Solid state drives (SSDs) are becoming ubiquitous. They’re used in a vast number of products for consumers and enterprises alike. Today that means laptops and servers, certainly, as well as everything from smartphones to home appliances to wearable fitness trackers to automated robots on a factory line.
As a global leader in NAND flash controller IC and storage solutions, Phison has developed advanced SSD solutions that have been used throughout the world in millions of products. The company’s PCIe Gen4 E18 controller-based SSD, launched in 2020, was the first Gen4 SSD to break the 7 GB/s barrier in sequential read performance and enabled “at least 50 percent data transfer performance improvements” over its predecessor, the E16.
With high performance, low latency and drive configurations tailored to a wide range of specialized industry and enterprise needs, SSDs based on the E18 controller help enable our digital world.
This article highlights a few of the unique, perhaps lesser-known uses for the Phison drive, specifically the E18 pSLC SSD solution.
Before we begin—a couple definitions
SLC
SSDs come in several types of NAND configurations today: SLC, MLC, TLC and QLC. SLC stands for “single level cell,” which means the drive allows just one bit per memory cell. Multi-level cell (MLC) drives allow two bits per cell, triple-level cell (TLC) drives allow three and—you guessed it—quad-level cell (QLC) drives allow four bits per memory cell.
Without getting too deep into the technical weeds, suffice it to say SLC SSDs are the fastest SSDs around. They also offer increased durability and reliability over the other types.
The tradeoff is that they’re more expensive. SLC NAND, which was the original technology used in all SSDs, isn’t typically used in consumer applications anymore. Today SLC NAND SSDs are used in applications that require the highest performance, highest endurance or maximum protection against radiation from applications such as medical diagnostic equipment or on missions to space.
pSLC
Pseudo SLC, or pSLC, is a TLC or QLC NAND drive that has been formatted to store one bit per cell instead of their native 3 or 4 bits per cell, respectively. Phison uses a firmware formatting technique to configure the NAND in the drive so each cell only holds one bit. In essence, that drive becomes SLC and provides all the benefits of faster reads/writes, increased endurance and better protection against radiation.
Use 1: Immersive professional movie theater experience
Phison E18 pSLC SSDs are ideally suited for video production applications that need extremely fast recording capabilities to capture content. The E18 pSLC SSD is essentially used as the primary data storage “film” to record high-speed and high-resolution video. To create VR-like experiences that can be shown on the largest screens in the world, modern-day companies may need hundreds to thousands of customized storage drives with the fastest performance and lowest latency. Only these highest-performance SSDs can capture the ultra-high-definition video footage to create a memorable interactive experience that takes entertainment to a whole new level.
Use 2: High-performance drone video capture
Drones are increasingly popular to offer aerial views never before possible. Drone manufacturers for professional filmmakers will benefit from using the Phison E18 pSLC SSD in on-board cameras that can capture extremely high-resolution video footage. Today’s movies rely on 4K and even 8K technology for crisp images that bring the action home to audiences, and production companies need a reliable storage mechanism for the footage. The E18 pSLC SSD is also made in a tiny M.2 2280 form factor, and is very light, weighing in at only around 10 grams, to easily fit within a drone’s flight capabilities.
The most-requested SSDs are based on 8 TB TLC NAND drives, but by formatting them for pSLC use, the capacity is decreased to gain performance and endurance, so each drive will have about 2 TB of actual storage space. That still adds up to around 25 hours of 4K video, however (although file size will vary depending on the camera, codec and video/audio bitrates). Or just over 80 minutes of pristine 8K video. In pSLC mode, the burst capability seen on regular client drives are now available for the entire capacity of the drive.
Use 3: Medical scanning equipment
When manufacturers of medical equipment, such as CT scanners or MRI machines, create their next-generation patient scanning and diagnostic equipment, they will benefit by choosing SSDs as the primary storage for these devices because of their fast performance and ability to capture three-dimensional scanned data in seconds.
A unique requirement to support these applications is that the SSD must be able to withstand high levels of radiation, as the machine may use X-rays or magnetic fields around the patient’s body to capture the images. Standard TLC or QLC SSDs may have their NAND cells damaged by radiation particles, which can cause data corruption, program/erase errors, read/write errors or even cause the drive to stop working altogether.
Phison recommends that the SSDs be properly located away from and shielded from active radiation; however, the E18 pSLC SSD, with each NAND cell only needing to determine if it is a one or a zero, is uniquely suited to perform to specification in the presence of higher levels of radiation. pSLC drives offer increased reliability compared to the other types, which is important in a high-energy environment that can wreak havoc on sensitive electronic components.
Use 4: Mission to the moon
In 2019, NASA announced its Artemis program, which will have astronauts returning to the moon in a series of missions that will culminate with humans walking on the moon’s surface by 2025. These astronauts will require computers and SSD storage with the highest reliability specifications. When we operate our computers here on Earth, we have the protection of both the Earth’s magnetosphere and atmosphere to insulate us and our computers from cosmic rays. Missions to the moon escape both of these protective layers, subjecting even the NAND storage in SSDs to data corruption by one or more of these unpredictable cosmic rays if contact is made with the SSD in a vulnerable location.
As mentioned above, Phison’s E18 pSLC SSD has built-in protection to make it more resilient against the effects of radiation from cosmic rays, while also providing optimal performance and endurance. If Phison’s SSDs are used in the Artemis program, it will be Phison’s second NASA mission.
Phison’s first SSD mission with NASA was to supply the Mars Perseverance Rover with an 8 GB uSSD, which is still in use today. We look forward to the amazing discoveries the Perseverance Rover will find as it explores the Delta at the Jezero Crater on Mars.
Phison drives innovation
With the high performance of the E18 pSLC SSD and other Phison drives, enterprises and innovators across the world—and across industries—can conceive and create tomorrow’s advanced tools and technologies.
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