Lots of interesting and exciting developments I guess, as usual with the computer and tech industry heh.
(There might be some limitations looming but there's probably ways around them or other alternatives to resolve these obstacles such as the constant node shrinkage.)
Yeah there are safeguards in place at least including a good number of spare cells similar to the spare sectors on HDD's and TRIM ensures continued high performance and even distribution of the writes so from that alone a decade or more of total lifetime is possible although like all electronics other wear and tear and gradual breakdown is also a concern and I think as a previous post already pointed out that storage is still a concern if the device is powered off, HDD's eventually succumb too but not as quickly.
Never really know when these devices will fail though same as HDD's I suppose in that way, SMART can look fine and the stats and such showing standard wear and then it just no longer boots up or can be accessed at all if things go badly although as seen by the stress test performed a year or two ago by now they can take a pretty good amount of wear before they fail catastrophically, often even above the rated threshold although bad batches do exist so in the end I guess it all comes down to the usual and you have to keep important data backed up if loss is a concern. Although with current utilities and the tech in these devices a check every now and then is usually enough to gauge overall healthiness of the device and there's not much to do if it just breaks down from some other error or fault.
(Sadly recovering the data just isn't that easy depending on the nature of the error, a few bad sectors or cells are manageable but once they start declining that's usually it and of course sudden immediate and usually total failures where it's just dead and can't be accessed at all anymore.)
Component shrinkage also accelerates this to some degree although exactly how much can only be speculated about, new features such as using helium instead of air on HDD's can have advantages but can also see components brought even closer so a small nudge on the platter can have bad results and for SSD's well the multiple cell layers do have far lower write counts although TLC and QLC are probably both still more durable than regular HDD's far as longevity goes under regular circumstances.
Suppose that's just stating the obvious though, data loss and recovery is always a problem too and sometimes there's no good way to recover data depending on the nature of the damage. Wonder if taking security into consideration that's going to be a incentive for more of a push to cloud storage and data centers in the future as the tech here also matures and sees bigger server farms?
(Personal or sensitive info would be a possible concern of course so a USB stick or separate storage drive might be better with how profitable certain exploits and malicious software can be these days thus why there's so much of it.)
RAID is a thing as well come to think of it, keeping the data synced and cloned and resistant to errors plus newer file systems like ReFS was it whenever Microsoft actually gets that into something that can be used regularly or even replace NTFS eventually.
(Early Windows 10 builds supported it and then it got some updates with additional features though it still can't be a boot drive and then support kinda disappeared outside of Enterprise systems last I heard about it.)
EDIT: Well depending on which RAID mode is used plus it needs more drives and that does incur a extra cost in hardware since SSD's can still be pretty pricey although affordability has improved a lot.
EDIT: Well that's a lot of text for hardware eventually fails just be prepared and don't lose any info that you consider important.
Much of this is pretty standard stuff too I suppose, will be interesting to see how the SSD and HDD technology develops in 2020 and beyond though, 20+ TB HDD's for storage would potentially be a lot of data that might be lost if things go badly and for SSD's I wonder what's next beyond QLC although I suppose Intel Optane is also a interesting concept although quite expensive for now and for more specialized demands or future developments.
NVME and PCIE 4.0 is also a combination that can probably see even greater speed gains though I suppose software actually requiring that level of throughput isn't too common yet although bandwidth saturation would also be less of a concern I guess.
Lots of interesting and exciting developments I guess, as usual with the computer and tech industry heh.
(There might be some limitations looming but there's probably ways around them or other alternatives to resolve these obstacles such as the constant node shrinkage.)
JonasBeckman
Senior Member
Posts: 17563
Joined: 2009-02-25
Senior Member
Posts: 17563
Joined: 2009-02-25
#5605890 Posted on: 11/12/2018 12:38 AM
And more on topic I wonder how many other HDD manufacturers are considering a shift more towards SSD technology, eventually I do assume it will replace it in full although not for several more years as storage capacity and cost is still a important factor where a HDD can excel when speed isn't a key concern and long term reliability or storage might be another if the device isn't constantly powered on and maintained in some form.
Also something we'll probably hear more on in 2019 and on along with changes in pricing and manufacturing costs as I assume the hardware is going to see a even bigger demand and facilities to construct these require some specialized equipment.
(Though I suppose it's the same with the old HDD only this is more recent although growing rapidly in demand and seeing really rapid development as well.)
EDIT: Interesting times ahead I guess, which has probably been said since the 70's or so and the start of personal and home computers in their many forms.
EDIT: Right there was a previous announcement earlier this year about another manufacturer focusing on SSD's over HDD's as I recall. Certainly shows the increase in demand for these devices which is probably going to increase further still.
(Particularly if it can be come more affordable such as from quad layer cells and other developments.)
EDIT: Wait Micron deals more with flash memory and such, I'm being confused again.
And more on topic I wonder how many other HDD manufacturers are considering a shift more towards SSD technology, eventually I do assume it will replace it in full although not for several more years as storage capacity and cost is still a important factor where a HDD can excel when speed isn't a key concern and long term reliability or storage might be another if the device isn't constantly powered on and maintained in some form.
Also something we'll probably hear more on in 2019 and on along with changes in pricing and manufacturing costs as I assume the hardware is going to see a even bigger demand and facilities to construct these require some specialized equipment.
(Though I suppose it's the same with the old HDD only this is more recent although growing rapidly in demand and seeing really rapid development as well.)
EDIT: Interesting times ahead I guess, which has probably been said since the 70's or so and the start of personal and home computers in their many forms.
EDIT: Right there was a previous announcement earlier this year about another manufacturer focusing on SSD's over HDD's as I recall. Certainly shows the increase in demand for these devices which is probably going to increase further still.
(Particularly if it can be come more affordable such as from quad layer cells and other developments.)
EDIT: Wait Micron deals more with flash memory and such, I'm being confused again.
Kaarme
Senior Member
Posts: 3405
Joined: 2013-03-10
Senior Member
Posts: 3405
Joined: 2013-03-10
#5605896 Posted on: 11/12/2018 12:57 AM
Are there any more HDD manufacturers than Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba? HGST belongs to WD. Spinning HDDs have been a sunset business for years now. Samsung dropped out of it half a dozen years ago already, some much earlier (like Maxtor). If you see other brands, for example in external HDDs, it's actually a drive by one of these manufacturers inside, just the enclosure and interface electronics are made by whoever.
And more on topic I wonder how many other HDD manufacturers are considering a shift more towards SSD technology
Are there any more HDD manufacturers than Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba? HGST belongs to WD. Spinning HDDs have been a sunset business for years now. Samsung dropped out of it half a dozen years ago already, some much earlier (like Maxtor). If you see other brands, for example in external HDDs, it's actually a drive by one of these manufacturers inside, just the enclosure and interface electronics are made by whoever.
JonasBeckman
Senior Member
Posts: 17563
Joined: 2009-02-25
Senior Member
Posts: 17563
Joined: 2009-02-25
#5605898 Posted on: 11/12/2018 12:59 AM
You're right, I completely overlooked that fact too and how the actual hardware is made a smaller set of manufacturers which can then be sold by others.
EDIT: And that the list has shrunk a bit too over the years.
You're right, I completely overlooked that fact too and how the actual hardware is made a smaller set of manufacturers which can then be sold by others.
EDIT: And that the list has shrunk a bit too over the years.
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It would be cool if all SSDs simply stopped writing and that's it. You could just copy/clone the stuff onto a new SSD and be happy again. I haven't yet lost any SSDs but it seems like they can randomly die as well.