Solid State Drives are available with a variety of system interfaces based primarily on the performance requirements for the SDD in the system. Also, since SDDs are generally used in conjunction or interchangeable with magnetic disk drives, a common mass storage bus interface is used in most cases. This also allows the system software to manage both drive types in a similar way, making system integration nearly plug-and-play. These common interface types include SATA, Fibre Channel, SAS, and ATA/IDE.
Solid State Drives are available with a variety of system interfaces based primarily on the performance requirements for the SDD in the system. Also, since SDDs are generally used in conjunction or interchangeable with magnetic disk drives, a common mass storage bus interface is used in most cases. This also allows the system software to manage both drive types in a similar way, making system integration nearly plug-and-play. These common interface types include SATA, Fibre Channel, SAS, and ATA/IDE.
There are also interfaces initially designed for other purposes but have been adopted by SSDs in some cases. On the low end, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), initially designed for managing peripherals like printers, keyboards, and mice, soon was adopted as a convenient and economical means to provide removable storage using FLASH Thumb Drive as a replacement for floppy drives in many systems. This interface is also commonly used as a secondary bus option on many form factor SSD drives. Form factor drives include 1.8-inch. 2.5-inch, and 3.5-inch form factors.
|
Interface
|
|
Description
|
Details
|
Standards
|
|
SATA
|
Serial ATA
|
A serial implementation of the Parallel ATA interface (also called the IDE) used on floppy drives and early magnetic disk drives.
|
A point-to-point system that utilizes a 7-conductor cable with two differential [Tx/Rx] pairs to each drive. A separate 15-pin power connector is used.
Data throughput potential is 150, 300, or 600 Mbytes/s, based on the version used. The max unshielded cable length is 1 meter, 2 meters if shielded, or up to 8 meters using the xSATA version.
|
Serial ATA Revision 3.0, 5/2009
T13 committee
|
|
FC
|
Fibre Channel
|
A multiple rate serial Gbit,
Multiprotocol interface.
Fibre Channel was developed as a modern serial interface for Storage Area Networks (SAN) where an array of drives in the same cabinet, room, or facility where shared by a set of servers.
|
A bidirectional interface that supports SCSI, IP, ATM, HIPPI, and/or IEEE802.2 over copper or fiber optic cables. Rates from 1 to 10 Gbits/s based on version used.
Twister pair: 33 meters
Coax: 75 meters
Fiber Optic: 10 kilometers
In addition, FC can be configured in an arbitrated loop containing up to 127 devices, Point to Point, or in a switched fabric.
SSD drives using Fibre channel support the twisted pair electrical interface and most use the 40-pin SCA-2 connector. This connector contains 4 twisted pairs for the base FC signals as well as various configuration, power, and ground pins. Maximum length 1 meter.
SSD drives utilize the Fibre Channel Protocol FCP-SCSI protocol command set. (SCSI – Small Computer System Interface).
|
T10 committee
|
|
SAS
|
Serial Attached SCSI
|
A 3 or 6-Gbit rate serial implementation of the 8/16/32-bit wide parallel Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI)
|
A point-to-point full duplex system. It utilizes a 4 two differential [Tx/Rx] pairs to each drive. A separate 15-pin power connector is used when combined with SATA, or can be integrated into a single connector. There are various connectors utilized.
Data throughput potential is 3 or 6 Gbits/s with 12 Gbits/s planned for 2012 release.
The max cable length is 10 meters.
|
Serial Attached SCSI – 2.0 {SAS-2.0), 11/2007
T10 committee
|
|
ATA/IDE
|
Advanced Technology Attachment/Integrated Drive Electronics
|
Various generations of the parallel drive interface used in PCs since 1986.
Speeds from 16 to 133 Mbytes/s possible.
|
A master-slave 16-bit parallel bus allowing up to 2 devices controlled by one master.
A single 40-pin connector is used with a maximum 18-inch cable length standard. Enhanced versions have 80 pins.
Adopted for PCMCIA and Compact Flash SSD devices.
|
ANSI X3.221-1994
T13 committee
|
|
PCIe
|
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
|
A serial version of the PCI bus. A hub is used on the backplane to allow data rates up to 4 Gbits/s per lane.
|
This is an internal interface, so a SSD would be on a circuit board and plugged into a PCIe slot in the motherboard.
|
PCI Express 2.0
PCISIG group
|
|
USB
|
Universal Serial Bus
|
A simple serial bus with integrated power.
Base data rate is 12 Mbits/s. Later versions support up to 480 Mbits/sec.
|
A 4-pin bidirectional serial bus using a hub and spoke topology in order to connect up to 128 devices under the control of one master controller.
The current USD 2.0 standard allows operation 5 meters per cable but supports a string of cables with intermediate hubs to achieve a 30 meter maximum cable length.
SSD thumb drives and many form factor drives provide a USD interface as a secondary access channel. This is possible since the controller chip used in many form factor SSD drives only needs to use a few pins to integrate this interface into the drive design.
|
USB 2.0 Specification USB.org
|
|
IEEE 1394
|
Firewire
|
A serial bus system originally designed for digital video (DV) applications.
Allows rates from 400-3200 Mbits/s
Usually on a bridge card.
|
A point-to point half duplex system allowing cable lengths up to 4.5 meters. Also utilizes a hub/tree system like USB. Unlike USB, 1394 does allow peer-to-peer communications without intervention of the system processor.
It offers similar functionality as USB 2.0 but with more data saturation capability, higher power distribution capability, and higher data reliability – critical for many applications.
|
IEEE 1394
|
Related Guides:
Return to the SSD Guide