Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SSD Processor

Just over two years ago there were only five companies involved in Solid State Drive technology, and as of January 2010 there are nearly 140 names in the business. Without doubt, the SSD market has enjoyed a powerful growth period with relatively painless consumer acceptance. Benchmark Reviews has been on top of the SSD scene since retail products were first introduced at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. Based on the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SSD processor, the Crucial RealSSD-C300 becomes the industry's first SATA-6G consumer Solid State Drive. Likewise, the C300 is also the first SSD to use ONFI 2.1 synchronous NAND flash. In this article, Benchmark Reviews inspects the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SSD processor rated for 355/215 MBps read and write speeds.

Micron utilizes the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 Solid State Drive controller inside their 256GB Crucial RealSSD-C300 SSD, model CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1. While the SSD industry grows daily, only a few select manufacturers offer popularly-accepted Flash NAND SSD controllers. The most popular consumer controllers at the moment are: Indilinx IDX110M00-FC "Barefoot", Intel PC29AS21AA0, JMicron JMF612, Toshiba T6UG1XBG, Samsung S3C29RBB01-YK40, Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2, SandForce SF-1200/1500, and now the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SATA-III SSD processor introduced by Crucial.

In most respects, the new Marvell SSD circuit board follows the design of several past products. Illustrated from the top-view image above, you'll notice that the printed circuit board (PCB) utilizes a dense component layout for the Micron flash NAND modules and Marvell 88SS9174 SSD-controller with few electronics filling the remaining area. Marvell's 88SS9174 SATA-III SSD processor is joined by up to sixteen flash NAND modules (Micron 0AB12 used here), and a single DRAM chip for buffered transactions. Although only a 256GB capacity has been revealed for the Crucial RealSSD-C300, anything is possible as demand grows for more storage space.

The Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 processor used in this architecture was taken from the Crucial RealSSD-C300 Solid State Drive model CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1. The Marvell 88SS9174 supports Native Command Queuing (NCQ) with 32 command slots. Similar to other modern SSD controllers, the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 processor was built to support native TRIM and Secure Erase commands. Additionally, the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) command set is also supported on the Crucial RealSSD-C300.

Bandwidth estimates for the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SSD controller claim speeds up to 355 MB/s read-from and 215 MB/s write-to, however these are dependant on the flash-NAND and DRAM buffer used (the Crucial RealSSD-C300 CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 is referenced here).

Since Crucial is a Micron brand, it's not surprising to see Micron NAND used in the RealSSD-C300 Solid State Drive. The flash NAND used on the CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 (256GB) model are built with 34-nanometer technology and utilizes Micron's high-speed ONFI 2.1 NAND interface for 166 MT/s with 512-byte industry standard sector size. Each 32GB NLC NAND module requires 3.3V, and is marked as OAB12 NW172 (Micron part MT29F32G08CBABBWP-12).

The ONFI 2.1 specification pushes NAND performance levels into a new performance range: 166 MB/s to 200 MB/s. This new specification is the first NAND specification to specifically address the performance needs of solid-state drives to offer faster data transfer rates in combination with other new technologies like SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0 and PCI Express Gen2.

The 128MB Micron OAD12-D9LGQ DDR DRAM module offers decent cache performance for fast transaction buffering, which will become more important as SATA-III 6.0Gbps transfers are observed.

While the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 processor is an ambiguous component, we respect that our sample came inside the Crucial RealSSD-C300 series. Please continue on for details and performance results for this Solid State Drive...

Crucial RealSSD-C300

In a short amount of time, the entire SSD market has created and recreated itself several times over. Counting the generations of SSD processors has become difficult for experienced experts, and keeping-up with controller architecture has come with its own set of challenges. Benchmark Reviews has already tested dozens of Solid State Drive products, and we've seen everything from dual-SATA controllers in RAID-0 to large cache buffer modules used inside of them. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SSD controller, which is used in the Crucial RealSSD-C300 Solid State Drive by Micron Technology.

In addition to notebook and desktop computer installations, the 256GB Crucial RealSSD-C300 MLC SSD could also be utilized for mission-critical backups or high-abuse data systems; but its real focus is on high-performance data transfer speeds. Although the Micron CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 model does not offer an integrated USB Mini-B port, there is a USB-to-SATA (and SATA power) adapter for making this into a portable backup storage device. Honestly, this should be standard equipment for all SSD storage products, and I'm happy to see Crucial lead by example.

Crucial RealSSD Features:

The RealSSD C300 drive was designed by Micron Technology, using the company's award-winning 34-nanometer NAND technology and a high-speed ONFI 2.1 NAND interface. Product features include:

• 128GB Capacity: CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1
• 256GB Capacity: CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1
• 2.5-inch form factor
• SATA 6Gb/s system interface
• 4.3W / 94mW average power (active/standby)
• Up to 355 MB/s sustained sequential read speed
• Up to 215 MB/s sustained sequential write speed
• 1500 G/1ms shock and 2Hz to 500Hz at 3.1G vibration
• 0°C to +70°C temperature range
• 75g weight

CTFDDAC256MAG Specifications:

• Micron MLC NAND Flash
• RoHS-compliant package
• SATA 6Gb/s interface
• ATA modes supported
  - PIO mode 3, 4
  - Multiword DMA mode 0, 1, 2
  - Ultra DMA mode 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• Industry-standard, 512-byte sector size support
• Hot-plug capable
• Native Command Queuing support with 32 command slot support
• ATA-8 command set compliant
• ATA security feature command set and password login support
• Secure erase (data page) command set: fast and secure erase (clear, sanitize)
• Self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology (SMART) command set
• Performance:
  - PCMark Vantage (HDD test suite score): 45,000 (SATA 6Gb/s), 35,000 (SATA 3Gb/s)
  - Sequential READ: up to 355 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s), up to 265 MB/s (SATA 3Gb/s)
  - Sequential WRITE: up to 215 MB/s (140 MB/s for 128GB drive)
  - Random 4k READ: up to 60,000 IOPS (SATA 6Gb/s), up to 50,000 IOPS (SATA 3Gb/s)
  - Random 4k WRITE: up to 45,000 IOPS (30,000 IOPS for 128GB drive)
  - READ latency: 55μs (TYP SATA 6Gb/s), 70μs (TYP SATA 3Gb/s)
  - WRITE latency: 60μs (TYP SATA 6Gb/s), 95μs (TYP SATA 3Gb/s)
• Reliability
  - MTBF: TBD
  - 3-year warranty
  - Static and dynamic wear leveling
  - Field-upgradable firmware
  - Uncorrectable bit error rate (UBER): <1 sector per 1015 bits read
  - Low power consumption
• Endurance: Total bytes written (TBW) - 72TB
• Mechanical
  - SATA connector: 5V ±5%
  - 2.5-inch drive: 100.45mm x 69.85mm x 9.5mm
  - Weight: 75g (MAX)
• Capacity (unformatted): 128GB, 256GB
• Operating temperature: Commercial (0°C to +70°C)

Marvell 88SS9174 Performance

The ATTO Disk Benchmark program is free, and offers a comprehensive set of test variables to work with. In terms of disk performance, it measures interface transfer rates at various intervals for a user-specified length and then reports read and write speeds for these spot-tests. There are some minor improvements made to the 2.34 version of the program, but the benchmark is still limited to non-linear samples up to 256MB. ATTO Disk Benchmark requires that an active partition be set on the drive being tested. Please consider the results displayed by this benchmark to be basic bandwidth speed performance indicators.

Our basic bandwidth speed tests begin with the Crucial RealSSD-C300 connected to the integrated HighPoint Rocket 620LF PCI-Express SATA-III 6.0 Gbps adapter, as the ATTO Disk Benchmark tools performs file transfers ranging from 0.5 KB to 8192 KB. The 256GB CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 model reveals an impressive 383 MBps maximum read speed that plateaus from 256-8192 KB file chunks, while the 227 MBps peak write bandwidth plateaus from 32-8192 KB. These results surpass the stated 355/215 MBps maximum given by Micron.

HD Tune is a low-level test that will not operate on a drive which contains a partition, so Benchmark Reviews uses DISKPART to prepare hardware and remove any partitions before conducting these tests. Random Access tests are divided into 512b, 4KB, 64KB, 1MB and random size test files sizes. The Random Access test measures the performance of random read or write operations. The amount of data which will be read varies from 512 bytes to 1 MB. Performance is reported in operations per second (IOPS), average access time, and average speed. Because it is our intent to compare one product against another, Benchmark Reviews has focused on random transfer size IOPS performance.

The Crucial RealSSD-C300's 4KB random IOPS performance in HD-Tune measured 7941 for read IO, and 2451 for write. In comparison, the 4KB read IOPS was ahead of Corsair's X256 SSD which scored 7444, and the Vertex Turbo's 7272. Alternatively, both the Vertex Turbo (17358 4KB write IOPS) and Corsair X256 (16244) SSDs are well ahead of the CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 in terms of IOPS write-to performance.

In the tests below, Benchmark Reviews utilizes the HD TachRW tool to compare the fastest collection of desktop hard drives and competing SSD's we can get our hands on. Using the Intel ICH10R SATA controller on the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P, HD Tach was used to benchmark the test SSD five times with the best results displayed below. It's important to note that HD Tach's Burst Speed result should be ignored for Solid State Drives due to the cache methods inherent to each memory controller architecture. There are times where this number will be extremely high, which is a result of the optimized cache used for SSD's.

The important numbers used for comparison are the sustained read and write bandwidth speeds, which indicate an approximate performance level of the product. Our featured test item, the Crucial RealSSD-C300 model CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 MLC SSD, performed at an average 319.4 MBps best sustained average read speed and a best average sustained write bandwidth of 213.9 MBps in HD-Tach. Read speeds peak at 330 MBps, while writes peaked at 225 MBps.

The Crucial RealSSD-C300 offered up to 383/227 MBps read and writes speeds in ATTO Disk Benchmark trailed by 363/226 MBps in Crystal DiskMark, while Everest reported a 332/215 MBps linear bandwidth speed. Input/Output performance was modest in Iometer and HD-Tune, indicating that the CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 model would perform extremely well for enthusiast consumers but not offer the high operational functionality needed in the Enterprise server sector.

Benchmark Reviews has tested the Crucial RealSSD-C300 6.0-Gbps SSD, and the performance results were leading-edge. Based on our benchmark tests of this SATA-III Marvell-based storage product, the CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 model delivers a noteworthy 0.16 ms response time which assures a nearly-instant reactions when called upon, and showed absolutely no sign of data-write stuttering during our tests (although Everest linear write tests shows some moments where the buffer transitioned). Based on the high-performance Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 SSD processor, the Crucial RealSSD-C300 delivers native TRIM garbage collection and Sanitary Erase support with impressive transfer speeds deserving of the SATA 6Gb/s interface.

Benchmark Reviews tested the 256GB Crucial RealSSD-C300 (CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 model) for this article, which is sold by Crucial for $799 while NewEgg lists for $759. Alternatively, there's a 128GB version of the RealSSD-C300 available (CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1) directly from Crucial for $499 of from NewEgg for $479.

Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.

Related Articles:

• Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive
• Mtron Pro 7500 32GB SATA-II SSD MSP-SATA7525
• Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition Processor
• Synology Cube Station CS407 4-Bay SATA Gigabit NAS
• Zabcat xplorer� File Management Software
• Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset
• Gigabyte Aivia Osmium Mechanical Keyboard
• Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P DDR2 P45 Motherboard
• Antec P183 Mid-Tower Computer Case
• Patriot Supersonic Magnum Flash Drive