Marvell launched a new series of Bravera™SC5 controller, including 8-channel MV-SS1331 and 16-channel MV-SS1333, which is the first SSD controller that supports PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 1.4b. Compared with the previous generation of PCIe 4.0, the performance of Marvell's controller has doubled and its workload has been accelerated. What's more, the delay of Marvell's controller has been reduced. Meanwhile, it can meet the requirements of higher bandwidth storage which is working for cloud computing and massive data processing in data centers.

The Marvell PCIe 5.0 controller applies an advanced and mature System-on-Chip (SoC) construction, which can achieve a throughput of up to 14 GB/s and 2 million random read IOPS. It applies the 5th generation NANDEdge™ LDPC error correction technology, supporting Original 3D NAND QLC, TLC and SLC. Besides, it also supports up to 16 NAND channels and EDSFF E1.S size form. Meanwhile, it is conformed to Open-Computing-Project (OCP) NVMe SSD specification.

In addition, the Marvell PCIe 5.0 controller also has reliable Root-of-Trust (RoT), AES 256-bit encryption and multi-key deletion security protection. And it also has the first hardware-based Elastic SLA Enforcer to improve overall storage efficiency and utilization while reducing overall costs (TCO). What’s more, it also realize multiple modes of SEF, ZNS, Open Channel and etc without changing the hardware.

In 2021, PCIe 4.0 SSD makes a full sprint and Marvell are leading a new era of PCIe 5.0 SSD

Early in 2019, the third-generation of AMD Ryzen processors have supported PCIe 4.0 and promoted the construction of the PCIe 4.0 ecological chain. In 2021, Intel's 11th-generation Core processors are fully launched, accelerating the speed of PCIe 4.0 applications. And the SSD brand manufacturer makes all-out efforts for PCIe 4.0 SSD.

In 2021, Samsung, Western Digital, Kioxia, Micron and other original manufacturers actively promote PCIe 4.0 SSD from the data center field to the consumer market. At the same time, Marvell, Huirong, Phison are also increasing support for PCIe 4.0. New PCIe 4.0 SSD products, such as Seagate, Galaxy, Adata, are also emerging in endlessly, and the capacity basically starts from 512GB/500GB.

Compared with PCIe 3.0, PCIe 4.0 doubles the maximum bandwidth. PCIe 4.0 x4 channels can bring a theoretical bandwidth of 8GB/s. The measured sequential read performance of SSD can also reach 7GB/s, while PCIe 5.0 x4 doubles again, with the theoretical bandwidth Up to 16GB/s, PCIe 5.0 x16 up to 64GB/s.

Marvell launched the brand new Bravera™ SC5 controller series to support PCIe 5.0, DDR4/LPDDR4x, with the highest sequential read and write speeds up to 14GB/s and 9GB/s, and random read and write speeds up to 2000K IOPS and 1000K IOPS. It officially opens a new era of PCIe 5.0 SSD. Moreover, it is expected to be applied in the server market first, and then it will transit to the consumer terminal market.

The development of PCIe 5.0 SSD is inseparable from the support of the processor. In the processor market, whether it is the market server or the PC market, Intel has the absolute right to speak in the market. There is news that Intel's next-generation processor Sapphire Rapids supports 8 channel DDR5-4800MHz memory, 80 PCIe 5.0 and CXL 1.1 buses. The processor uses the 10nm enhanced SuperFin process which is expected to be released at the end of 2021 earliest and launched in 2022.

Marvell is also cooperating with the entire ecosystem. Not only Intel's next-generation processor Sapphire Rapids will support PCIe 5.0, but also Kioxia, SK Hynix are interested in using Marvell's new Bravera SC5 SSD controller to launch next-generation SSD products.

On the other hand, the normal situation of post-epidemic will continue to drive the demand for the server market, including the construction of data centers of major global cloud service providers, enterprise cloud deployment, and the development of technologies such as 5G, autonomous driving, and AI industry. Marvell is also working with the hyperscale cloud provider Microsoft Azure to promote the standardization of SSD data center. What's more, the industry chain collaboration enables SSD suppliers and its own cloud services to be deployed in advance to accelerate the first listing of the Bravera SC5 SSD controller.