Marvell SSD Controller Technology Expands NVMe Host Memory Buffer Ecosystem

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. announced expansion of its Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) SSD controller technology to support Host Memory Buffer (HMB), an NVMe revision 1.2 feature enabling DRAM-less SSDs to use host memory and achieve performance comparable to SSD designs with embedded DRAM but at much lower cost and power consumption.

The 88NV1140 marks the industry’s first SSD controller that supports HMB. Furthermore the company is partnering with other leaders in the PC ecosystem to accelerate the adoption of HMB-enabled SSDs for a new generation of low power, small form factor mobile computing systems.

“As the world’s leading SSD controller provider, Marvell has once again made a unique contribution to the storage industry by pioneering the integration of Host Memory Buffer technology into DRAM-less products,” said David Chen, VP, SSD business, Marvell. “The HMB feature greatly enhances system memory utilization, reduces total system cost, lowers power consumption and provides consumers with a new class of mobile computing devices. I am very pleased with our ongoing collaboration with leading ecosystem partners and look forward to the fast adoption of HMB in the broad consumer market.“

“The NVM Express organization is pleased to see the first product ship that supports the Host Memory Buffer feature,” said Amber Huffman, president, NVM Express, Inc. “This is an mportant step in developing the ecosystem to support use of NVM Express SSDs in low power and small form factor devices in mobile computing.“

The 88NV1140 is an DRAM-less NVMe SSD controller for mass market mobile computing solutions with NANDEdge low-density parity check (LDPC) technology supporting TLC and 3D NAND. It enables small form factor SSD solutions with unparalleled performance for integration into low-z-height tablets, Chromebooks and new 2-in-1 hybrid/detachable mobile PC platforms. Additionally, the 88NV1140 has enabled the industry’s first hardware to support the new NVMe HMB feature. By leveraging memory allocated from the host system, the DRAM-less based 88NV1140 is able to scale up performance without limitations of conventional DRAM-less architectures.

Key features and benefits of 88NV1140 include:

• Dual core Cortex R5 CPUs

• Embedded SRAM with hardware accelerators to optimize IO/s performance

• DRAM-less SSD through NVMe interface leverages HMB to scale up performance and reduce total BOM cost

• NANDEdge LDPC error-correction technology boosts SSD endurance and supports 15nm TLC and 3D NAND

• Low power management (L1.2) design

• 28nm low power CMOS process