Viking: SSD in DDR3 form factor

[Dr Mordrid]

Gizmag article.....

Viking Modular introduces an SSD in a DIMM memory form factor

Viking Modular has unveiled a novel approach to adding a solid state storage boost to a computer or server. Instead of being bound by the familiar 2.5 or 3.5-inch form factor, the company has introduced SATADIMM – storage on a memory module. It's shaped like system RAM and slides into DDR3 slots on the motherboard but connecting up its onboard SATA interface results in up to 200GB Enterprise Class Solid State Drive storage being made available. Although likely to find its way into business systems and data center servers in the immediate future, system designers may well find the module useful for creating even thinner mobile devices, such as tablet computers.

The SATADIMM storage solution sees an Enterprise Class Solid State Drive placed on a system memory module. In fact the drive comes in an industry-standard JEDEC 240-pin DDR3 DIMM form factor which will fit into any spare memory slots on a mainboard to provide a novel storage boost. The power needs of the drive are met by the 1.5V supply to the slot and in order to take advantage of the SATADIMM solution, the module will need to be connected up to a SATA II interface upon insertion.
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[VJ]

I fail to see the point... Why occupy a memory slot for something that doesn't use the memory interface...?

It just seems better to stick it in box and mount it as a drive, thus not taking up memory slots... Or am I misisng something here?


Jörg

[Technoid]

Funny, my coworker commented about viking memory seemingly not being around anymore.

No wonder, they have gone bonkers around the bend

[Dr Mordrid]

I fail to see the point... Why occupy a memory slot....It just seems better to stick it in box and mount it as a drive, thus not taking up memory slots... Or am I misisng something here?

Jörg

As noted in the article: size. A slot for a DIMM & card is far thinner than an SSD and its hardware. Useful for tablets and other small portable devices.

[Jammrock]

http://www.sandisk.com/business-solutions/ssd/issd

Not smaller than an iSSD though I'm sure there's more capacity and speed in the SATADIMM.

[Umfriend]

Capacity I hae no clue about, I don'
t see why an iSSD should be slower by definition. But it is definately of a higher capacity as it has 64GB in one package while the Viking solution has many more?

[VJ]

As noted in the article: size. A slot for a DIMM & card is far thinner than an SSD and its hardware. Useful for tablets and other small portable devices.

Yes, I read that... But small portable devices often use micro DIMMs, and are often not equipped with many slots to spare.
Use the same chips; but just mount them differently...

[Wulfman]

if I read that correctly, you still have to connect a sata-cable to the module. now how is putting a whole (additional) dimm-slot more space-efficient than putting a single 1.5V line and a sata cable into a small box/board that houses the same memory chips?

mfg
w

[Jammrock]

Capacity I hae no clue about, I don't see why an iSSD should be slower by definition. But it is definately of a higher capacity as it has 64GB in one package while the Viking solution has many more?

SSD speeds are greatly dependent on four key factors:

1. Speed of the NAND flash. The quicker the NAND can change state the faster the drive will be.

2. Number of channels used. Larger capacity SSD's are generally faster, throughput and with higher IOPS, because they have multiple NAND chips working in parallel. This is why the 40GB SSD's (usually 4-channel) are much much slower compared to the 160GB SSD's (8-channels).

3. The SSD controller. With hard drives this is not a big deal, though in certain cases it can help, but with SSDs the quality and features of the controller make a huge difference.

4. The interface. While HDDs typically never exceed the maximum interface speed, unless it's a big array, a single SSD can saturate an entire 3 Gbps SATA/SAS channel. SSDs are why the SATA/SAS 6 Gbps interface was pushed out so fast. And the really really fast enterprise solid state stuff all runs on the PCI-Express bus which can push 2 GBps and greater (Bytes not bits) with ease.

SATADIMMS have more NAND chips, so more channels, and space for a better controller, so in two or three of the four categories SATADIMMs has an edge. Only the interface, which is SATA, is even. Thus SATADIMMs will likely be much faster than an iSSD.

Most tablet makers solder the NAND directly to the PCB to save on space. Though if they really wanted this in the mobile market I would think they'd use SODIMM size SSDs, not 240-pin sized DIMMs.

I can see this in the HTPC and small form factor market mostly. HTPC and SFF business motherboards often come with 4 DIMMs but you rarely use more than two because there is no need. You could load a couple of SATADIMMs to the unused slots and make the device smaller and near silent.

[Evildead666]

I thought it would be good for servers which need huge amounts of memory, instead of putting loads of high cap dimms in, you shove a few of these and have 100's of GB of RAM effectively..