JMicron: USB 3.0 to SATA 6Gb/s Bridge

JMicron Technology Corp., an IC company specializing in designing USB 3.0 to SATA Bridge and SSD controllers, exhibited the JMS569, its new USB 3.0 to SATA 6Gb/s Bridge controller, and the JMF661, JMF662 and JMF667, JMicron’s new ARM-based SSD controllers series at 2012 Computex Taipei.

ARM-based SSD controllers

The JMS569 is a USB 3.0 to SATA 6.0Gb/s Bridge controller following the JMS539, its predecessor, a USB 3.0 to SATA 3.0Gb/s Bridge controller. Engineering team has improved the performance and lowered the power consumption of the JMS569.

Test results show the JMS569 is able to reach a data transmission rate above 300MB per second, about ten times that of the JMS539, when paired with an SSD module using JMF668 SSD controller.

The readings were measured by IOMeter on a platform with an xHCI host on an Intel Panther Point C1 stepping PC,
running Windows 8 Build 8315 Core 2. Enabling USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) on the JMS569, increased the data transmission rate by as much as 30%.

In addition to the improved data transmission performance, JMicron’s JMS569 power consumption is lower than that for JMS539 and is compliant with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 power requirement specifications.

The JMF662 and JMF661 are mass-produced SATA 6Gb/s SSD controllers in Taiwan. Both support the majority of MLC and SLC NAND flash produced by leading vendors. They also provide synchronous NAND interface, such as ONFI2.3 and Toggle DDR2.0, for use in performance systems. The 4KB random write performance using advanced NAND flash reaches as high as 280MB/s by means of JMicron’s proprietary Intelligent Algorithm.

Even in the garbage collection stage, they maintain an impressive 4KB random write performance on non-compressed data.

In addition to these features, JMF662 supports Windows Trim Command and NCQ (Native Command Queue) for improved performance on SSD modules.

The JMF667, an SATA 6Gb/s SSD controller, supports the next generation of NAND flash and DEVSLP. It incorporates an intelligent ECC engine to extend the SSD’s lifecycle.

It offers a superior solution for ultrabook SSD modules. All of the JMF667 performance on the system with 24GB to 256GB memory capacity, for sequential, and 4KB random read/write, as well as PCMark Vantage, scores meet Intel’s Ultrabook iSRT (Intel Smart Response Technology) and iFFS (Intel Fast Flash Standby) performance requirements.

The JMF667 also adapts low power design technology to fulfill Intel’s SSD module power consumption requirement for ultrabooks. For the JMF667, the company offers a development package, including firmware and reference designs, to ultrabook SSD module makers.