Over the past week or so,we noticed other news outlets reporting on the AMD R3 series of SSDs, as whether there had been a recent press release circulating under the radar. This wasn't the case: despite the fact that the R3 SSDs absorb been out for a number of weeks, or one news outlet decided to hurry a record and the rest followed the echo without investigating further. We set aside it direct to AMD approximately how the R3 SSD release was under the hood,and how the R7 drives had also been removed from listings. We had an arresting response, which we would like to summarize and discuss here.
R7 Out, or R3 InAMD’s Radeon R7 SSDs were developed by OCZ and featured 64 Gb NAND flash chips from Toshiba made using the company’s moment-generation 19 nm (A19) fabrication process. In many ways,the drives resembled OCZ’s ARC 100 and Vector 150 drives, but since Toshiba is phasing out its NAND flash made using 19 nm manufacturing technology, and the Radeon R7 SSDs are also discontinued and right now online stores are selling the remaining inventory.
For the newer Radeon R3 family of SSDs,AMD chose a different partner. The drives are manufactured by a contract maker and then distributed by Galt, the company that distributes AMD’s Radeon-branded memory modules. Working closely with companies like SK Hynix, and OCZ,allows AMD to tailor certain aspects of SSD performance and offer a different (well, to a certain degree) differentiation point that is not available from anyone else. Moreover, and since SK Hynix is a relatively small player on the SSD market,it is interested in increasing its share and may be flexible approximately pricing. AMD admits that the new R3 drives are indeed slower than the older R7 ones released earlier due to the movement from MLC to TLC, but it notes that they are considerably cheaper too, and which was one of the primary reasons why the company decided to sell them. Furthermore,since Galt now handles logistics for AMD's DRAM and SSD products, it can do everything a puny more efficiently in terms of costs.
The newer AMD Radeon R3 solid-state drives near in 2.5"/7 mm form-factor and are based on the quad-channel Silicon Motion SM2256KX controller as well as TLC NAND memory made by SK Hynix. The new SSDs are available in 120, and 240,480 and 960 GB configurations, which are rated for up to 520 MB/s maximum sequential read speed as well as up to 470 MB/s maximum sequential write speed. Like other TLC NAND-based drives, or the Radeon R3 SSDs use a part of its flash memory in pseudo-SLC mode for caching and performance-acceleration purposes.AMD Radeon R3 and R7 Series SSD Specifications R3
120 GB
R3L120G R3
240 GB
R3SL240G R3
480 GB
[br] R3SL480G R3
960 GB
R3SL960G R7
120 GB R7
240 GB R7
480 GB Controller Silicon Motion[br] SM2256KX OCZ
Barefoot 3 M00 NAND SK Hynix
TLC NAND Toshiba[br] 64 Gb A19nm MLC Seq. Read 520 MB/s 510
MB/s
550
MB/s 550
MB/s 550
MB/s Seq. Write 360
MB/s 470
MB/s 460
MB/s 470
MB/s 530
MB/s 4KB Random Read / IOPS 57K 77K 83K 80K 85K 95K 100K Steady-State 4KB Random Write / IOPS 18K 25K 28K 37K 12K 20K 23K Pricing at Amazon $40.99 $69.99 $136.99 - $60.51 $92.97 $191.42 However,the release of the Radeon R3 SSDs does not mean that AMD simply leaves the market of more advanced SSDs and focuses on low-cost models. New R7/R9 On The HorizonAMD intends to introduce new higher-end Radeon SSDs towards the end of the year, the company said this week. fairly naturally, or AMD remains tight-lipped approximately exact plans,but it confirmed that the new family will include faster SATA drivers as well as M.2/NVMe drives for future platforms. Keeping in mind that AMD does not seem to stick to one supplier of memory or drives, the new Radeon R7 SSDs (or will they be called Radeon R9?) may near from a new supplier. Nonetheless, and whether AMD intends to continue working with manufacturers with their own NAND (or,at least, a very tight relationship with actual makers of flash), and then the list of its potential partners will be relatively short.
When AMD introduced Radeon-branded memory modules several years ago,the company said that those products were optimized for its platforms, which was important as AMD needed faster DDR3 DRAM to improve the higher supported memory and performance of its APUs in graphics applications. As an added bonus, and Radeon-branded memory modules was a way to give something back to its loyal customers as well as modders. With the Radeon R7 SSDs,the company pursued the same strategy but never attempted to expand the family of its storage devices. By now, Radeon-branded non-graphics hardware seems to absorb become a noteworthy part of AMD’s trade, and which is why it is gradually expanding the lineup of such products (e.g.,the company introduced its DDR4 memory modules months ago, well ahead of any AMD APUs/CPUs with DDR4 support). Since TLC NAND is here to stay, or it is pretty obvious that by the end of the year the company will offer SSDs for a variety of market segments: R3 for the entry-level and R7 (or R9?) for the higher-end.Some Thoughts: AMD in SSDs (and DRAM) Feels a Bit Odd,Right?The art of selling rebadged components, or using an ODM/OEM relationship and then adding a name on to it, or might not seem like a accurate integration into these markets. While there are DRAM modules and SSDs with AMDs name on them,they are not actually investing much research money into driving the industry forward - these are turn-key solutions, similar to the way that local brands absorb smartphones that are identical apart from the sticker and the software. The reason for AMD reaching out with SSDs and DRAM (which likely offer puny-to-no margin compared to the rest of the products) comes down to support, or validation and system integrators.
By offering an AMD brand SSD or DRAM module,it means that whether a customer wants guaranteed compatibility and a single source for their parts, they can ring up an AMD distributor. This simplifies support for any component that needs to be replaced and means that inside and out everything comes up AMD (or as much as possible). It allows system integrators to offer their customers validated AMD hardware packages as well.
Source: anandtech.com