topic Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection in Solid State Drives (NAND)

Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

ATher — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 08:15:27 GMT

Hello,

I was hoping I could get some more educated opinions and preferably facts about a wear leveling concern I'm having with my SSD.

Usage: Running multiple VMs off a SSD connected by USB 3.0.

Device: http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-specifications/ssd-520-specification.pdf Intel 520 120GB SSD (SSDSC2CW120A3)

Concern: I am unable to find whether or not the device itself will do wear leveling independently since I have been told USB devices cannot pass the commands to the device and also if it its able to do garbage collection while on USB 3.0.

Thanks for your time,

Adam

Re: Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

ATher — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 17:30:21 GMT

Bump.

Re: Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

ATher — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 18:52:13 GMT

Some additional info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling# Dynamic_wear_leveling Wear leveling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Witch brought me to http://www.eettaiwan.com/STATIC/PDF/200808/EETOL_2008IIC_Spansion_AN_13.pdf http://www.eettaiwan.com/STATIC/PDF/200808/EETOL_2008IIC_Spansion_AN_13.pdf

This describes the methods of mapping that allow LBAs from the host to be written evenly. My question is will this mapping happen over USB 3.0?

Re: Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

Jose_H_Intel1 — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 19:12:47 GMT

Thank you for posting your question.

Wear leveling is inherent to the SSD itself; so, it does not really matter where the drive is connected to.

Please allow us more time to confirm about Garbage Collection.

Message was edited by: Joe

Re: Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

ATher — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 09:02:16 GMT

Hello Joe,

Thanks for clearing this up. So it would be safe to run ESXi off a SSD connected via USB 3.0? Safe for the SSD? I have a screenshot that may help the TRIM question.

The above screen shot was taken while the SSD was mounted in a very cheap and basic USB 3.0 <-> SATA3 connector over USB 3.0 not USB 2.0.
The drive was attached with the "Quick Removal" policy not the "Better Performance" policy.
The controller device is a http://www.bizlinktech.com/industries/detail.aspx?Type=100&CId=4&Id=128 Bizlink Device.
The device driver was windows 7 supplied, shown below.

http://i.imgur.com/0NiMmvq.png

Re: Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

ATher — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 08:34:09 GMT

Any update?

Re: Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

Jose_H_Intel1 — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 19:15:27 GMT

Thanks for the detailed information about your setup.

I have confirmed that garbage collection will also work when connected via USB since it is part of the Intel® SSD firmware.

Re: Intel SSD 520 - USB 3.0 Wear Leveling & Garbage Collection

ATher — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 03:00:52 GMT

Not an issue, I hope someone else finds this useful too.

Im just going to add some tags for Google to pick up on a search:

SSD TRIM Garbage Collection Wear Leveling Device USB 3.0 3 2.0 Enclosure Bay Wreck Break Destroy Harm Issue Fix Okay