Overview

Unleash the power of the latest 3D NAND Flash memory with Silicon Motion's family of high-performance SSD controllers for enterprise infrastructure. Silicon Motion's dedicated enterprise SSD controller SoCs are backed by a comprehensive firmware stack and a reference design kit for rapid design implementation. Maintaining data integrity and security is the highest priority for enterprise.  Silicon Motion's controllers provide end to end protection with world-class security, supporting AES-256 encryption and secure boot, and offering full compliance with the Trusted Computing Group's (TCG) Opal specification.

Designed for next-generation data centers and storage, Silicon Motion enterprise controllers meet the highest standards of performance, reliability, and security. With customizable firmware, these controller solutions are flexible enough to enable customers to develop application-optimized, differentiated products.
 

Silicon Motion's family of enterprise SSD controllers include solutions supporting standard PCIe NVMe and SATA interfaces.

Silicon Motion NVMe controllers maximize the capability of the PCIe host interface, enabling the highest level of consistent application performance with deterministic latency while enabling customers to use the latest, highest-density 3D TLC and QLC NAND Flash technologies.  

Silicon Motion SATA controllers offer an ideal replacement for lower-performance HDDs while providing more predictable latency than client SSDs. Enterprise SSDs based on a Silicon Motion SATA controller combines enterprise-level endurance, capacity, and performance for read-intensive workloads, while enabling users to retain existing datacenter infrastructure for the lowest possible total cost of ownership.
 

Flexible and high-performance controller solution for Open Channel SSDs

The Open Channel specification provides a new type of SSD architecture based on the NVMe protocol for the interface between a host and SSD. It enables the partitioning of functions, so that data placement, the main function of Flash Translation Layer (FTL) software, is executed on the host side, while media management functions, such as NAND Flash access and error correction, may be implemented in the SSD device (see Figure 1).
 

The parallel internal paths in an Open Channel SSD are exposed to the host, so that the host can control the entire I/O channel down to physical locations within an individual SSD device. This enables the host - which knows the requirements of the applications which it is running on an SSD device - to optimize data placement and maintain appropriate I/O isolation (see Figure 2). When the SSD's physical memory locations are exposed to the application software, the allocation of data can be arranged to provide for isolation of I/Os belonging to different applications, or to different tenants in a multi-tenant environment.

This eliminates the risk that one application's Read or Write operations could delay or interfere with another's. The result: reduced latency in data-transfer operations; and equally important, predictable latency (see Figure 3). Fig. 3: in an Open Channel architecture, the SSD media's contribution to latency is transparent to the host and entirely predictable

Silicon Motion Enterprise SSD controller solution's unique configuration of the ASIC and firmware provide a broad range of customizations of an SSD design to meet the user's individual specifications, it allows the user to specify:

• the interface command sets

• the partitioning of FTL jobs between the host and the SSD

Silicon Motion's unique technology to meet crucial attributes required of the controller in an Open Channel SSD:

Advanced media management for the latest generations of NAND Flash technology

The technologies integrated into the SMI's controller solution are the industry's most effective for prolonging reliable operation, and are proven in mission-critical industrial and embedded applications. Silicon Motion draws on more than two decades of experience in managing NAND Flash media. This expertise is reflected in the advanced media management technologies implemented in Silicon Motion SSD controller solutions. These include Silicon Motion's NANDXtend^® technology, which incorporates machine learning error-recovery algorithms.

Data integrity technologies which perform comprehensive error detection and correction

SMI's controller solution can provide a near error-free data output enabled by the implementation of advanced data integrity features in the controller. These include end-to-end data path protection, which applies ECC to buffer memory as well as to the primary NAND Flash memory array. This maintains the integrity of every bit of data as it is transmitted between the host and the SSD as well as between memory and NAND Flash.