The main control chip will become one of the keys to the performance improvement of enterprise-level SSDs. For the development of an independent and controllable storage industry, excellent main control chips are essential. Recently, Starchip Technology launched high-end enterprise-level SSD main control chip STAR2000 and SSD disk STAR2000E series products. This series of products is not only an important breakthrough made by Starblaze Technology, but also the epitome of the progress of the enterprise SSD industry in recent years.
The hardware configuration, computing power, and data and command scheduling strategy of the main control chip determine many important parameters such as the maximum capacity and access speed of the SSD. The main control chip is the brain of the SSD. When SSD shipments are rapidly increasing, the market for main control chips is also growing rapidly. According to flash memory market data, the global SSD main control chip shipments in 2021 will be 408 million units, an increase of 17% compared with 2020. According to previous estimates, the market in 2022 is expected to reach 431 million units.
The consumer level is still the largest market for SSD master control, but the increase in data center infrastructure spending, including increased demand for servers and storage, makes the enterprise market a rising star. Especially with the rise of cloud computing, enterprise-level SSD controllers will fully benefit from the increase in cloud infrastructure. At the same time, various industries such as government affairs, finance, and energy are also undergoing digital transformation, and the layout of data centers led by the government is accelerating, which will undoubtedly accelerate the growth of demand for enterprise-level SSDs.
According to TrendForce data, enterprise-level SSDs are growing rapidly. In 2019, the shipment volume was less than 4 million pieces, and it is expected to exceed 13 million pieces by 2025, with an annual growth rate of more than 18%. controlled market prospects.
At present, the supply of SSD main control chips can be roughly divided into two categories. First, the original flash memory particles are produced and used by the original factory. For example, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, etc. all use their own developed main control chips, and the rest are contributed by third-party main control manufacturers. , the main players active in the enterprise market are major international manufacturers such as Marvell and Microchip.
Chinese main control manufacturers are also third-party main control manufacturers, and their overall market share is relatively low. This is of course related to the late start of the entire industry, and on the other hand, it is also caused by the high development threshold of enterprise-level main control.
In order to adapt to the rapid iteration of storage technology, the main control chip must adapt to the ever-increasing storage chip capacity on the one hand, and adapt to the intergenerational evolution of storage transmission protocols on the other hand, and realize temperature management, health reporting, Multiple functions such as bad block management, error correction mechanism, and power-off protection.
At the same time, enterprise-level SSDs are also required to provide features such as high cost performance, high energy efficiency, and high QoS isolation. In targeted applications, enterprise-level SSDs are required to support more new functions, such as various features introduced in the NVMe standard, including application-oriented optimization functions such as ZNS, KV command set, and Endurance Group Management. To meet the application requirements of more diverse loads.
