Marvell has just introduced its first native Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) solid-state drive (SSD) controller, the 88SS1093. Supporting up to four lanes of PCIe 3.0, the 88SS1093 SSD controller is suitable for full 4GB/s or 2GB/s end points depending on host system customization and enables very high IOPS performance using the NVMe advanced Command Handling. In order to fully utilize the high-speed PCIe connection, Marvell’s NVM Express design facilitates PCIe link data flows by deploying massive hardware automation without compromise. Marvell believes this high-efficient data flow management will alleviate the legacy host control bottlenecks and unleash the true Flash performance.

Marvell's third generation NANDEdge error-correcting, low-density parity check (LDPC) technology can support 15nm TLC and 3D NAND, resulting in low enabling cost of TLC and 3D NAND. By developing single code for NANDEdge, SSD firmware developers are able to leverage one code to the other.

Key features of Marvell’s new 88SS1093 NVMe SSD controller include:

• Fully hardware automated NVMe 1.1 support
• Command overlay and out-of-order data return to deliver the full potential of NAND
• Hardware automation on command fetch and status return
• 15nm TLC/MLC/SLC and 3D NAND support with Marvell NANDEdge LDPC error correction control and management
• Advanced Tri-core CPU architecture
• SRIS capabilities to support SATA Express running PCIe 3.0 speed for the first time
• Up to 2TB support
• M.2/2.5 slim form factor support with thermal optimization and small package size
• New low-power management(L1.2) design
• 28nm CMOS process

Marvell is currently sampling the 88SS1093 to its customers and believes that its NVMe SSD controllers will be an ideal solution for next generation of high-performance SSD for client platforms coming in 2015 as well as today’s hyperscale data center applications.