Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0 have brought about disruptive changes and the need for reliable data storage. This has ultimately increased the number of SSDs in industrial storage.
What are the differentiating components that transform SSDs into Industrial SSDs?
The Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 are closer than the edge of the horizon, and they bring disruptive changes and the need for reliable data storage. This ultimately increases the number of SSDs in industrial storage. The requirements for each component within industrial SSDs are completely different from those within consumer products. Interestingly, most of these differences are addressed through one key component: the flash controller inside the SSD.
The flash controller of an industrial SSD must support advanced flash management to ensure more robust operation, high data endurance through lower write amplification factors (WAF), higher data integrity through robust ECC, and higher data integrity through robust ECC and higher data retention. End-to-end data path protection provides a further way to ensure data integrity across all processing blocks. Protection from unauthorized access is another key feature of industrial SSDs. This is provided by encrypting data according to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and supporting the Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) standard TCG Opal.
Most consumer SSDs come with either TLC or 3D QLC NAND flash. While most people still believe that industrial SSDs should come with SLC or 3D MLC NAND flash, it is not absolutely necessary. SLC NAND flash is chosen because of its higher endurance and retention compared to TLC NAND flash, especially in environments exceeding the commercial temperature range of 0°C to 70°C. However, the growing demand for storage capacity often dictates the use of lower-cost technologies - SLC flash may simply not be able to fulfill the required capacity, or the initial price may not seem competitive. Nonetheless, specific flash controllers enable a feature that makes it possible to operate MLC or 3D TLC flash with endurance and data retention comparable to SLC flash - a mode known as pseudo-SLC (pSLC). It offers the possibility to choose between MLC or TLC flash, but at the same time, its retention is close to that of SLC flash. Sophisticated controllers support pseudo modes of operation that come at the expense of reliability.
One of the most important characteristics of industrial SSDs is power failure robustness. Embedded devices in industrial environments are not expected to be affected by sudden power failures and maintain data integrity throughout such events. High-quality controllers implement a range of internal voltage sensors to monitor the power supply. Depending on the manufacturer, these can be individually configured for each application. If, in the event of a power failure, the power supply drops below a configured threshold, the firmware will immediately assert the flash write-protect trigger and take further steps to protect the data and set the application to safe shutdown and power-up. Again, the flash controller is responsible for handling such events and therefore represents a differentiating factor for consumer devices.
While flash memory comes in different sizes, interfaces and capacities, the technology behind it is the same. It is inherently unreliable, and the controller and individual use cases ultimately determine the longevity and quality of the SSD. Therefore, Hyperstone's latest industrial-grade SSD controller, the X1 SATA Flash Controller, offers all of these basic necessities - compatibility with the latest flash memory, highly reliable operating modes, a robust error correction unit, advanced flash management, end-to-end data path protection, strong encryption, as well as authentication mechanisms, and power failure robustness . It really is the differentiating ingredient that turns SSDs into industrial-grade SSDs.