Intel Updates SSDs, Supports TRIM, Faster Writes

MojoKid writes "Intel has just released a firmware update for their 34nm Gen X25-M solid state drives that not only boosts sequential write performance, but adds support for the TRIM command as well. A performance optimization tool is also being released today, for users of Windows Vista and XP, who won't be able to take advantage of TRIM. After being flashed with the new firmware update, Intel's 34nm Gen 2 X25-M 160GB drive offered increased performance in a myriad of benchmarks shown here, and sequential write performance was increased on the order of 30%."

Comments

A better write up at anandtech

[Zebadias]

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3667

Re:A better write up at anandtech

[Vigile]

Here is PCPer.com's post on this update:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=805

Re:They still are crap compared to Fusion-io

[crazypip666]

What you fail to mention is that Fusion-IO devices aren't bootable.

Re:They still are crap compared to Fusion-io

[jandrese]

Sure, if you're willing to pay $3500 for the same 80GB that you can get for $350 on the Intel drive you had better expect it to perform faster. It's literally an order of magnitude more expensive!

Re:Great

[tepples]

Now what file systems support TRIM?

Any file system whose checking program supports retrieving a list of cluster ranges that aren't in use can be made to support TRIM. These include any FS that uses a "bitmap" to record sector allocation (e.g. HFS or NTFS), as well as any that use a linked list of cluster numbers (e.g. FAT32, exFAT).

Re:They still are crap compared to Fusion-io

[clarkn0va]

No, but that doesn't stop me from putting a boot partition on a USB stick and / on the Fusion-io.

Now, the fact that I could buy a good used car for the price of the Fusion-io, that stops me.

Re:Great

[TheRaven64]

Well, not exactly. The filesystem driver in the OS needs to support it. It's not something that you can just support for every filesystem easily, because each filesystem keeps track of which blocks are in use and which are not in a different way. An OS will support it by exporting a trim command from the block driver level, which will be ignored by older drivers and mapped to the SATA TRIM command on drivers for newer controllers. Each filesystem will then be responsible for actually issuing these commands.

Re:They still are crap compared to Fusion-io

[Happy Nuclear Death]

That's a ridiculous comparison. FusionIO cards are not anywhere near the same class at the Intel drives. They have a certain purpose and are geared toward a certain market. The Intel SSDs are a completely different beast. You can't very well use a PCI card in a notebook, which is a typical host for SSDs. The Intel SSDs are coming pretty close to maxing out the SATA 2 port, and that's all that matters for consumer-level systems. It's pretty frelling impressive. I, for one, welcome our performance-improving firmware overlords!

TRIM

[EriktheGreen]

Great, now even my computer is getting more TRIM than I am.

Re:TRIM

[n1ckml007]

Yes, the computer will TRIM the FAT.

Re:TRIM

[clarkn0va]

The first mistake most people make when talking about SSDs vs HDDs is comparing cost/GB. SSDs are not for storing data. They're for installing your OS and programs, while your data goes to the fileserver or the secondary drive in the workstation. Almost every system builder I've talked to fails to recognize that for your typical home or office user, spending an extra $100-200 on a solid-state system drive, even if it means reducing your CPU budget correspondingly, will show huge gains in system usability and responsiveness. I've built several systems on this philosophy and my customers couldn't be happier.

Re:TRIM

[maxume]

I fall into the 'only storage for extended periods' category, prefer the convenience of having everything 'inside' the laptop, do not particularly need the performance, and am somewhat budget oriented (in that I don't have a huge amount of money that I want to spend on computer stuff). So I guess the biggest problem I have with SSDs at the moment is just the cost, mostly regardless of the size. After that, the fact that cost/GB is still falling quite rapidly is a big consideration, as is the ongoing increase in available capacity; 300 GB for something like $350 is where those considerations go right out the window, so I only probably need to wait through 2 or 3 more product cycles.

I certainly don't doubt that the performance is great, I'm just a cheap ass.

Re:TRIM

[bughunter]

Apparently that sense of the word 'trim' is regional.

I grew up in Florida and Colorado, and wasn't aware of that meaning until one day a couple years ago, when I was discussing my afternoon's plans with my wife, "I'll go to the grocery for some things, but I think I'll stop in for a trim first."

My wife tittered, "Don't say that!"

Here, I was utterly confused by her reaction, "Say what?"

She blushed and said "You know."

At this point I was becoming disoriented, because my wife is seldom either obtuse or squeamish. "What!"

"You don't know?"

I began to feel like the Knights of the Round Table saying 'it' to the Knights of Ni. "I really don't know."

She whispered, "'Trim!'"

I boggled for a beat. "I'm going to go to the barber for a trim. What did you think I meant?"

More girlish giggling, "You know!"

"No, I don't. What else does 'trim' mean to you, besides a haircut, or lawn maintenance?"

She finally realized I was serious, and said, "It's slang for the female genitals!" like I'm an idiot. Which is a much more familiar tone.

But I began imagining the etymology of such a usage, and began to picture a well-trimmed female pubic area. "You mean, like in trimmed pubic hair?"

More blushing and giggling, "Yes!"

Now I was intrigued, "Wow. I've never heard 'trim' used like that before; it must be a West Coast thing. So, is 'trim' used as a noun, like 'I want some of that trim?' Or is 'trim' a verb, as in 'I'd trim that?' Or maybe an adjective, as in 'trim pie?'" Every time I said the word, she flinched or tittered or giggled. The Pythonesque feeling returned.

"It's a noun, I guess. The boys in college used it all the time." Of course, this was taking all the fun out of it for her, but now that I'd found a new button to press, my fun was just starting...

[This reminds me of the time I illustrated the phrase 'tongue in cheek' by poking out my right cheek with my tongue... and nearly got fired for sexual harrassment. But that's another post.]

OSX ?

[CrackedButter]

What is the state of OS X in relation to TRIM? Anybody?

Re:OSX ?

[ceoyoyo]

Don't buy an SSD from any major manufacturer as a build-to-order. They almost all use Samsung drives, which have a lot of problems. Let them put a cheap hard drive in your machine and then put your own aftermarket SSD in it - one with either an Indilinx controller or an Intel.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=19

Re:Great

[bill_mcgonigle]

Now what file systems support TRIM?

ext4, but the block layer needs to handle it too. There was some LKML traffic a couple months ago about smart designs for this - it's probably not in current distro releases yet. TRIM can be very expensive if not well-optimized (the non-optimized demo took a half hour to delete a kernel tree with TRIM on a supporting SSD) and the right thing to do may depend on drive model capabilities. The moral is it's not worth doing poorly, and doing it right may require some re-plumbing. But the upside is that Linux ought to be very fast and efficient about it when it lands because smart folks are making sure it ships when it's ready, not by some arbitrary date.

Re:Kingston

[clarkn0va]

Never mind, I'll answer my own question: no.

Re:Great

[sverdlichenko]

There is no trace of commits to linux filesystems, but article about Microsoft claims NTFS was updated.

call me bitter

[nimbius]

but this is intel. i suspect the new found performance in SSD's is directly proportional to market and revenue factors. this company has been burned in the past using tactics that amount to "some ingenious breakthrough in technology" thats obviously been squandered and secluded for 7 months.

hang the customers out to yank away at them like cash cows, and another AMD will come along and punish you accordingly.

Re:call me bitter

[AmiMoJo]

Actually Intel are pretty good on the tech side, but in true Dilbert style their marketing department screws the customers.

The P4 is a good example. For marketing reasons they built a CPU that could be clocked really high at the expense of performance. The P4 was a consumer product as it defined the headline speed of a PC. Motherboard chipsets, on the other hand, are never mentioned in consumer marketing blurb so those stayed mostly about the technology.

Intel NICs, chipsets and mobile CPUs have all been pretty good down the years. Anything designed with the minimum of interference from marketing has had pretty good performance and reliability, and these SSDs are no exception.

Re:Great

[s2theg]

Wow, for once linux users will get flashed and take advantage of trim!

Re:Intel change is great, but...

[Spad]

Defragging SSDs is not only mostly a waste of time (Seek time is the same regardless of where the data is physically on the drive so unless you're dealing with heavy fragmentation of large files it won't have any effect), but it reduces the lifespan by needlessly reading and re-writing data all over the place; there's a good reason Windows 7 automatically disables defragmentation for SSDs.

Re:Intel change is great, but...

[Fross]

You should not defrag an SSD. It won't give a performance boost, and will just contribute to wearing the drive down. Fragmentation is only an issue where access is not truly random, as it is with an SSD.

Example discussion: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-246283_14_0.html

The controller should do a decent enough job of spreading out the data for you.

Re:Kingston

[MartinSchou]

Considering that the cheapest Kingston 80 GB edition is 267 and the cheapest Intel X25-M G2 80 GB is 259, I don't see why you would prefer Kingston's version.

Anandtech's article clearly shows that it is severely lacking compared to the other drives, primarily because it is limited to a 5-way internal raid vs 10-way for Intel's own.

Now, if the Kingston was significantly cheaper or offered better performance, it would make sense, but here you're paying more for a much worse product. That makes no sense to me.

Re:Great

[morgan_greywolf]

Actually, you're not correct. Support has been included in LKDEV devices and and ioctl since 2.6.28. TRIM support (called 'discard' by the Linux kernel maintainers), is included the latest kernel builds in the ext4 filesystem (see the LKML, etc.)

Bricked 30% faster than before!

[ozbird]

Oops.

New firmware was pulled from Intel website

[lbschenkel]

Intel pulled the new firmware from its website because it would brick the drive in some machines with Windows 7: http://www.buzzbox.com/preview/intel_pulls_ssd_toolbox_for_killing_drives_under_windows_7/?id=154783

I have Windows 7 and a X25-M G2 that I was going to update but I gave up after I found via Google a lot of forums posts from people who bricked their drives with the new firmware.

A word to the wise!

[rabtech]

WARNING: Intel has pulled the firmware because there appears to be a chance of bricking the drive. Users report that the firmware updates successfully, but after rebooting Windows detects changed hardware, installs drivers, and after rebooting again the system BSODs and/or won't boot at all. The drives appear to be bricked unless reformatted.

I have one of these drives and I'm holding off until the dust settles.