Nvme hdd: Seagate Creates an NVME Hard Disk Drive

HDD vs NVMe Drives: What Are The Differences?

One of the recurring problems of almost all businesses dealing with data is that they run out of storage space sooner than expected.

With so many choices, ranging from flash drives, hard drives, cloud storage to drives of NVMe, things can get quite confusing. If you’re looking for a fast storage solution, it is high time that you ditch traditional storage solutions for the next-gen ones.

Finding the right storage solution for your business, especially if it is growing, is a daunting task. In my previous blog, I discussed the major differences between SSDs and NVMe to help you decide which option better fits your needs. And in this blog, I’ll share the significant differences between hard disk drives (HDDs) and drives of NVMe in this blog.

How Far is The Difference Between HDD and Drives of NVMe?

First of all, hard drives (HDD) have been around for almost 50 years now. Although newer protocols like SATA III have been implemented to upgrade the traditional read and write processes, HDDs still rely on spinning disks. As a result, they can only perform read and write tasks at a limited speed.

In general, SSDs have taken over HDDs as they offer significantly faster processing speeds for almost the same price. Businesses and individuals with tight budgets, limited data storage needs, or excessively large data backup service providers are the only groups of consumers still deriving benefits from HDDs.

Compared to HDD, NVMe SSD drives are based on the latest technology, offering the fastest read, write, data transfer, and I/O speeds. An NVMe SSD is almost six times faster than a SATA III SSD. Non-volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a modern protocol built specifically for the PCI Express (PCIe) to transfer data to and from SSDs. Built on high-speed PCIe lanes, NVMe is an improvement over older Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and related interfaces such as SATA and SAS.

Here’s a quick checklist of the critical differences between HDD and NVMe SSDs:

Speed: The speed difference between HDDs and NVMe SSDs is most apparent when you’re copying large files. Using HDDs, you can only achieve a maximum speed of 30 to 150 MB/second. On the other hand, with NVMe SSDs, you can easily achieve 3 to 4 GB/second peak speeds. When you run programs on your computer (Windows and macOS), thousands of temporary files are stored in small data blocks (usually 4k quality). The faster your system reads and writes these data blocks, the quicker your computer performs. HDDs aren’t equipped to read and write these blocks, offering top speeds of 0.1 to 1.7 MB/second. However, SATA III SSDs and NVMe SSDs offer much faster speeds, ranging between 50 to 250 MB/seconds.
Hardware compatibility: HDDs are considered legacy technology. They have been around for a long time, and SSDs have replaced them. They rely on spinning disks to read and write data, quite similar to how vinyl records work (and no one uses vinyl records anymore). All of the components of an HDD are mechanical, making it limited, slow, and fragile. It has technical limitations and isn’t meant to work seamlessly with modern technology. NVMe SSD, on the other hand, is a next-gen technology, compatible with several form factors such as PCIe card slot, M.2, and U.2.
Efficiency: Unlike HDDs, the NVMe protocol relies on low latency and parallel data paths, mimicking high-performance processor architectures. As a result, it offers much higher performance and lower latencies than conventional SAS and SATA protocols which use several CPU cycles to ensure data availability for the apps and programs. Because the NVMe protocol is designed to handle rigorous data loads through a minimal infrastructure, it is way more efficient than HDDs to lower costs and accelerate growth.

HDD Advantages and Disadvantages

Even though SSDs have taken over as the most integral part of computers, there are still many manufacturers still using HDD as their primary storage solution. Although outdated, there are several unique advantages that only an HDD can offer. These include:

Cost: In general, HDDs cost less than SSDs of similar capacity. So if you buy a computer that uses a hard disk, chances are it will cost you less. The primary reason behind the low prices for HDDs is that all of their components are mechanical, and their production cost is significantly lower.
Capacity: Users can choose from several storage capacities. While the most preferred HDD capacity is 500GB, you can easily find up to 6TB external HDDs in the market these days.
Availability: It is very easy to find HDDs because of the relatively lower demand. While finding an SSD may need time and effort, you can find HDDs in almost every online and offline tech marketplaces.
Longevity: HDDs don’t use flash memories like SSDs that come with a finite number of read/write cycles. Since the data present on your HDD is directly embedded into the mechanical disks, its lifespan is far greater than SSDs.

That said, HDDs also come with certain drawbacks, including:

Speed: Compared to NVMe SSDs, hard disk drives are painfully slow. While an NVMe SSD can reach read and write speeds of 3.5 GB/second, the average HDD speed crawls around 150 Mb/second.
Form Factor: HDD uses legacy form factors. Due to the mechanical components, it is extremely difficult to build smaller HDDs.
Noise: Although this isn’t a major downside, the rotating mechanical disks tend to make a lot of noise alongside vibrations. These problems become noticeable (and irritating) once you start handling larger files. Meanwhile, an NVMe drive doesn’t generate any sound.

Advantages and Disadvantages of NVMe Drives

The NVMe protocol is future-proof, adaptable for newer technology, and uses non-volatile memory across various computing environments. It is one of the fastest storage solutions. However, similar to any other tech, it too has its upsides and downsides.

Significant advantages include:

Performance: NVMe brings several performance improvements compared to its older counterparts like SATA and SAS. It can provide blazing fast read, write, and I/O speeds by utilizing thousands of parallel command queues, eventually leading to higher performance and lower power consumption.
Form Factor: NVMe protocol utilizes smaller form factors such as PCIe bus, M.2, and U.2 form factors, which shrinks the overall size of the drives.
Protocol: NVMe uses solid-state storage and utilizes multi-core CPUs and gigabytes of memory, streamlining command sets to parse data efficiently. It is 100 times faster than average HDDs.
Technology: It is designed using Flash technology and supports up to 64k commands per queue, lowering CPU cycles while offering a maximum latency of 2.8 microseconds. Since the technology communicates directly with the CPU, it supports I/O operations over 1 million. NVMe technology is already used in several industries such as eCommerce, finance, AI, ML, Big Data, and DevOps.
Longevity: As NVMe SSDs store data in flash memory and not mechanical parts, there’s a lower risk of data loss. These drives don’t make any sound when performing simultaneous tasks and produce less heat, leading to improved reliability and longer life.

While the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, here are a few critical disadvantages to consider before deciding:

Cost: NVME SSDs cost more than SATA III SSDs of the same capacity. This is mainly because NVMe offers faster speeds and is built to support evolving data transfer and storage technologies.
Compatibility: Older systems aren’t compatible with NVMe protocol, making it difficult for you to upgrade your storage system.

Conclusion

After considering all of the critical aspects, I can confidently underline the fact that NVMe SSDs are hands-down the best and the fastest storage option. It is built to support new technology and allows you to quickly read and write data without any noticeable latency or resource consumption.

The final decision rests on you and what you plan to do with your computer. For instance, if you wish to use your computer sparingly, an HDD will be the most cost-effective option. You’ll have to compromise with slower read/write speeds, but as long as you’re not dealing with large files, it’ll be fine.

On the other hand, if you need faster speeds, higher performance, and low resource consumption, it is in your best interest to opt for an NVMe SSD. You’ll notice a significant difference in boot time and enjoy a lag-free experience. NVMe SSD is a good choice for gaming computers, video editing workstations, and storing excessively large files.

Are you ready to upgrade to NVMe drives? If you need more information or assistance in choosing the right storage solution for your needs, be it personal or business, connect with a ProMAX System expert to learn about modern storage solutions such as NVMe, NAS, cloud storage, and more.

NVMe vs SSD vs HDD explained

The hardest part of choosing a new server, whether it’s a dedicated server or virtual private server, is the selection of the right hardware that will fit your needs. If you’re like most people, then you try to purchase maximum CPU cores for your budget. You also check how much RAM you’ll get. You’re cautious about having enough storage capacity. But there is one crucial element that most people forget – the storage type.
Not all drives are made equal. There is a huge difference in price and performance between NVMe, SSD and HDD storage. In this article, we’ll guide you through different types of drives so that you can pick the best one for you.

HDD, SSD, NVMe: From Spinning Platters to Lightning-fast Express Drive

HDD: Hard Disk Drives

The oldest of them all, hard disk drives (HDD), is the only one of three based on moving parts – spinning platters and moving needles, recording data on different sectors of the metal disc. The technology itself goes way back to the 50s, when it was introduced by IBM. Although cheapest on the list, they’re also slowest when it comes to read-write operations. Most HDDs can’t exceed maximal S-ATA II speed of ~270 MB/s. HDD is the ultimate solution in case you want to store your data for as little money as possible. But you’ll have to wait more when reading/writing data. Although slower, they’re still popular. Our customers can still encounter HDD drives in Storage VPS or while configurating Dedicated Servers.

Capacity of storage varies greatly, but most drives range somewhere between hundreds of Gigabytes to few Terabytes. In case of virtual instances, we at Contabo offer hard disk space starting from 300 GB.
Home users are sometimes concerned about HDDs’ sensibility to outside shocks or sudden movements. But that’s not really a concern in the case of data centers, because servers are fixed to racks or shelves and not moved around.

SSD: Solid State Drives

This newer type of storage contains no movable parts as it’s flash-based. It’s the same technology you may know from a USB stick. Although the storage technology itself is different, it still uses the same connection interface to the motherboard. There still has to be an S-ATA controller between the drive and motherboard. The SSD read-write speed is significantly faster compared to HDD as it can reach 550 Mb/s.

The compact size of SSD drivers has huge implications for both personal computing and data centers. SSDs are an ideal fit for notebooks and other devices with limited space. The introduction of SSD allowed putting more separate drives into one physical server. Although this improvement doesn’t necessarily increase storage capacity, it is helpful in terms of redundancy and RAID configuration. For that reason, SSD is the standard storage type for data centers. At Contabo, you can find SSD drives in our High-Performance VPS, VDS or bare metal servers. And the price per capacity ratio? SSD is somewhere in the middle between HDD and NVMe. Although there are exceptions, like this $40 000 drive from Nimbus, with 100 TB capacity.

NVMe: Non-Volatile Memory Express

Introduced in 2013, the new “express” drive is the fastest type available on the market. Similar to SSDs, it’s a type of flash storage that contains no moving parts. The “NVM” stands for non-volatile memory, a memory that can store your data even after power is removed. It still uses the same architecture as SSD, but it’s connected directly to the motherboard via PCI express socket. Hence, the small letter “e” at the end.

It can run up to 32 GB/s if we take into consideration the newest PCIe 4.0 connection and 16 separate lanes. NVMe is still far from reaching its full potential though. At Contabo, we’re offering NVMe drives for all types of servers, specifically VPS, VDS and Dedicated Servers.

Quick comparison of basic parameters

Why Exactly is NVMe so Much Faster Than Its Predecessors?

In short: Because it’s based on faster PCIe interface, there is no intermediary between the drive and the motherboard. It can also process a lot more commands at the same time.

Architecture

As flash-based SSD technology became mainstream, users benefited greatly from having faster data transfers. Still, they were dependent on the old S-ATA interface. They still had to use the S-ATA (or SAS) controller in order to communicate with the CPU and motherboard. Then in 2007, engineers at Intel got the brilliant idea to connect the same SSD drive to motherboard using a PCI Express slot, which was at that time predominantly used for connecting graphic cards, sound cards or additional network interface cards.

As a result, the new type of storage doesn’t need the S-ATA (SAS) controller and can communicate directly with the motherboard. On top of that, the use of the PCIe allows NVMe to use multiple lanes. Lanes connect PCIe to the motherboard. Each of the lanes uses two wires for sending and two for receiving information simultaneously, hence greater potential for faster exchange.

SSD drives still have to use a controller between the CPU and the storage itself. NVMe is connected directly to the motherboard.

Queue Depth and Simultaneous Tasks

Not only NVMe doesn’t need a S-ATA or SAS controller, but it also significantly improved the command structure. While SSD only works with 1 command queue, NVMe simultaneously uses 64k command queues. And while SSDs can only send 32 commands per that single queue, NVMe sends up to 64k commands per EACH queue! NVMe allows a higher number of command queues, which means that it can process many more commands at the same time. While SSDs read/read operations are waiting in line, NVMes are juggling many different tasks at once.

The queue depth is especially important for customers who run complex web applications, such as large e-commerce or SaaS application. Then, the whole application can be divided into various different microservices that are processed independent on each other. For instance, think of an eCommerce store. Each customer generates a string of database queries and read-write operations just by browsing the website. Not to mention the whole checkout process. Storage is involved in all these operations and the IOPS visibly impacts customer experience. NVMe can handle more of those tasks separately and with great speed, hence allowing lower latency.

Overall, NVMe works significantly faster with workloads like:

Website hosting – so visitors to your website get a swifter response time
SaaS apps – so users of your software can browse your app more smoothly
Database application – so that you can collect and recall data more quickly
E-commerce software – loading pages of products will be quicker, hence fewer people will leave your website
Video files – when editing or exporting video files, you’ll save a ton of time

Here are some impressive stats from one of the most prominent data storage manufacturers, Kingston. As you can see in the picture, the latency is much higher with traditional SSDs. In other words, the server running MySQL data base performs much better. The more threads you’re running simultaneously, the more important the difference is.

Recap: 3 reasons why is NVMe so fast

No controller: There is no SAS or S-ATA controller between the motherboard and the drive that would slow down the communication
Queue depth: Thanks to the improved command structure, NVMe is so much better at working with various tasks simultaneously
Multiple lanes: The PCI express standard offers multiple lanes, up to 16, boosting performance significantly

Purchasing Your New Storage

In the previous part, we’ve described technological differences between all types of storage. Let’s briefly discuss the practical side in case you’re still in doubt about which one to purchase:

HDD: The Best Price / Quality Ratio

If your only criterion is dollars per GB, then you can just go with proven HDDs. Although slow, they offer enough capacity for all types of workloads. Ideal in case you need to park your data somewhere as a backup.
To show you how inexpensive HDD servers are, let’s have a look at one of our most popular Storage VPS: VPS 700. For $10.99 a month, you’ll get 700 GB drive. Great low-price solution in case you don’t need super fast access your data, therefore you don’t mind slower read/write speed.

NVMe: When Speed is the King

NVMe is by far the fastest storage on the market. The difference is so staggering that the whole operating system becomes visibly more responsive when installed on top of NVMe. As stated in the previous section, NVMe makes a difference with workloads, such as SaaS apps or database systems. Large individual files are also transferred much faster, which makes it a popular option for video editors.

If you need to run applications where speed is the key, go for NVMe. For example, VPS S equipped with NVMe offers you a fast storage for just €4.99/$6.99.

SSD: The Versatile All-rounder

The SSD drive is somewhere in the middle in terms of performance. Although they can’t compete with NVMe speed, they offer in general much more storage for the same price.

For instance, you can purchase our VPS S equipped with an SSD and get 4x more storage space for the same price as NVMe drive with the equal capacity.

Wrapping up

In this article, we explained all three currently available types of storage: HDD, SSD and NVMe. While hard disc drives still use spinning platters, the other two types contain no moving parts. We also explained, that NVMe is a type of SSD memory, but it uses a different type of interface.

	Moving plates	Solid flash architecture
SATA/SAS Controller	HDD	SSD
PCIe Interface		NVMe

Architecture comparison between old “moving parts” and flash-based types of drives.

NVMe is so fast because its whole infrastructure is different than SSD or HDD. Having no controller in between drive and motherboard makes data transfer faster. Also, thanks to robust queue depth, NVMe can process many more commands at the same time. There is no doubt that NVMe will become a standard storage type in the foreseeable future. Benefits are apparent – much lower latency, thanks to infrastructure that is faster than most common SSDs.

For now, NVMe storage remains considerably more expensive than standard SSDs. We recommend that you consider purchasing them if you run demanding web applications or regularly work with large video files. Other than that, SSDs and HDDs are still perfectly viable options for many use cases.

M.2 and NVMe SSDs: What are they and how do they benefit your PC?

Computer enthusiasts of all stripes and skill levels are likely familiar with common hard drive form factors like the big and bulky 3.5” mechanical hard disk drive (or HDD) and the slimmer and smaller 2.5” solid state drive (SSD). If you know about HDDs and SSDs, you likely also know about the SATA (or Serial AT Attachment) computer bus interface that’s typically used to connect drives to the computer’s motherboard. And though these remain the most common form factors and connection options, M.2 and NVMe drives are becoming more popular in modern PC builds.

Now, to be clear, M.2 and NVMe aren’t interchangeable terms, but they are closely linked. In this explainer, we’ll break down exactly what M.2 and NVMe are, where they differ, and how they can ultimately benefit your next PC build.

The M.2 Form Factor

The M.2 form factor (formerly known as the Next Generation Form Factor, or NGFF) is a more modern type of internally mounted expansion card that replaces the previous mSATA (Mini-SATA) standard. Unlike standard HDDs and SSDs, M.2 drives aren’t connected to a motherboard via a cable, they’re instead plugged directly into the motherboard using a dedicated M.2 connector slot.

Depending on its type and functionality, an M. 2 drive can make use of either the standard SATA interface or the faster PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) interface, but in both cases it plugs directly into the motherboard. Since they fold down and lie flush with the motherboard once they’re connected rather than jutting out like a graphics card or RAM chip (or a traditional HDD or SSD), M.2 drives allow for a cleaner, less cluttered PC interior with fewer cables to manage.

Certain desktop PC peripherals like wi-fi cards can come in the M.2 form factor, but the most common use for M.2 is SSD data storage, basically functioning as an alternative to the existing 2.5” storage drives that are mounted in a separate bay and then connected to the motherboard via a SATA cable. It’s important to note that M.2 SSDs which utilize the SATA interface aren’t really faster than standard 2.5” drives, they just take up less space and look cleaner. If you want faster speeds, you’ll have to make sure your M.2 drive is utilizing the NVMe interface protocol.

The NVMe Interface Protocol

NVMe stands for Non-Volatile Memory Express, and it refers to the way in which data is moved, rather than the shape of the drive itself. The main way in which it differs from the existing SATA standard is that it draws on your motherboard’s PCIe interface to obtain noticeably faster data transfer speeds than what SATA is capable of. Depending on your NVMe drive’s manufacturer, you can see speeds as much as five or six times faster than a SATA-based equivalent.

There are some NVMe drives that are designed to fit into a standard PCIe motherboard slot much like a graphics card, but most NVMe drives use the M.2 form factor. Also, given their faster speeds, NVMe drives typically cost more than their standard 2.5” SSD equivalents, similar to how SSDs usually cost more than mechanical HDDs for the same amount of storage space.

If you’re planning on going with an M.2 drive while building or upgrading your gaming PC, it’s important to note whether you’re getting a SATA-based drive or an NVMe-based drive. Your motherboard might not have the appropriate M.2 slots for both types (SATA and NVMe M.2 drives are often keyed slightly differently), and even if it does, you don’t want to waste money on a pricier NVMe drive if the motherboard you’ve chosen can only access data using the SATA protocol (not every motherboard allows for PCIe data transfers).

Speaking of price, it’s also worth mentioning that the speed boost granted through the NVMe protocol mainly only applies to sequential data reads and writes rather than random reads and writes. What this means is that you’ll really only see a noticeable boost in speed if you’re using your PC for specific heavy-lifting tasks like editing 4K video footage or regularly transferring large amounts of data from one drive to another. Random reads and writes on an NVMe drive are technically a bit faster than what you’ll get on a SATA drive, but if all you’re using your PC for is gaming and/or everyday tasks, you really don’t have to spring for a more expensive NVMe M. 2 drive.

Finding The Right M.2 Drive For Your Budget

Once you understand your needs, you can start browsing M.2 SATA drives and M.2 NVMe drives. Again, if gaming and standard computer use are your only concerns, you should be fine going with an M.2 SATA drive. If, however, you want to squeeze every last ounce of computing speed out of your rig or you plan on doing anything that requires fast sequential read and write speeds, it’s worth going for an NVMe drive.

M.2 and NVMe drives are becoming more popular – and cheaper – all the time, and as of 2020 they’re on the verge of becoming the standard recommendation for new PC builds. While you can save a little bit of money by going with a traditional HDD or SSD, the difference isn’t very much – and for many builders it will be worth spending a little bit more to have the latest tech and cut down on in-case clutter.

what’s the point? / Habr

In the summer of 2021, the new NVM Express 2.0 (NVMe 2.0) standard was introduced. NVMe was originally designed for SSDs and SANs, but the latest version has added full support for hard drives. Of course, a logical question arises: why? But first things first.

The addition of HDD support is one of the biggest innovations in NVMe 2.0 and surprised many users. Modern hard drives use the SATA 3.0 interface with a theoretical bandwidth of 6 Gb / s, which is quite enough. Of course, hard drives continue to evolve, sooner or later the bandwidth will exceed the capabilities of SATA 3.0. For example, Seagate announced Mach.2 hard drives with dual drive, which are close to 6 Gb / s. HDD capacity has reached the 20TB mark, and growth will continue as data centers need more and more volumes. For such HDDs, an increase in bandwidth is inevitable so that copying the same 20 TB does not take forever.

But even in this case, it was possible to simply modify the SATA standard to 12 Gb / s, as happened with the SAS standard. Why did a consortium of manufacturers decide to put an end to SATA and move to PCI Express and NVMe 2.0 even for hard drives?

The main driver behind adding NVMe support for hard drives is to simplify the ecosystem. Moreover, the NVMe specification will evolve towards NVMeoF (NVME over Fabrics), as a result, it will be possible to provide network access to hard drives without additional levels of abstraction. The NVMe HDD subsystem will be directly supported by modern and flexible open source infrastructure solutions such as Kubernetes. Of course, it will be possible to use APIs such as Redfish.

NVMe 2.0 hard drives can be seen as a clear signal that the SATA protocol is gradually disappearing from the market, since it has not been updated for 12 years. Getting rid of SATA and switching all hard drives to NVMe will free up space on motherboards and make it easier to connect NVMe-only drives (at least in the consumer segment). But don’t expect it to happen anytime soon. Remember how long manufacturers have installed IDE interface on motherboards in parallel with SATA. Yes, and NVMe HDD has not yet appeared on the retail market. And before 2025 they can hardly be expected.

Main functions of NVMe 2.0

The following are the main functions of the NVMe 2.0 standard. In general, they are aimed at reducing NVMe redundancy information, as well as deeper SSD management capabilities from the host system.

Zoned Namespaces (ZNS) in the NVMe 2.0 standard will allow the SSD and the host system to negotiate the physical location of data on the drive. ZNS will take into account the physical characteristics of SSDs when placing data, which will improve overall system performance, as well as increase capacity (+20%). You can expect a reduction in overwriting (4-5x), a reduction in I/O latencies. See the benefits of ZNS here .

NVMe Key-Value Command Set allows you to use keys to access data on NVMe SSDs instead of logical block addresses (LBAs). Switching from LBA to keys will reduce redundancy, since the SSD will not have to work with the LBA translation table.

Rotational Media Support — this just means support for hard drives. All NVMe functions have been updated to reflect HDD support requirements.

NVMe Endurance Group Management — drives support grouping (Endurance Groups, NVMe Sets). For each group, you can choose, for example, to store a different number of bits per cell, which affects the data recording density and recording speed. Groups allow you to better adapt to different scenarios: low-latency storage of small capacity or storage of large capacity, but with high latency. More information about groups can be found here .

Of course, NVMe 2.0 will be backward compatible with previous NVMe standards. As a result, NVMe 2.0 SSD/HDD can be connected to current motherboards with M.2 slots or M.2 cards.

Seagate Demonstrates First NVMe Hard Drive

At the Open Compute Project Summit 2021 Seagate showed off the first hard drive connected to a host system via a PCIe interface. Like solid state drives, the hard drive relied on the NVMe protocol. Of course, the use of one protocol for different types of drives will greatly simplify the infrastructure of data centers.

The experimental HDD used a proprietary Seagate controller that supports the three major protocols SAS, SATA and NVMe as a «native NVMe port» without any bridges. The operation of the HDD was shown in a 2U JBOD case with a fairly simple PCIe switch, to which 12 3.5-inch hard drives were connected via the PCIe interface.

Of course, modern HDDs can hardly load even a single PCIe 2.0 channel, but future HDDs with multiple drives promise much more bandwidth. And at some point, 6 Gb / s that SATA provides, or 12 Gb / s SAS will not be enough. The industry should look ahead to finding an HDD interface in the future, and PCIe/NVMe seems like a logical option. In addition, SSDs are gaining a place in data centers, the NVMe protocol is starting to dominate, so support for this protocol on HDDs can only be welcomed. All of the above just led to the fact that future hard drives will acquire support for NVMe 2.0.

Do not forget that the use of one physical interface and logical protocol for HDD and SSD will simplify the hardware and software infrastructure of data centers, speed up the development of appropriate solutions, facilitate scaling and reduce the cost of ownership of TCO.

As we noted, don’t expect PCIe over NVMe hard drives to be available tomorrow. Seagate expects to ship the first PCIe/NVMe development kits (EDUs) to customers no earlier than September 2022, and test units (CTUs) no earlier than 2024. Moreover, test samples will be supplied to large corporate clients to assess the prospects for use; NVMe HDDs will not appear in retail even in 2024. So far, Seagate is positioning PCIe/NVMe HDDs only for data centers. Although personal computers do not interfere with transferring to a new protocol, which will also simplify the infrastructure and increase productivity. But here we are still talking about long-term prospects.

Conclusion

The addition of HDD support to the NVMe 2.0 specification surprised many. Still, modern HDDs do not overcome the bar of the SATA 6 Gb / s interface. But the reason lies not in the bandwidth of the interface. The SATA protocol is gradually becoming obsolete and becoming «inconvenient», so to speak. Therefore, the industry is proactively considering the transition to more modern interface options that will cope with the needs of storage infrastructure in the future.

NVMe with a physical PCIe connection seems like a logical interface here, since it has already proven itself well for SSDs. A single interface will simplify the infrastructure of data centers, facilitate scaling, and reduce the cost of ownership of TCO. Support for NVMeoF (NVME over Fabrics) opens up further possibilities for accessing hard drive arrays in storage networks, as does direct integration into the Kubernetes ecosystem or support for modern Redfish APIs.

NVMe HDD will appear no earlier than 2024, and only in the corporate segment. Later, we can expect a transition to the desktop segment. It seems to us that the first desktop Seagate PCIe/NVMe will be released when the capacity reaches 30-40 TB, the number of drives will increase to two, and HAMR technology will be widespread.

How the new NVME drives differ from conventional SSDs

Maria Kholodnitska

06/10/2019

8964
to read 7 minutes

Solid State Drive ( SSD ) is a solid state storage device that does not contain rotating parts and uses integrated circuits as memory for permanent data storage in its design.

Legacy interfaces (such as SATA and SAS) and standard hard drive connectors allow these SSDs to be used as hard drive replacements in computers and other devices. SSD is capable of reading and writing data much faster than a mechanical hard drive. Traditional drives have to spin around their platters to find data before it can be read or modified, SSDs don’t have this problem, so seek time (the time it takes to «look» for your data on the drive) is greatly reduced. Worst SSD has a speed of in three times times more than than hard disk . The difference is especially noticeable when turning on the computer, opening an application, or switching between tasks.

SSD drives are great for database driven applications. A custom application or e-commerce website needs to have a significant amount of database input and output, and as the site receives more traffic, the hard drive will receive many more I/O requests. A huge number of I/O requests can slow down the flow of information from the database over time. In this case SSD hosting turns out to be a much more acceptable option since SDD is not limited to any moving objects or parts, data transfer is only limited by network speed.

SSD is great for data loss prevention . SSDs can use RAID cards with battery-powered non-volatile caching. This is useful because in the event of a power loss any data that has not been written will simply be cached until the server is powered up again. Any incoming data at this point will be recorded and stored. That is why we at HyperHost use RAID10 disk arrays (4 disks or more), which provides full disk mirroring and guarantees data protection.

SSD hosting is much more reliable than hosting on regular hard drives and helps to improve the performance of your sites. When you host your WordPress site on an SSD + use a caching plugin, don’t be surprised if your site loads much faster than 3 seconds. According to KissMetrics, loading also affects your Google rankings.

Classic SATA SSDs reach their processing and writing speed limit of 550MB/s. To overcome the limitation of , technical work on NVMe was officially launched in the second half of 2009 . The NVMe specification was adopted by a working group of more than 90 companies, with Intel as the main leader, as well as Micron, Dell, Samsung, NetAPP, EMC, IDT, and others. The goal was to set new standards for SSD storage specifications, freeing them from the old SATA and AHCI. In 2011, the NVMe standard was officially released, adapted to the characteristics of flash memory. This new standard removed the limitations of SSDs imposed by the old standards and was updated to NVMe 1.1 in 2012, with the latest NVMe 1.2 standard released in 2014. The first product to support the NVMe standard was the Samsung XS1715 , released in July 2013, followed by an enterprise class NVMe SSD.

NVMe Drives Currently Reaching 3500MB/s (for reading) and 2100 MB / s (for writing). NVMe technology delivers big speed gains by reducing latency and increasing throughput. For the faster speed offered by the NVMe interface, the SSD must use the PCIe bus. An NVMe drive is just an SSD with a different form of M. 2, a PCIe bus, and an NVMe interface, while a normal SSD is just a SATA SSD with an «old» SATA interface and a 2.5″ connector.

NVMe drives are PCIe SSDs. Therefore, some of them can be installed directly in the PCIe slot, like a graphics card, but in general, NVME SSDs are connected via the M.2 connector due to the limited number of PCIe slots (and the graphics card already uses the fastest line connected directly to the processor ).

With a new interface and PCIe bus, NVMe SSDs are up to six times faster than than conventional SATA SSDs. Latency and queue operations are also greatly improved. However, new NVMe SSDs cost about 50-100% more than than classic SATA SSDs.

NVMe cooling problem

In NVMe operation, heating and cooling can be a problem. Due to the desktop architecture, NVMe drives are connected in PCIe next to the graphics card, one of the hottest parts of the PC, while SATA SSDs can be installed away from the computer core thanks to a long SATA cable. Under heavy load and overheating, NVMe drive performance may drop dramatically . It’s best to install the NVMe as far away from the graphics card as possible in a well-ventilated area (for example, not directly above the GPU or next to an exhaust fan) and add a small fan to blow cool air to the NVMe SSD.

Given the cost and overheating factor, a reasonable price/performance solution is to install an NVMe SSD for the operating system and add a cheaper SATA SSD to store image and video files.

The table compares regular SSD and NVMe SSD, SAMSUNG brand is selected as the manufacturer with the same amount of memory for better visibility.

In Ukraine and neighboring countries, hosting on SSD NVMe is not yet so popular, as it implies a high price of equipment, and as a result, higher tariffs. For most sites and projects, classic and reliable SSDs are enough for storing and processing information.

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What is NVMe for SSDs

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What is NVMe for SSDs

Article author: Sergey Koval
(koval@andpro. ru)

Published: 12 May 2021

NVMe or NVM-Express is a protocol for transferring information between an SSD and other system components using PCI-Express lanes. It was created specifically for SSD in order to increase the speed of data exchange, and, consequently, the performance of the system.

There are misconceptions that NVMe is an interface for connecting M.2 SSDs or even its form factor. This is not a strict error, but just a clear version of the protocol designation for ease of perception by a wide range of users.

The NVMe protocol was an evolutionary step from the previous data transfer standard using an AHCI controller with a read speed of 550MB/s and a write speed of 330MB/s.

The NVMe protocol allows you to achieve read speeds up to 984.6 MB/s over four PCI Express lanes, for a total of 3.94 GB/s for the pci-e 3.0 version and up to 7.8 GB/s for the pci-e 4.0 version when using four lanes.

Custom SSDs with the NVMe protocol appeared in 2012. And enterprise SSDs saw the light a year later in the form of U-2 form factor server drives from Samsung. The familiar M.2 form factor NVMe SSD was introduced to the public in 2015 and gained incredible popularity in the laptop manufacturing segment.

Benefits of NVMe protocol

SSD drives differ significantly from conventional HDDs in their write and read speeds. But NVMe-enabled drives provide the highest level of performance through the following options:

Increasing the command queue and the number of queues themselves

The NVMe specification provides for the simultaneous use of up to 65,535 queues with the number of commands in the queue up to 65,535. At the same time, the drive is able to independently optimize the queues, setting priorities to improve performance.

In fact, today such high capabilities are not in demand for home and work computers, but in a corporate environment they can significantly improve the data storage service.

Simultaneous work with multi-core processors or processor systems

This option is responsible for such an indicator of system performance as parallelism. Each core of the central processor is capable of managing multiple command queues, and interrupt control technology is responsible for task priority.

Reducing delays

This option is implemented by writing a special set of commands for SSDs with the NVMe protocol, which is designed to remove request delays and optimize the time spent by the processor on their implementation.

Increasing the efficiency of the SSD-RAM bundle

Reading data from an AHCI SSD array required two requests from RAM. The NVMe protocol uses only one 4 KB request. This significantly increases the speed of interaction between RAM and a solid state drive, especially when requesting small amounts of information.

Benefits when used in servers

The greatest efficiency of the NVMe protocol can be traced in the operation of servers and data centers, since the benefits are realized only at high load levels. NVMe SSDs significantly increase system throughput, reduce the likelihood of emergency server reboots, and increase system security against DDoS attacks.

Efficient Service

Thanks to algorithms designed specifically for the NVMe protocol, stable and continuous operation of solid state drives is maintained even during system testing. All procedures for managing the operation of the server occur without disconnecting users. The developers also provide the ability to hot-swap a problematic drive without dropping the overall quality of services.

Disadvantages of NVMe SSDs

The NVMe protocol implemented in solid state drives also has some disadvantages:

The first and most obvious disadvantage of NVMe SSD is the high cost of a unit of information storage, even compared to SSD on SATA and SAS interfaces, not to mention the most budgetary and common option — HDD. And if in the case of a home computer, the transition to a new format is accompanied by one-time costs that will not overload the budget, then switching the server to NVMe solid-state drives may lead to the need to increase the subscription fee for services up to two times.

The second feature to consider when installing an NVMe SSD is significant heat. Modern motherboards prudently have a separate heatsink on the PCI-Express interface for M.2 format drives. In the case of a server, the owner will have to take care of increasing the cooling efficiency of the system.

Another point to consider is the increased energy consumption. In the case of a desktop PC, this factor does not really matter for the power scheme. But server owners will again have to completely rethink the power supply system of server equipment.

But the most significant drawback when completing servers is the limited number of connected drives. Since NVMe drives are tied to the PCI-e bus, the number of direct connections is usually no more than 8 drives per processor and 24 drives per system. At the same time, SAS/SATA topologies make it possible to use more than 240 disks per system through expanders, even if allocating only one PCI-Express slot for this.