Analysis

posted on 04 July 2008 11:19

Flash solid state drives (SSD) could become even worse power hogs when multi-level cell technology is used, and power management will become a central concern of flash product designers in the future.

These are the views of Patrick Wilkison, STEC's VP for Marketing and Business Development. Recent tests have shown that, far from extending notebook computer battery life, flash SSD use reduces it, by up to an hour in some cases.

Regarding these tests Wilkison didn't deny the central results but pointed out the the testers: "Used drives that people won't be buying. This is an OEM business." Apple, Dell, Lenovo and others are all qualifying a second generation Samsung drive for example, and not the one used in the test.

The testers did not look at multi-level cell (MLC) technology flash drives. MLC products are expected from Intel, Samsung and, of course, STEC.

Wilkison said: "The SSD take-off in notebooks requires higher capacity with MLC chips coming in the second half of this year. Our product will be there." He thought the product would arrive in Q3 rather than Q4.

MLC flash could well need more power: "MLC puts more pressure on the controller and so more power will be needed." There is more circuitry to drive and more bits to erase and then write. He added: "Power management is becoming a pretty important variable. Drives have not been optimized for power management. It will become obligatory at some time (ahead)."

We are seeing the implication that second and future generation SLC flash will be more power efficient but that MLC flash will be needed for notebook flash use to rise dramatically. Undfortunately MLC flash is likely to be need more power than SLC flash.

Power management will become a factor in second generation MLC flash drive design as it is too late to design it in to the first generation MLC product now rushing towards us. There is a similar implication for the current SLC chips with, again, another generation refresh required before power management functions can be added to controllers and chips optimized to lower power consumption.

We can't realistically expect power-optimized SSDs to appear until mid-2009 or thereabouts.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}