Microchip Sampling NVMe 4016 16-Channel PCIe Gen 5 SSD Flashtec Controller

As data processing requirements continue to evolve, cloud-scale infrastructure requires solutions that maximize bandwidth, minimize latency, and are optimized for efficient resource utilization.

Microchip Technology Inc. announced the newest member of the Flashtec controller family, the NVMe 4016 SSD controller. As a high-performance PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD controller, it addresses the market demand for high-reliability, high-performance SSDs delivering greater than 14GB/s throughput and over 3 million IO/s. With advanced ‘Credit Management technology’, this next-gen controller offers the stringent QoS (required by today’s cloud-focused data center applications.

“Microchip is proud to announce the next gen of our Flashtec NVMe controller product line. Its market-leading performance, coupled with our proven and flexible architecture, means the NVMe 4016 can provide our cloud and OEM customers with a cutting-edge platform for their PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD solutions,” said Pete Hazen, VP, data center solutions business unit.

With 16 high-speed programmable NAND flash channels capable of up to 2,400MT/s, this 4th gen Fashtec controller can utilize PCIe Gen 5 x 4 speed bandwidth. The NVMe 4016 allows current customers to leverage their existing firmware investment in previous gens and gives new clients the confidence and flexibility to adopt this proven platform for their toughest cloud and enterprise applications.

“Microchip’s controller solutions are a strong match for our wide array of TLC and QLC SSDs and future NAND technologies,” said Greg Matson, VP, strategic planning and marketing, data center group, Solidigm. “They offer a compelling combination of features, scalability and security for next-gen cloud and enterprise architectures.“

“How we rapidly promote cutting-edge technology to our clients is crucial for us,” said Mr. Zhong Ji, deputy GM, storage R&D, Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., Ltd.. “Maximizing the benefits of reusing known general architectures reduces development risk and effort. Having a fully mature reference solution such as the Flashtec controller PCIe Gen 5 design will definitely accelerate the efficiency and quality with which we provide leading technology to the market.”

As an NVMe 2.0 compliant controller, the NVMe 4016 not only supports all the latest storage and performance compute applications, including Zoned Name Spaces (ZNS) and cloud Open Compute Platform (OCP), its flexible architecture also enables customers to future proof for continually evolving NVMe specs.

“Meeting the challenging demands of hyperscale data center environments for scalable efficiency in terms of manageability, power, performance and thermals has been the focus of industry standards such as the OCP data center NVMe SSD spec and EDSFF E1.S as a form factor,” said Ross Stenfort, hardware system engineer, Storage, Meta (Facebook). “The Flashtec NVMe 4016 controller supports these requirements to enable SSD makers to meet hyperscale needs.“

“The Flashtec NVMe 4016 Gen 5 SSD controller provides the needed performance and architecture for next-gen NAND,” said Dr. Taile Zhang, CEO, Memblaze Technology Co., Ltd. “Memblaze and Microchip have developed a great partnership to advance data center efficiency and bring the flexibility needed to address the cloud storage requirements of today and tomorrow.“

The NVMe 4016 is also a first PCIe Gen 5 controller to introduce PCIe link encryption support as one of the feature enhancements in this new gen of Flashtec controllers. With dual signature authentication and Trusted Platform support, it meets all critical storage and enterprise application security needs. The NVMe 4016’s virtualization capabilities enable the large-scale deployment of VMs as well as Physical Functions (PF) per port for a most efficient utilization of the PCIe resources in ever-growing data center and cloud computing infrastructures.

“Intel’s upcoming Next Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, code named Sapphire Rapids, will implement PCIe 5.0 running at up to 32.0GT/s to deliver the low-latency and high-bandwidth I/O solutions our customers need to deploy,” said Dr. Debendra Das Sharma, senior fellow and chief architect, I/O technologies and standards, Intel Corp. “We are pleased to see Microchip’s PCIe 5.0 Flashtec drive controller investment strengthen the ecosystem and drive broader deployment of PCIe 5.0 solutions.“

“Supporting ecosystem growth with the industry’s latest standards is key for enabling modern data centers,” said Raghu Nambiar, corporate VP, data center ecosystems and solutions, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. “Our next-gen technologies are well positioned to take advantage of new standards like PCIe Gen 5, enabling next-gen applications in the data center. We are pleased to collaborate with key industry leaders such as Microchip to enable the performance and scalability our customers need for their demanding workloads.“

The ECC features armed with stronger bit error correction caplabilities continue to pave the way for utilization of denser NAND flash technologies like QLC flash into the mainstream and storage space. The Fashtec controller’s innovation continues with the addition of a new, programmable ML engine in the NVMe 4016 controller, capable of a variety of pattern recognition and classification functions that are employed in AI (AI) and ML applications. The controller’s new ML technology presents endless opportunities for SSD builders and suppliers to manage SSDs for performance and cost benefits.

“We are pleased to work with enablers like Microchip that continue to advance the PCIe SSD ecosystem,” said Scott Beekman, VP, memory products, Kioxia America, Inc. “We congratulate Microchip on their newest addition, which features a flexible architecture to enable compatibility with the latest-gen flash, including TLC, QLC and potentially future PLC, and new ML technology.“

“Supporting a variety of form factors allows growth and new development in the SSD ecosystem,” said Jin Lim, VP, NAND technology, SK hynix America. “Flashtec’s PCIe Gen 5 provides endless opportunities for our partners to optimize the management of NAND flash while enjoying maximum performance.“

The controller supports a variety of form factors, including EDSFF. Supported by a development platform, debugging tools and dedicated, applications team, it serves the requirements for the latest SSD solution needs: capacity, performance, security, power optimization, and computational-storage ready.

Development Tools
Flashtec NVMe 4016 SSD controller offers several options for software and hardware support. A software development kit includes the company’s reference firmware with optional hardened firmware modules, simulation tools, debug tools including the firm’s Chiplink diagnostic tools, evaluation boards and reference designs, global support and a suite of collateral.

Availability: Sampling