SANBlaze Flexible Data Placement Solutions for Expert Testing

SANBlaze Technology Inc. announced availability of its Flexible Data Placement (FDP) test suite that allows SSD manufacturers to test FDP on their drives in half the time it would take using home-grown or conventional tools.

SBExpress-RM5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe rackmount test system

“Flexible Data Placement (FDP) is an innovative next generation SSD technology which enables improved performance, improved quality of service and reduction of SSD wear, enabling SSDs to last longer. Having test suites to develop, validate and debug this technology is an important part of the ecosystem to enable deployment of high-quality products,” said Ross Stenfort, hardware systems engineer, Meta Platforms, Inc.

“The ability to test FDP helps organizations optimize their data storage strategy by ensuring that each data set is stored in the most appropriate location based on its unique characteristics,” said Rick Walsh, VP sales and marketing. “The stellar engineering team at SANBlaze has been expertly coding FDP validation and testing into our Certified by SANBlaze software, something we are proud to announce at Flash Memory Summit this August 8-10, 2023.”

SBExpress-DT5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe desktop test system

The test suite runs on the company’s hardware including the SBExpress-RM5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe rackmount test system and the SBExpress-DT5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe desktop test system.

Hardware includes advanced capabilities, integration with SerialTek protocol analyzer

Kodiak PCIe 5.0 protocol analysis system

The 6th-Gen SBExpress-RM5 and SBExpress-DT5 are both evolutionary, growing from a successful family of widely deployed predecessors, and innovative, with advanced test capabilities, including Flexible Data Placement (FDP), Vendor Defined Messaging (VDM) testing support for NVMe-MI over PCIe, and both in-band and SMBus test capabilities. All features of the Certified by SANBlaze enterprise test suite are supported at PCIe 5.0 speed. The system integrates seamlessly with SerialTek’s Kodiak PCIe 5.0 protocol analysis system, providing users with test, debug, and analysis capabilities.

Riser technology
The SBExpress-RM5 (rackmount) 16-drive test system and the SBExpress-DT5 (desktop) test system both employ the company’s proprietary Riser technology and conveniently use the same set of NVMe PCIe 5.0 risers. All firm’s risers are capable of single- and dual-port operation and can switch on-the-fly under software control. Risers are available for all NVMe form factors at PCIe 5.0 speed.

Features and capabilities
The SBExpress-RM5 and SBExpress-DT5 support following features and capabilities:

• U.2/E3 single/dual Port
• All EDSFF form factors
• Certified by SANBlaze test suite, with automated report generation and performance plotting
• Flexible Data Placement (FDP)
• L1.1 and L1.2 Low Power State testing with CLKREQ monitor
• Vendor Defined Message (VDM) testing
• SR-IOV and multi-root testing
• SMBus testing up to 1MHz
• MI/MCTP testing over SMBus, VDM, and in-band transports
• Power on/off testing under SW control, all devices
• Clock disable testing to all devices
• Hardware PERST testing to all devices
• Single-/dual-port testing on-the-fly under software control
• SRIS/SRNS and SSC advanced clock mode testing (see whitepaper)
• Power monitoring of each device under test
• Full PCIe 5.0 bandwidth (PCIe 5.0 x4) to each riser and PCIe 5.0 x16 to root complex
• Remote system control for power up/down/reset
• PCIe 5.0 x16 ‘Top Slot’ for PCIe Add-In Card (AIC) testing (e.g., FPGA or PCIe Analyzer)
• Python APIs for full system control and integration into corporate test infrastructure

Capabilities for variety of teams
The Certified by SANBlaze software, the SBExpress-RM5, and the SBExpress-DT5 prove useful for a variety of teams, including firmware, manufacturing, development engineers, systems engineers, and field application engineers. Analysis tasks are easily automated with built-in error detection triggering, leading to fast and accurate problem resolution. See more on this in the white paper: Triggering a PCIe Analyzer from your SBExpress System.

The SBExpress-RM5 PCIe 5.0 rackmount NVMe SSD test system and the SBExpress-DT5 PCIe 5.0 desktop NVMe SSD test system are shipping with minimal lead times.