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© 2014 Samsung Electronics Co.

SM953White PaperThe Ultimate NVMe SSD for Data Center

02

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE PRODUCTS, INFORMATION AND SPECIFICATIONS WITHOUT NOTICE.

Products and specifications discussed herein are for reference purposed only. All information discussed herein is provided on an “AS IS” basis, without warranties of any kind. This document and all information discussed herein remain the sole and exclusive property of Samsung Electronics. No license of any patent, copyright, mask work, trademark or any other intellectual property right is granted by one party to the other party under this document, by implication, estoppels or otherwise. Samsung products are not intended for use in life support, critical care, medical, safety equipment, or similar applications where product failure could result in loss of life or personal or physical harm, or any military or defense application, or any governmental procurement to which special terms or provisions may apply. For updates or additional information about Samsung products, contact your nearest Samsung office. All brand names, trademarks and registered trademarks belong to their respective owners. © 2014 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

416, Maetan 3-dong, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do 443-772, Koreawww.samsung.com2014-09

Revision History

Version 0.1

Date

Author

Lee Won-ju, Principal EngineerChang Jong-baek, Principal EngineerSong Sang-hoon, Senior EngineerKim Jae-eun, Senior EngineerLee Sang-geol, Senior EngineerKoh Seung-wan, Senior EngineerPark Hae-sung, EngineerKim Sung-wook, EngineerJang You-jin, EngineerNa You-jung, Assistant EngineerChoi Young-gil, Assistant Engineer

Approver

Amendment

03

SM953 White Paper

Contents

Introduction to SM953 04

Features of SM953 05 - Controller: UBX - NAND: 19-nm MLC - Interface: PCIe 3.0 - Protocol: NVMe 1.1 - Host Controller: CPU - Power - Form Factor - Hot Swap - Bootability - Management Component Transport Protocol (MCTP) - Endurance and Warranty

Performance and Applications of SM953 11 - Basic Performance - Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) Performance - Server Virtualization - Web Server - Application Server - DB Server

Conclusion 18

Appendix 19 - Specifications - Evaluating the Performance - Server Application Workload - Firmware Update - Analysis Tool

Introduction to SM953

04

Data increases geometrically with the widespread use of IT devices, including smartphones and tablet PCs. Storage is becoming

more important in processing big data quickly and providing the best service. Some years ago, the HDD was used as the main

storage device. Nowadays, however, the SSD is increasingly utilized to improve the storage processing speed. Nonetheless, because

of the limitation of SATA/AHCI as the Legacy of the HDD, performance is not fully maximized. This white paper describes how the

Samsung SM953 is a PCIe/NVMe product that overcomes the limitation in the SATA interface speed and AHCI processing, providing

three times higher performance compared to the existing SATA SSD product. It is the best datacenter-oriented storage in the big

data era. The Samsung SM953 is a PCIe Gen.3 product that supports up to four lanes and two types of form factors (M.2/2.5”). It is

mounted with the latest 19-nm MLC, providing high-performance sequential R/W 1,750/850 (MB/s) and random R/W 250K/16K

(IOPS). The next chapter will describe the details of the Samsung SM953, the datacenter-oriented NVMe.

• High-performanceandmostadvancedSamsungUBXcontrollertechnology

• High-enduranceandreliable19-nmMLCNANDflash

• PCIeGen.3four-laneinterfaceandtheNVMe1.1protocol

• 128KBsequentialread/write:1,750/850MB/s(@480GB)

• 4KBrandomread/write:250K/16KIOPS(@480GB)

• Lowpowerconsumptionandadvancedpowermanagement

• 480GBand960GB(2.5-inchonly)capacity

• M.2and2.5-inchformfactors

• 0.9DWPD(@480GB)anda5-yearwarranty

Features of the SM953

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SM953 White Paper

This chapter discusses the NVMe interface and the H/W and S/W features of the SM953, such as controllers and NAND. Aside from

the NVMe, this chapter includes a basic description of the SATA/AHCI communication and each chipset’s (layer) features, which

affect the NVMe performance, such as the CPU/PCH. In addition, it provides some features that should be considered for the NVMe

SSD, including bootability and hot swapping. The key features of the SM953 are shown in Table 2-1.

Features SM953Process technology 32nm

HostPHY/Link PCIe Gen3 x4

Link Power Management Support(optional)CMD layer NVMe

SystemNAND structure 8ch / 8way

DRAM LPDDR3-1600CPU 3*Cortex-R4@500MHz

Flash

Target NAND 19nm MLCECC BCH

Security AES256

NAND Interface Toggle 533Mbps

[Table 2-1] SM953 Product Features

Controller : UBX The SM953 has a UBX controller, and the command set supports both the NVMe and AHCI. The SM953 uses the NVMe command

set, and the key features of the NVMe are shown in Table 2-2.

Features SM953Command Set Admin/NVM Command Set support

Multiple Namespaces Up to 4 NamespacesArbitration Mechanism Support

Logical Block Size 512/4K/8KBInterrupt INTx/MSI/MSI-X

Power Management APST(2 operational state 6W/8W)

[Table 2-2] SM953 NVMe Features

As the host interface, the PCIe Gen.3 four-lane high speed is supported; therefore, it can use the NAND flash without an interface

bottleneck. The NVMe is compliant with specification 1.1a, supporting up to four namespaces and one administrator, up to eight I/

O queues, and up to 64K of entries for each queue size.

To realize low-power consumption, it supports the PCIe link power management. For Active State Power Management (ASPM) and

06

deep power down, it supports the L1.2 feature.

The logical sector size is 512B/4KB/8KB and can be set for each namespace. For security, it is built with the AES256 engine. With

regard to data integrity, it supports full data path E2E protection. Aside from the pin-base/MSI interrupt for compliance with the

Legacy systems, it supports the MSI-X interrupt to provide features optimized for the multi-queue environment of the NVMe. It also

provides I2C bus as the Management Component Transport Protocol (MCTP) for device management.

NAND : 19-nm MLCThe NAND flash chips used in the SM953 are applied with a high-performance/quality 2-bit Multi-Level Cell (MLC) manufactured

with the latest 19-nm processes. For a more improved lifecycle, the flash chips are tested in extreme conditions with the SSD

components at the system level.

As one of the most important error correction codes, the signal-processing algorithm applied to the SM953 detects signal

inconsistency in real time and improves the errors in advance to ensure the reliability of the data read from the NAND flash chip.

The other algorithms are designed to specially monitor the lifetime of all NAND flash cells and adjust the cell operation based on

each cell’s conditions for more improved durability. In addition, the periodically created NAND flash chip lifetime logs are used to

help the algorithms find the best solution and extend the SSD lifetime as much as possible.

Interface : PCIe 3.0 The SM953 is the PCIe SSD based on the NVMe protocol. The PCIe interface can provide 1GB/s transfer bandwidth (based on PCIe

3.0) with only one lane, offering a 1.7 times wider bandwidth than the SATA Gen.3 6GB/s (600MB/s). With the decreased bottleneck

shown in the existing SAS (1,200MB/s) and SATA (600MB/s) SSD interfaces, users can experience four times the high-speed

performance of the PCIe Gen.3, up to 4GB/s.

For a SATA device, multiple SSDs should be connected through the RAID configuration for high-speed performance. Note, however,

that the PCIe SSD provides the efficient performance of two SSDs with only one device, lowering total cost of ownership (TCO).

The basic protocol stack of the PCIe SSD and SATA SSD is illustrated in Figure 2-2. The SATA interface design is HDD-based. Since

communication with the host is made via a Host Bus Adapter (HBA), performance may deteriorate when a layer is added. Note,

however, that the PCIe SSD lowers the interface bottleneck by connecting to the host directly, not via the HBA.

[Figure 2-1] PCIe Interface for Flash Storage

2007

1,000MB/s

2,000MB/s

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

TodaySATA2.0(3Gbps)

PCIe Gen2(5Gbps)

PCIe Gen3(8Gbps)

PCIe Gen3 x2 lanes

PCIe Gen3 x4 lanes4,000MB/s

SATA3.0(6Gbps)

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SM953 White Paper

Protocol : NVMe 1.1 The existing AHCI has performance limitations because of its architectural limit; hence the difficulty in improving system

performance by improving the SSD performance only. The NVMe was developed to overcome the limitations of the AHCI driver.

Unlike the AHCI, which has been developed for the HDD and optimized for sequential processing, the NVMe can process 64K of

commands by queue and 64K queue optimized for parallel SSD configuration. In addition, the AHCI needs four commands to

access the uncached data, whereas the NVMe can process it immediately.

AHCI NVMeUncacheable Register Read 4 per command 0 per command

MSI-X and Interrupt Steering No Yes

Parallelism & Multiple ThreadsRequireds synchronization

Lock to issue commandNo locking, doorbellRegister per Queue

Maximum Queue Depth1 Queue

32 Commands per Q64K Queues

64K Commands per Q

Efficiency for 4KB CommandsCommand parameters

Require two serialized hostDRAM fetches

Command parameters in one 64B fetch

[Table 2-3] Comparison of NVMe and AHCI

With the streamlined storage stack, the NVMe enables shorter response time than the existing SATA/AHCI and higher performance

by supporting multiple queues. Therefore, it offers great performance advantages that cannot be provided by the SATA/AHCI in a

heavy workload server environment.

Host Controller : CPUThe best advantage of the NVMe is that it provides the highest performance by removing the HBA bottleneck by connecting

directly to the CPU. The NVMe performance is affected by the CPU's core and frequency. For the highest performance, a certain

number of cores and clock speeds are required. Figure 2-3 shows the evaluation results for the NVMe SSD, which provides the best

performance with a four-core CPU and at least a 2.5GHz clock speed.

[Figure 2-2] Comparison of the SATA SSD Protocol Stack and PCIe SSD Protocol Stack

<SATA Protocol Stack> <PCIe Protocol Stack>

Application

OS

ATA Command Set

AHCI(SATA FIS)

PCIe Transaction

PCIe Link

PCIe PHY

PCIe

Host Host

SATA SSD PCIe SSDHBA(Host Bus Adapter)

PCIeSATA

Application

OS

ATA Command Set

AHCI(SATA FIS)

PCIe Transaction

PCIe Link

PCIe PHY

ATA Command Set

AHCI(SATA FIS)

PCIe Transaction

PCIe Link

PCIe PHY

ATA Command Set

AHCI(SATA FIS)

PCIe Transaction

PCIe Link

PCIe PHY

SATA Transport

SATA Link

SATA PHY

ATA Command Set

SATA Transport

SATA Link

SATA PHY

08

PowerOn the server side, where the I/O frequently occurs, there is not much need for power management, unlike the client side. Note,

however, that the SM953 supports various power levels and low-power features (L1.2) according to customer requirements. By

adjusting the I/O delay time, it can set the RMS power value based on the PCI slot's power limit. In addition, it provides optimized

values for the highest performance and power.

Form FactorThe SM953 supports two types of form factors: the small, thin, and lightweight M.2 form factor and the hot-pluggable 2.5-inch SFF-

8639. The proper form factor is selected according to the application. Both types support the data path up to the PCIe four-lane

interface.

The multi-core system generally used for a server system affects the NVMe performance considerably. In the Non-Uniform Memory

Access (NUMA) structure, the soft interrupt between the CPUs may cause low performance. In addition, the processing-interrupt

performance for the allocated I/O submission may vary according to the location of the PCIe slot where the SSD is connected.

[Figure 2-3] NVMe Best Performance by Number of Cores and Frequency

[Figure 2-4] I/O Processing in a Multi-Core System

※Test condition and workload : refer to Appendix.0

IOPS

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

0 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256QD

0 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256QD

0 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256QD

MAX. Performance

2Core + 2.9GHz 4Core + 2.0GHz

4KB Random Read 1W

4Core + 2.9GHz

4W 8W 16W 32W 64W

CPU 0

Remote Memory Accesses

Acquire/Release Ownership

HW interruptHW interrupt

Data I/O Flow in NUMA architecture ( , )

1

1 2

2

Soft InterruptsCPU N

Local Memory Local Memory

RequestQueue Lock

PICe Slot PICe Slot

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SM953 White Paper

Hot Swap Hot swap involves replacing the SSD, HDD, CD-ROM drive, power supply or other devices while the computer system is running,

requiring no shutdown/rebooting. A device is replaced when it fails or when the data needs to be replaced with other data. Hot

plug is a term similar to hot swap, which means that the operating system normally recognizes the device even when the device is

removed (hot removal) or inserted (hot add) while the system is running. For the SM953, the SFF-8639 form factor SSD supports the

hot plug function; multiple tantalum capacitors ensure stable data integrity even when the system is in sudden power off recovery

(SPOR) state. Currently, however, the M.2 form factor SSD does not support this function.

BootabilityBootability covers all procedures from installing to booting an OS in a storage device. For these procedures, the storage device

should be recognized as a bootable device on the system because many compatibility issues can arise. For example, when a Legacy

BIOS is used, the BIOS should recognize the storage device, which should be registered to the BIOS to include the storage device in

the booting list. For the existing SAS/SATA-type of storage, the storage is recognized by a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) chipset and

included in the booting list. When a HBA or RAID card is used, the ROM option in the HBA and RAID card is used to notify the BIOS

(Legacy) or UEFI that it is a device on which an OS can be installed and booted. An additional booting device can then be set in the

HBA or RAID card. Nowadays, since various vendors request the NVMe SSD booting function, the SM953 selectively provides the

ROM option. However, it does not provide the ROM option because of possible compatibility issues with the BIOS and chipset.

Management Component Transport Protocol (MCTP)The SM953 provides the SMBUS-based MCTP. The SMBUS is a two-line bus based on the I2C serial bus protocol that consists of a

clock and data command. If the PCIe link up is not available, regardless of the in-band state, it is used to check the SSD state, such as

Smart Log or the device ID, or have a host check the temperature and device state frequently. For the SM953, only the 2.5-inch SFF-

8639 form factor supports this function.

[Figure 2-5] SM953 Form Factor Types

< M.2 Form Factor (110x22mm) > < SFF-8639 2.5" Form Factor >

Tantal Capacitor

DRAM

NAND

PMIC

ControllerController

PMIC

NAND

NAND

DRAM

Tantal Capacitor

10

Endurance and WarrantyThe SM953 guarantees a reliable and stable lifetime. Its specifications guarantee a 0.9 Drive-Write-Per-Day (DWPD) endurance and

1-month data retention with a five-year warranty. All lifetime evaluations are based on the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council

(JEDEC).

RELIABILITY SPECIFICATIONS

•UncorrectableBitErrorRate 1 sector per 1017 bits read

•MTBF 2,000,000 hours

•PoweronCycles(Ambient) 50,000

•ComponentDesignLife 5 years

•Endurance - 480GB 0.9 DWPD

•TBW(@4KBRandomWrite) - 480GB 750 TB

•DataRetention 1 months

11

SM953 White Paper

This chapter describes the basic performance of the SM953 and the RAID performance. In addition, it discusses the datacenter

applications that can maximize the effect of deploying the SM953 and the performance enhancements the SM953 provides

compared to an existing SATA SSD. The performance results are from the SM953 M.2 480 GB SSD.

Basic Performance Sequential read/write performance and random read/write performance represent the basic indexes that can show excellence

of performance in an actual application. As a result of comparing the SM953 product to the latest SATA 6Gb/s SSD, the SM953

exhibits about four times higher performance than the SATA SSD, as shown in Figure 3-1. Figure 3-2 presents the IOPS consistency

comparison, which indicates how consistent the performance can be. Since the SM953 provides consistent and high performance

with slight changes compared to the SATA SSD, it is suitable for the datacenter that requires high, consistent performance.

Performance and Applications of the SM953

[Figure 3-1] Basic Performance Comparison

※ Refer to the Appendix for test conditions and workload.

0

400

800

1,200

1,600

2,000

128KB Sequential Read

Single Performance(Sequential)SATA 480GB

128KB Sequential Write

SM953 480GB

0

60,000

120,000

180,000

200,000

300,000

4KB Random Read

Single Performance(Random)SATA 480GB

4KB Random Write

SM953 480GB

1,76

0

[Figure 3-2] Comparison of IOPS Consistency Features


50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

IOPS Consistency(4KB Random Read)

IOPS Consistency=99.4%

IOPS Consistency=99.3%

IOPS Consistency(4KB Random Write)

SATA 480GB

Total Time : 30min Total Time : 30min

SM953 480GB

12,000

13,000

14,000

15,000

16,000

17,000

18,000SATA 480GB SM953 480GB

stdev=172

stdev=342

12

RAID(Redundant Array of Independent Disks)In a datacenter, the RAID environment is generally configured to increase performance or safety. RAID0 (striping), RAID1 (mirroring),

and RAID5 (distribute parity) are the general configurations. Figure 3-3, Figure 3-4, and Figure 3-5 compare the performance of a

combination of the SATA SSD RAID0, RAID1, and RAID5, single SM953 performance, and RAID performance, respectively. In most

cases, the single SM953 performance is superior to the performance of the SATA RAID. If the SM953 is configured as RAID, the

performance difference will be greater, proving the high-performance effect of the SM953.

[Figure 3-3] RAID0 Performance Comparison


4KB Random Read 4KB Random Write

523,

720

263,

153

111,

821

32,9

76

16,5

37

13,1

84

0

700

1,400

2,100

2,800

3,500

128KB Sequential Read

SATA SSD(2Disk RAID)

128KB Sequential Write

SM953 480GB(2Disk RAID) SM953(Single) SATA SSD(2Disk RAID) SM953 480GB(2Disk RAID) SM953(Single)

0

120,000

240,000

360,000

480,000

600,000

S/W RAID0(Random)

3,18

4

1,76

0

908 1,

536

888

769

S/W RAID0(Sequential)



128KB Sequential Read 128KB Sequential Write

1,71

7

448 74

2

417


262,

363

65,2

76

16,5

58

6,44

7

0

400

800

1,200

1,600

2,000SATA SSD(2Disk RAID) SM953 (2Disk RAID) SATA SSD(2Disk RAID) SM953 (2Disk RAID)

0

60,000

120,000

180,000

240,000

300,000S/W RAID1(Random)S/W RAID1(Sequential)



128KB Sequential Read 128KB Sequential Write

2,56

8

1,46

5

522

226


392,

080

187,

773

22,4

59

18,7

85

0

400

800

1,200

1,600

2,000

2,400

2,800SATA SSD(3Disk RAID) SM953 (3Disk RAID) SATA SSD(3Disk RAID) SM953(3Disk RAID)

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

450,000S/W RAID5(Random)S/W RAID5(Sequential)

13

SM953 White Paper

Server Virtualization In the server virtualization environment, shown in Figure 3-6, multiple virtual machines share the same storage resource. In this

environment, multiple users concurrently access the storage and create a huge workload. Therefore, a product suitable for multi-

command processing can deliver great performance. Figure 3-7 shows the performance comparison of the SM953 and SATA SSD

in a virtualized environment of Microsoft® Hyper-V®. As the number of virtual machines increases, the SM953 exhibits higher

performance because of its higher multi-queue utilization. Therefore, deploying the SM953 in the virtualized environment offers a

greater advantage.

The general performance of the SM953 has been described above. The next section will discuss the effect of deploying the SM953

on general datacenter servers, web servers, application servers and database servers.

Web Server The web server forwards web pages to the client via the HTTP. Popular servers are the Apache™, Internet information server (IIS)

and enterprise server. Nowadays, the web acceleration server is used to improve the response speed of a web server and to reduce

the load; it caches the contents and compresses and transfers data. Therefore, storage device performance plays an important role.

Figure 3-9 compares the performance of the SM953 and SATA SSD in the web server with a moderate workload level. The SM953

shows two or three times higher performance compared to the SATA SSD.

[Figure 3-6] Server Virtualization Environment

APP APP APP

VM1 VM2 VM3

Guest O/SGuest O/S

Hypervisor

Guest O/S

[Figure 3-7] Performance Comparison by Number of VMs


VM x 1

106

57.6

0

50

100

150

200

250

300SATA SSD SM953 Virtual Machine Performance [KIOPS]

VM x 2

171

58

VM x 4

250

58

VM x 8

262

59.5

14

Application ServerThe application server interworks with the database and processes the user’s dynamic server contents. The performance of the

mail server – one of the application servers accessing the storage device frequently – largely depends on the storage performance.

Figure 3-10 compares the SM953 and SATA SSD in the application server with a moderate workload level. The SM953 shows two

times higher performance compared to the SATA SSD. Figure 3-11 and Figure 3-12 illustrate the results tested with Jetstress 2013, a

tool that evaluates the server performance of the Microsoft Exchange (one of the mail servers). The result show that the SM953 has

1.1 times higher Achieved Transactional I/O per Second (TPSE) performance and 2.9-6.3 times higher latency property compared

to the SATA SSD.

[Figure 3-8] Web Acceleration Server

[Figure 3-9] Performance Comparison with Web Server Workload


Web Servers Media Streaming

36,4

54

17,7

40

12,9

61

4,33

2

0

8,000

16,000

24,000

32,000

40,000SATA SSD SM953 Web Server Application Performance

Perf

orm

ance

(IO

PS)

Web App Severs Databases

Web Accelerator Network Firewall Web

Users

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SM953 White Paper

Database ServerThe database server saves and processes integrated information from several servers as a common data bundle. "Data is saved

and accessed frequently in a general database server environment. Therefore, storage performance is extremely important. Figure

3-13 compares the SM953 and SATA SSD with a moderate workload to the general database server storage. The SM953 exhibits

2.6 times higher performance than the SATA SSD. Figure 3-14 presents the TPC-C results, which models the transactions in the

online e-commerce process; a database server receives commands from several devices connected online, updates the data in the

database, and then returns the processing results to the connected devices. The SM953 shows 1.1 times higher I/O Transactions

[Figure 3-10] Performance Comparison with Mail Server Workload


Exchange Email

21,4

44

10,4

26

0

8,000

16,000

24,000

32,000

40,000SATA SSD SM953 Mail Server Application Performance

Perf

orm

ance

(IO

PS)

[Figure 3-11] TPSE Comparison with Jetstress 2013


6,39

9

5,79

9

0

1,500

3,000

4,500

6,000

7,500SATA SSD SM953 TPSE(Achieved Transactional I/O per Second)

Perf

orm

ance

(IO

PS)

[Figure 3-12] Latency Comparison with Jetstress 2013


0.9

5.6

0

1.2

2.4

3.6

4.8

6.0SATA SSD SM953 SATA SSD SM953 DB Write Latency (ms)DB Read Latency (ms)

1.5

4.4

0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

16

Per Second (TPS) compared to the SATA SSD. That means that the SM953 has about a 10 percent faster transaction processing

capability on the e-commerce application compared to the SATA SSD.

Database OLTP Decision Support System

21,4

59

8,08

8

15,9

90

7,62

4

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000SATA SSD SM953 DB Server Application Performance

Perf

orm

ance

(IO

PS)

[Figure 3-13] Performance Comparison with the Database Server Application Workload


21,8

25

19,8

52

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000SATA SSD SM953 TPS (Transaction per Second)

Perf

orm

ance

(IO

PS)

[Figure 3-14] TPC-C Performance Comparison


The Not Only SQL (NoSQL) database is optimized to process unformatted data, such as documents and images that cannot be

processed by a traditional Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). It is generally used for big data and real-time web

applications. Figure 3-15 and Figure 3-16 compare the performance and response speed, respectively, of the SM953 and SATA SSD

in the RocksDB environment, the NoSQL database applied to Facebook®. The SM953 shows up to five times higher performance

and response speed. This suggests that the SM953 can provide numerous advantages in the NoSQL environment.

[Figure 3-15] RocksDB IOPS Performance Comparison


0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000SATA SSD SM953 RocksDB Performance

Bulk_load_random_order

68,8

89

65,4

18

68,9

99

11,0

28

11,2

41

Bulk_load_sequential_order

389,

398

138,

526

Multi thread single thread

374,

752

147,

008

Read Perf

373,

557

Write Perf

17

SM953 White Paper


1

Latency(us) Latency(us)

100

10,000

1,000,000

100,000,000IOs SATA SSD SM953 Bulk load keys in random order

1 4 7 10 16 25 40 60 90 140

200

350

500

800

1,20

0

1,80

0

1,00

0

5,00

0

350,

000

1

100

10,000

1,000,000

100,000,000IOs SATA SSD SM953 Bulk load keys in sequential order

1 4 7 10 16 25 40 60 90 140

200

350

500

800

1,20

0

1,80

0

1,00

0

5,00

0

350,

000

1

100

10,000

1,000,000

100,000,000

10,000,000,000

Latency(us) Latency(us)

IOs SATA SSD SM953 Multi Thread Read & Single Thread Write

1 5 9 16 30 50 90 160

300

500

900

1,60

0

3,00

0

5,00

0

9,00

0

16,0

00

30,0

00

50,0

00

90,0

00

160,

000

300,

000

500,

000

1

100

10,000

1,000,000

100,000,000IOs SATA SSD SM953 Random Read

1 6 12 25 50 100

200

450

900

1,80

0

4,00

0

8,00

0

16,0

00

35,0

00

70,0

00

1,60

,000

350,

000

700,

000

1,40

0,00

0

3,00

0,00

0Latency(us)

1

100

10,000

1,000,000

100,000,000IOs SATA SSD SM953 Random Write

1 6 12 25 50 100

200

450

900

1,80

0

4,00

0

8,00

0

16,0

00

35,0

00

70,0

00

1,40

,000

300,

000

700,

000

4,00

0,00

0

[Figure 3-16] RocksDB Response Time Comparison

18

Conclusion

The SM953 is Samsung’s second NVMe product after the high-end level XS1715. It is a popular datacenter product that can provide

consistently high performance at lower cost than the existing PCIe SSD. Since it uses the NVMe protocol, which is standardized to

utilize the non-volatile memory performance such as NAND flash, unlike the traditional storage device (disk), it can provide three

times higher performance compared to the existing SATA/AHCI product with the same NAND flash. Datacenter performance

improvement using the SM953 varies according to the frequency of use of the storage by the host. If a multi-core, high-frequency

and high-performance CPU is used, as well as the PCIe 3.0 high-performance interface, the best performance improvement can be

achieved. Using the SM953, especially for applications such as server virtualization and database server, as described in Chapter 3,

will deliver satisfactory system performance improvement. In addition, by combining Samsung’s genuine controller technology and

NAND flash management technology, the SM953 can guarantee 0.9 DWPD, backed by a five-year warranty. With 6 watt of active

power, the SM953 is the best product to lower a datacenter's TCO.

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Appendix

SpecificationPM853T

Form Factor M.2 2.5"Capacity 480 GB 480, 960 GB

Physical Dimensions

(22 ± 0.15) x (110 ± 0.15)mm (0.87 ± 0.01) x (4.33 ± 0.01)in., Top 5mm (0.2in.) Max, Bottom 1.5mm (0.06in.) Max

(100.2 ± 0.25) x (69.85 ± 0.25) x (6.8 ± 0.2)mm(3.95 ± 0.01) x (2.75 ± 0.01) x (0.27 ± 0.01)in. Label thickness is included in the thickness dimensions.

Host Interface

- Fully supported 1.0e, NVMe 1.1a compatible- 1 Namespace, 8 Queues- Support Atomic Write- PCIe Gen2/Gen3 x2/x4, INTx/MSI/MSI-X

Performance*

Sequential R/W- 1,750/850MB/s (8KB map)Random R/W- 260K/14K IOPS (8KB map)

Sequential R/W- 2,200/1,400MB/s (8KB map)Random R/W- 300K/16K IOPS (8KB map)

Power Consumption*

Active Read/Write: 5.5Watt /6.4Watt,Idle : 1.9Watt

Active Read/Write: 4.7Watt /6.5Watt,Idle : 2.1Watt

TemperatureOperating : 0°C to 70°C (32°F to 158°F)Non-operating : -40°C to 85°C (104°F to 185°F)

Humidity 5% to 95%, non-condensing Vibration 7~500Hz, 2.17Grms, 15min/axis (X, Y, Z)

Shock 1,500 G, duration 0.5m sec, Half Sine WaveMTBF 2.0 million hours

TBW (Best/Worst) 4,245/750TB (8KB Map)

480GB : 4,245/750TB, 960GB : 8,490/1,500TB (8KB Map)

Weight 15g 63g

* Actual performance may vary depending on use conditions and environment

Evaluating the Performance A. Considerations

i. The product shall be sufficiently pre-conditioned for sustained performance.

ii. Proper systems, threads and queues shall be set up to realize maximum performance by the product.

(E5/i7-four-coreormore,ThreadxQueue≥256)

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B. Performance Evaluation Environment

i. System: Dell™ PowerEdge™ R720 Server (RAID/TPC-C Evaluation), Dell PowerEdge R720xd Server (Jetstress Evaluation),

HP® Z230 Workstation (Basic/Server Application Evaluation), Intel™ SR2612URR Server (RocksDB Evaluation),

Dell T620 Server (Virtual Machine Evaluation)

ii.Processor:IntelXeon™[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],

[email protected],[email protected]

iii. OS: Windows® Server® 2012 R2/RHEL 6.5 Kernel 3.0 or higher (Inbox NVMe Driver)

iv. Test Target: Physical Device, Full Range

v. Test Tool: IOMeter 2006.07.27 (Windows), FIO 2.1.3 (Linux®), Benchmark Tool

vi. Test Time: 1 minute per item

C. Performance Evaluation Items

Performance Test Script

Precondition-Sequential 128 KB Sequential Write (Density x 2)

Sequential Read Performance TestWorker 1-256, Queue Depth by worker: 1-256 (Block Size=64KB/128KB)

Sequential Write Performance TestWorker 1-256, Queue Depth by worker: 1-256 (Block Size=64KB/128KB)

Precondition-RandomWorker 1-256, Queue Depth by worker: 1-256 (Block Size=4KB/8KB)

Random Read Performance TestWorker 1-256, Queue Depth by worker: 1-256 (Block Size=4KB/8KB)

Mixed (70/30) Performance TestWorker 1-256, Queue Depth by worker: 1-256 (Block Size=4KB/8KB)

Random Write Performance TestWorker 1-256, Queue Depth by worker: 1-256 (Block Size=4KB/8KB)

Server Application Workload

Server Application WorkloadMain

Request Size

Sequential Random Read Write

Web ServerWeb Server 4KB 25% 75% 95% 5%

Media Streaming 64KB 100% 0% 98% 2%

Application Server Exchange Email 4KB 0% 100% 67% 33%

Database ServerDatabase OLTP 8KB 0% 100% 70% 30%

Decision Support System 64KB 0% 100% 100% 0%

Firmware Update Cautions: Firmware downloads destroy data. Therefore, before starting a firmware download, all data in the SSD should be backed

up. Do not remove any SSD or execute new firmware download while an existing firmware download is in progress.

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SM953 White Paper

4) Click “Download” and then select the execution method. (In the following example, “Replace firmware image in slot 3 activate

after next reset” has been selected.)

5) Specify the F/W path, open the firmware binary and then download the firmware.

Analysis ToolTo analyze the PCIe SSD, use Teledyne LeCroy™ PETracer™ 7.0. For more information, visit the Teledyne LeCroy website at http://

teledynelecroy.com.

1) Run “Windows Samsung NVMe Re-Drive.”

2) Click the “Firmware Tab” and then select the drive where the firmware download will be executed from the “Drives” list.

3) Select the F/W slot.

www.samsung.com/ssd

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