NVM Express: pervasion of PCI Express in SSD based storage

By SemiWiki

March 23, 2012

The verification IP (VIP) for Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) announcement from Synopsys is the first fruit issued from the acquisition of ExpertIO. With the proliferation of Nand Flash based storage equipment, or Solid State Drives (SSD), the move from pure SATA based solution was to be expected, sooner or later. Not because SATA protocol itself will fail to support future storage equipment, but because the PCI Express protocol is offering more capabilities, as highlighted by Earl Cohen, Chief Architect, Sandforce (now LSI Logic): “NVM Express is a critical building block for flash-based Enterprise storage through the use of the PCIe interface and a standards-based, highly efficient, scalable storage protocol. By providing a channel for applications to send intelligence about the data actually being stored, NVM Express promises to extend the value proposition of flash-based solid-state storage solutions in terms of reliability, performance and endurance.” Moreover, the SATA PHY roadmap, or the lack of PHY solution after SATA 3.0 running at 6 Gbps, was also a good reason to move to PCIe, already available at 8 Gbps today with gen-3.

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