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BIKAT INSTITUTE Assignment # 4

Name: Zain Khalid

Course Code: CS-300
Course Title: ICT
Teacher Name: Ms. Tayyeba Nasser

Signed By:
 Solid-State Drive (SSD)
Definition:
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a new generation of storage device used in computers. SSDs replace
traditional mechanical hard disks by using flash-based memory, which is significantly faster.
Older hard-disk storage technologies run slower, which often makes your computer run slower
than it should. SSDs speed up computers significantly due to their low read-access times and
fast throughputs.

 Structure:
It uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data. It is composed of a control unit, a storage
unit (NAND Flash chip or DRAM chip), an optional cache (or buffer) unit, and an interface.

 Main Control Chip:

Every SSD has a control unit (also called master controller), whose core component is a main control

chip. The master controller has the following two functions:

 Connecting the storage unit to the interface, so that the data can be transmitted to the computer.
 Responsible for the completion of various instructions within the SSD. For example: reading and
writing data, wear leveling (WL), bad block management, error checking and correcting (ECC),
garbage collection (GC), etc.

In a word, the quality of the main control chip directly determines the actual user experience and the SSD
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life.

 Memory Chip

In general, the memory chips can be divided into two types: NAND flash chip, and DRAM chip.

DRAM, short for Dynamic random-access memory, features a read-and-write speed faster than

NAND flash chip. However, once powered off, DRAM will lose data. Based on the above

points, DRAM is usually used in memory banks and only a few SSDs adopt it.

NAND flash is a non-volatile storage technology, that is, data can still be saved after power

failure. Due to its advantages like low power consumption, low price, and good performance, it

is widely used in SSDs.

NAND flash chip can be divided into SLC (single-level cell) flash memory, MLC (multi-level

cell) flash memory, TLC (triple-level cell), and QLC (quad-level cell) NAND flash memory. In

addition, NAND flash chip can also be divided into plane NAND flash memory, and 3D NAND

flash memory.

 Buffer Chip

The buffer chip stands next to the controller chip. With it, SSDs can process data faster.

However, in order to save costs, some cheap SSD solutions eliminate cache chips, which will

certainly degrade the performance of SSDs.

 Interface

The hard disk interface is the connection between the hard disk and the host system, which is

used to transfer data between them. The hard disk interface determines the connection speed

between the hard disk and the computer.

In general, SSD has the interface specification same as common hard disk. For example, it may

have interfaces like SATA, mSATA, M.2, and U.2. These interfaces support AHCI protocol.

However, SSD also has an interface that only supports NVMe protocol, that is, PCIe.

 Assembling Material for SSDs:

Solid State Drives (SSDs) start as wafers of silicon distributed to “fabs” (factories) built specifically
for making SSD memory. After the cleaning process, the silicon wafer is ready for NAND flash
memory (specific materials and processes for NAND flash memory production are well protected by
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intellectual property regimes at the companies who design, use and maintain them.) Hundreds of
trillions of transistors in the circuit design are etched onto the circuit board using potassium
hydroxide (also known as caustic potash), layered with a photoresist chemical and cured part-by-
part.

Solid State Drives like this new HP Z Turbo Drive PCIe SSD are incredibly complex pieces of hardware when you try
and reduce each process and component to its barest elements and materials. Used for HP’s new Z Workstations, it
helps reduce boot up times, speed up computations and graphics response times in various engineering software
for product design. (Image courtesy of HP.)

The caustic potash reacts with the silicon, forming an oxide layer of silicon dioxide, which forms a
layer of non-conductive material which sets apart other layers of the circuit. The chip then receives
more conductive layers of copper and aluminum.
Though all of this work is done for the silicon chip of the SSD, the plastic printed circuit
board—made of an epoxy polymer plate reinforced with glass and printing with copper wiring—is
the more dominant material.
Using tin solder and gold wiring, the NAND flash chips, which are covered in plastic casings for
protection, are connected to the PCB board, which is then moved into an aluminum casing. The
case is placed in a plastic bag (manufactured from plastic polyethylene terephthalate) with
antistatic properties which is then put into a cardboard box for shipping.
The materials used in NAND flash chips are protected intellectual property from manufacturers like
Intel, Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk, so it is difficult to find out more specifically what materials are
used.

 Types of SSDs:
SSDs can be classified according to two factors: memory chip (namely, storage medium) and interface.

 DRAM-based SSD and Flash-based SSD

According to storage medium, SSDs can be mainly divided into two types: DRAM-based SSDs and flash-
based SSDs.
The DRAM-based SSD adopts the DRAM as its storage medium. It is characterized by very fast

data access, generally less than 10 microseconds. Therefore, it is used primarily to accelerate

applications that would otherwise be held back by the latency of flash SSDs or traditional HDDs.
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However, because it is volatile and it needs independent power to protect data security, it has a

relatively narrow application range.

The flash-based SSD mainly adopts non-volatile NAND flash memory. Compared with DRAM,

NAND flash features a lower cost, and the ability to retain the data without a constant power

supply, ensuring data persistence through sudden power outages.

 Solid-State Drives used for:

SSD adoption began in high-performance technology areas and in enthusiasts’ PCs,
where the drives’ extremely low access times and high throughput justified the higher
cost. But they have since become an accepted option -- or even the default choice -- in
lower-cost mainstream laptops and PCs.
SSDs have specific benefits in the following areas:
 Business: Companies working with huge amounts of data (such as programming
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environments or data analysis) often rely on SSDs, as access times and

file-transfer speeds are critical.
 Gaming: Gaming computers have always pressed the limits of current
computing technology, justifying relatively expensive equipment for the benefit
of gaming performance. That is particularly true for storage, as modern
blockbuster games constantly load and write files (e.g. textures, maps, levels,
characters).
 Mobility: SSDs have low power requirements, thus contributing to better battery
life in laptops and tablets. SSDs are also shock resistant, which reduces the
chances of data loss when mobile devices are dropped.
 Servers: Enterprise servers need SSDs to get fast reads and writes in order to
properly serve their client PCs.

 Get the best performance from your SSD:

No matter how much money you spend, the hard disk is by far the slowest part of any
computer system. Even a SATA SSD with 600 MB is slow compared to other
hardware components, which may be capable of transferring 20-30 Gigabytes per
second.

As a result, a faster NVMe SSD is probably the best investment for a new computer
and a great upgrade to speed up your PC or your Mac.
To demonstrate the difference in speed, we upgraded a 6-year-old gaming PC by
replacing its HDD with a SATA SSD, and we performed a series of tests. The results
are astounding:
 Boot time:
Before: 79 seconds
After: 17 seconds

 Gaming loading time (GTA V):

Before: 133 seconds
After: 25 seconds

But even SSDs need maintenance. If you have the equipment, you might as well get
the best performance from it!
Our first performance tip is to never use a traditional defragmentation tool on an SSD;
it’s not required and could actually be harmful.