This presentation will discuss Optimal Performance Parameters (OPTPERF and OPTRPERF) found in NVM Express® (NVMe) Section 5.8.2 of NVM Command Set Specification. Every performance parameter (NPWG, NPWA, NPDG, NPDA, NOWS, NPRG, NPRA, NORS) has several choices on setting values by SSD manufacturers. In this presentation, the differences intended for some of the parameters (Ex: NPWG vs NOWS) will be highlighted. Sometimes the parameters may be set by either NAND or SSD Controller attributes.

TP4159 PCIe Infrastructure for Live Migration is an upcoming NVM Express® (NVMe) feature. The over-arching flow of Live Migration as viewed from an SSD will be discussed. Concerns for Live Migration state machine transitions, Virtual Memory (VM) addresses, log entry timings, and other implementation nuances will be highlighted. Attendees will obtain an understanding of both Source and Target SSD expected behaviors for Live Migration. In combination with the NVMe spec, attendees will be better prepared to implement an industry-compliant Live Migration feature for SSDs.

Flexible Data Placement (FDP) is a new NVM Express® (NVMe) feature that advertises the ability to achieve Write Amplification Factor (WAF) of 1. This presentation will describe what a WAF of 1 means for an SSD. Several example workloads achieving a WAF of 1 will be discussed. Additionally, some Hosts have an increased ability to restrict either the deallocate behavior or the write behavior of their various workloads. For this reason, a review of different Host side rule implementations will be discussed.

Today’s SSDs are reaching extreme capacities with some coming close to petabytes of storage capacity available to Hosts. However, the SSDs are commonly using embedded computing resources and embedded DRAM controllers to provide access to this massive quantity of storage. Some of the largest drives are leveraging an increased Indirection Unit (IU) size to extend the embedded resources of the drive.

With Flexible Data Placement (FDP) from NVM Express® (NVMe) finalized and increasing in ecosystem momentum, it has become clear that implementation choices are becoming a real differentiator among FDP drive configurations. Some customers leverage years of Multi-Streams deployment to migrate onto large RU sizes within a single RG. Some customers may be eager to mirror their experience with Open Channel SSDs by requesting small RGs and RU sizes. Yet another customer base might be examining FDP from a history of working with high Zone counts translating into large RUH counts.

With promises to unlock new levels of shared performance and utilization efficiency in solid-state drives (SSDs), NVM Express® is developing Technical Proposal (TP), TP4176 - Quality of Service for PCIe Bandwidth and IOPS for a Controller. Defining a standard for QoS requires a deep understanding of its complexities as applied to an SSD. This presentation will delve into the potential QoS control modes, key parameters, and simplified control mechanisms, providing clarity on how to optimize SSD performance for emerging standards.