SSD hard drives have gradually replaced HDD mechanical hard drives. It is already a general trend. In 2016, the global SSD hard drive shipped to 150 million, and it will further increase to 250 million in 2021, and the market value is $ 30 billion, which is a blue sea in the storage market. It is a pity that this market is mainly monopolized by foreign companies, Samsung, Toshiba, Magic, Westernity, etc. is the biggest winner of NAND flash market. The only good news is that domestic companies have now entered the storage market, in NAND flash, SSD main Accelerated development in the fields of control.
The storage company we usually pay attention is mainly the Yangtze River storage because they are building the largest NAND production base in China. Today, let's pay attention to the situation of domestic main control chips, it is also a very important part of the storage market, affecting the performance, stability, and reliability of the SSD hard drive.
SSD is very common, but do you really understand its structure?
SSD primary card is more important, then let's take a look at that an SSD is composed of those components. SSD hard drive we have seen many kinds of sages according to different interfaces, the size, etc., the most common is the 2.5-inch specification of the SATA interface, as well as the M.2 2280 hard drive of the PCI-E channel, U.2 interface, AIC plug The card SSD hard drive is mainly used in the workstation, servers and other markets, and the consumer market is relatively rare.
Regardless of which size, the structure inside the SSD hard disk is similar, usually including PCB (including power supply circuit), NAND flash, SSD master, interface, etc., there is also a cache chip that is not necessary but still important.
The core part is actually NAND flash and main control. From cost, NAND flash memory is probably 70% or more of the SSD hard disk material cost. The current 128GB to 1TB capacity SSD usually uses 2-8 flash memory chips, mainly From Samsung, Toshiba, Miguang, Western Digital (Said Dicks), Intel, SK Hynix, etc. Samsung, Western Digital, Intel is generally more self-advantageous, third-party SSD hard drives usually use Toshiba, more beautiful, SK In addition to their own use, HYNIX is rare in the consumer SSD, and the OEM market is much.
NAND flash memory is more, in addition to different types of different technologies of different manufacturers, NAND flash memory is the original, white film, black film, and disassemble, but the content of flash is not today. Focus, have the opportunity to say.
As for the cache chip, it is not necessary in the SSD hard disk, which depends primarily on the main control type, but the cache particles will be better, because the cache is usually DDR3 or DDR4, with a capacity of 256MB to 4GB, frequency at 1600 to 3200MHz Between, the performance is much higher than the NAND flash memory, and the cache can greatly enhance the performance of the SSD hard drive, especially write performance.
Secondly, the main control is generally said that the cost of the main control chip occupies 10-15% of the SSD hard drive, not the most expensive component, but it is also very important. If we make SSD hard drives to a big truck, then the master is equivalent to the cab, the firmware in the main control is equivalent to the driver, which determines how the truck is open.
Other components such as PCB and housing are the cheapest in SSD, and the cost of adding is about 15%, which may be lower, this part does not have much technical content, and the cost depends on the manufacturer's supply chain control and management.
SSD main controlling: the United States, the Taiwan has risen, next to the mainland
NAND flash is the most important part of the SSD hard drive, but the production of NAND is very high. The world is only Samsung, SK Hynix, Toshiba / Western Digital, Magic / Intel's four major camps, and several of them almost monopolize the NAND market, and build a 12 Inch NAND factory, investment is billions of dollars, so there is no company to have courage to challenge them.
The SSD master chip is different. Its production, manufacturing can be handed over to TSMO and other foundry, the main control chip design also has a mature ARM core, the DDR physical layer and other IP authorizations can be used, and the research and development is greatly reduced, so the first few years Many SSD main control companies have emerged.
SSD main control companies from the first wave are naturally from the United States. We are familiar with SandFroce, Marvell is a representative of the main control of the US, and the two companies have attached to the main control new product, especially before 20 nm nodes. Old players probably remember SF-2281 this classic master, and their unique compression algorithm, this year is also known.
Marvell is the horse brand, the public awareness is also a top master brand. Most of Pukete uses Marvell's main control, so durability is also very good, and it does not speed up for a long time.
On the other hand, with the intense of the SSD market competition, plus Sandforce has been acquired many times, this US main control company began to decline, new products can't keep up with the market, and finally sold by Seagate, SF main control in the market Some people have worked, only Marvel is left.
Be
Taiwan main control takes advantage of
After the sf decline, the rise is the Taiwan SSD main control company, of which JMicron started earlier, but unfortunately did not stick to it, and the group of PHION, SMI Hui Rong, other companies such as Rui, VIA VIA also tried SSD The main control market, but the influence is far less than the group, SMI.
At present, the most powerful group is the group company. In addition to the main control technology advantages, there are also Toshiba, so they can provide main control, flash memory, and firmware, SSD vendors can quickly buy their solutions. Producing an SSD hard drive, so it has been recognized by the manufacturer, while SMI is slightly flying, but it has also gained favored domestic and foreign SSD vendors with lower prices.
The main control of the Taiwan SSD market is currently the mainstream in the SSD market, even Intel's SSD hard drives are adopted. However, since 2015, domestic manufacturers have also increased investment in storage markets, and many manufacturers have chosen SSD main control as a breakthrough. Plus the domestic semiconductor fund to the support of the memory chip, the domestic main control has begun to emerge, and the day is always exhibited in the domestic market.
Domestic main control market: dance with domestic NAND, funds to help
In NAND flash, DRAM memory market, the chip required by Chinese manufacturers is almost 100% dependent, so the national semiconductor development plan has chosen the memory chip as a breakthrough, especially the largest storage chip in Wuhan construction. Base, the first phase investment of $ 24 billion, mainly produces 3D NAND flash memory, monthly production capacity up to 300,000 wafers / month.
After gradually solving the supply of NAND flash supply, domestic manufacturers have also investing in the SSD main control chip field, forming a real independent property of domestic NAND flash memory + domestic main control, so many SSD main control vendors have emerged, more well-known There is Jiang Bolong, the national science micro, memory, Huayuan microelectronics, and the mulberry, enterprise market Zhongbao, one party information, etc., and the subsidiary established in the mainland, such as the group In Hefei established Magidin Technology, Hangzhou Union Technology also participated in Taiwan.
In general, the company which can be found in the domestic publicly reported the SSD main control market is not less than 10, and the number has surpassed the company in Taiwan. However, domestic companies are still emerging power in the main control, many companies have been established in the last three or five years, such as memory technology, Union Technology, even if there is old semiconductor company background, SSD main control business is also involved in recent years Therefore, the majority of the majority of domestic main control companies are mainly lack of funds.
In such a context, China's semiconductor funds have played an important role. Through the participation, investment, etc., providing fund support for many companies. After all, R & D is cost-effective, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan. According to public reports, June 28, 2015, the National Science Microelectronics announced that its signing agreement with the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Co., Ltd.. According to the agreement, the University of China is 400 million yuan to the national micro-electronics, accounting for 21.05% of the stock, and has become the second major shareholder.
Domestic main control status: technology, craft chasing, national certification is highlight
So what extent has domestic main control now? In the past, when evaluating domestic chips, people will always say that China's lack of technology, talents and funds. The three issues are also the key to plague domestic main control. However, in the past few years, the situation has been greatly improved, and the support of Da Fund makes these companies no longer lack R & D. Fund, the performance of domestic main control has been chasing it.
Founded in 2014, Salasia showed the SATA 6Gbps MAS0902 master at the FMS storage meeting in 2017. It does not need to cache particles. It can reach 560MB / s reading, 520MB / s write Performance, random 4K performance is also 40 or 48MB / s, overall performance has not lost Marvell, group and other companies SATA main control.
On the high-end PCI-E hard drive, domestic companies have also achieved breakthroughs. In November 2017, Mins Technology held a press conference in Beijing, launched a Star1000 PCI-E master chip, supporting the PCI-E 3.0 X4 channel and NVME 1.2 protocol, supports the STARLDPC ECC engine, supports ASE256 and TCG OPAL encryption, With the currently available MLC / TLC / 3D MLC / 3D TLC multi-flash type.
In terms of performance, STAR1000 supports ONFI 4.0 and Toggle DDR 3.0 flash interface, supports LPDD3 / LPDDR4-2400 cache, continuous read and write speed, cover 3Gb / s, more than 2GB / s, is randomly read, write 350K 300K, is also a top level in the current PCI-E master.
More importantly, STAR1000 main control uses Taiwan Power Power 28 nm HPC technology, and the main 40-55 nm level in the process technology, it is also a first-class standard, group, Marvell high-end SSD main control is also 28nm process host.
In addition to chasing international level, there is a special advantage in domestic main control, which is to support domestic certification security encryption, which is not only an autonomous control, or one of the necessary requirements for military and special industries. Taking the national science micro, they launched the second-generation master GK2301 series chip hardware integrated country secret SM2 / 3/4 plus necklite algorithm, obtained the China Information Security Evaluation Center, the State Password Authority Double certification.
Summary: Domestic main control ushered in spring, with domestic flash memory
After the unremitting efforts of domestic companies and the support of the University of Funds, domestic companies are now gradually eased in the SSD main control market, and the technology, talents, funds, etc. have gradually eased. The overall level has been chased, and Self-controlling, etc., it has done a point where overseas companies can't do, and the future is still very bright.
However, when the domestic main control is proud, the main control of the advanced level has been developed, but we can use the main control of Toshiba, Magoguang and other main controls, Yangtze River stored domestic NAND flash memory mass production and large-scale listing For more than two years, domestic main control also needs to have a long time to have a long time, after all, the reliability is required for a long time, and domestic main control companies still lack this accumulation, this urgent Do not, can only accumulate on the product.
Original address https://www.eeboard.com/news/ssd-41/
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