How NVMe SSDs are optimized in I-Temp. This presentation was featured in Flash Memory Summit.

1. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
Improving the Performance of M.2 NVMe
SSDs at Industrial Temperatures
Peter Huang
Senior Manager, Embedded SSD BU
ATP Electronics, Inc.

2. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
SATA vs NVMe Background
Trend of Embedded Storage: SATA to NVMe
Over the years, CPU and DRAM technologies have been continually improving
and speeds are increasing to meet escalating data-hungry requirements.
0
2
4
6
8
10
Intel Core Intel Core 2 Intel Core
i3
Intel Core
i5
Intel Core
i7
Intel Core
i7 (Extreme
Edition)
Intel Core
i9
CPU Generations: Speed Comparison
Clock Speed (GHz)
Bus Speed (GT/s)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_processors
2

3. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
SATA vs NVMe Background
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
DDR1 DDR2 DDR3 DDR4
DRAM Generations: Speed Comparison
Bus Clock (MHz)
Transfer Rate (MT/s)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM
Trend of Embedded Storage: SATA to NVMe
3

4. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
SATA vs NVMe Background
Trend of Embedded Storage: SATA to NVMe
 SATA is generally the least expensive and most extensively used SSD
interface today.
 SATA speed is currently capped at 6 Gb/s transfer rate (600 MB/s
throughput).
 To narrow the widening gap between fast CPU/DRAM and slow storage,
Non-Volatile Memory Express, also known as NVMe™, was developed.
4

5. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
NVMe Interface Specifications
PCIe vs. SATA Bandwidth Comparison
ATP's M.2 NVMe SSD is designed for a PCIe 3.0 interface and fits in a x4 lane, delivering
up to 7.9 Gb/s transfer rate and up to 3.9 GB/s throughput.
PCIe SATA
Generation Transfer Rate Throughput per Lane Generation Transfer Rate Throughput
Gen1 2.5 Gb/s x1: 250 MB/s x4: 1 GB/s Gen1 1.5 Gb/s 150 MB/s
Gen2 4.9 Gb/s x1: 500 MB/s x4: 2 GB/s Gen2 3 Gb/s 300 MB/s
Gen3 7.9 Gb/s x1: 984.6 MB/s x4: 3.9 GB/s Gen3 6 Gb/s 600 MB/s
Gen4 15.8 Gb/s x1: 1,969 MB/s x4: 7.8 GB/s
5

6. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
150
550
2500
130
550
1000
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
HDD SATA NVMe
HDD vs. SATA vs. NVMe
Maximum Speeds
Sequential Write
Sequential Read
NVMe Performance
 The actual NVMe performance is boosted to catch up with
speed requirements.
 However, heat accumulation while running at full performance
becomes a big challenge during the system design.
6

7. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
Embedded Systems in I-Temp
 Embedded systems usually have a fanless design due to space
limitations. Heat inside the system is one of the key factors that
can impact performance.
 Usually, the NVMe controller has default thermal settings to adjust
the clock under different temperatures in order to slow the
performance to ease the heat dissipation issue.
 For the I-Temp environment, it’s also very important to optimize
this setting. Therefore, performance should be maintained within a
certain level to keep the balance instead of drastically decreasing
performance.
7

8. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
NVMe M.2 2280 Form Factor
 Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
 DRAM Cache
 NAND Flash chips
 NVMe Controller
 Thermal Sensor
8

9. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
Thermal Throttling Setting
9

10. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
Dynamic Thermal Throttling
ATP vs. Other Brand 1TB NVMe SSD
Dynamic Thermal Throttling & Performance Comparison
ATP Iometer
ATP Dynamic Thermal Throttling activated
Seq Write 128kb at Ambient 55°C (1 hr)
60-80°C Between 80-100°C 100°C
Controller Temperature
Other Iometer
Performance
10

11. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
Thermal Throttling Characterization
ATP 1TB NVMe SSD (Tambient: 25oC~85oC) Performance
11
Performance
Seq. Write 128kb (1 hr)

12. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
Thermal Throttling Characterization
ATP 1TB NVMe SSD (Tambient: 25oC~85oC)
12
Temperature
Controller Surface Temp.

13. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA
Conclusion
 Depending on the usage cases and workload, the
thermal throttling settings could be set up and adjusted
in order to meet customer’s applications.
 For the embedded systems in the I-Temp environment,
the optimized settings could relieve the heat dissipation
and keep the stable performance.
13

14. ATP Confidential © 2018 ATP Electronics, Inc.
Flash Memory Summit 2018
Santa Clara, CA 14