A SNIA event
September 15-17, 2025

Does Gen6x4 Make Sense for SSDs Claiming 25W Due to Standard Form Factor Recommendations

Mon Sep 18 | 9:30am
Location:
Salon VI, Salon VII
Abstract

Should SSDs supporting power states higher than the maximum TDP dissipation supportable in a system? Many industry standards for drive form factors are targeting <=25W, but will Gen6 SSDs be viable in a x4 configuration or will these form factors be abandoned? What is proposed is a framework currently supported in NVMe and OCP's Datacenter NVMe SSD Specification of allowing enhanced latencies in cases where there is thermal margin above the maximum TDP of the form factor using either host orchestrated NVMe power state management or device orchestrated Host Controlled Thermal Management. The topic will also explore some enhanced terminology around thermal and electrical power limits to help facilitate the discussion.

Learning Objectives

  • Burst power about maximum TDP power with thermal margin offers enhanced storage latency upside
  • Terminology around thermal power, average electrical power, and peak electrical power are all measured in Watts but measure very different attributes
  • There are options to support Gen6x4 performance and latency to real workloads within a 25W form factor

Download Presentation
Abstract

Should SSDs supporting power states higher than the maximum TDP dissipation supportable in a system? Many industry standards for drive form factors are targeting <=25W, but will Gen6 SSDs be viable in a x4 configuration or will these form factors be abandoned? What is proposed is a framework currently supported in NVMe and OCP's Datacenter NVMe SSD Specification of allowing enhanced latencies in cases where there is thermal margin above the maximum TDP of the form factor using either host orchestrated NVMe power state management or device orchestrated Host Controlled Thermal Management. The topic will also explore some enhanced terminology around thermal and electrical power limits to help facilitate the discussion.

Learning Objectives

  • Burst power about maximum TDP power with thermal margin offers enhanced storage latency upside
  • Terminology around thermal power, average electrical power, and peak electrical power are all measured in Watts but measure very different attributes
  • There are options to support Gen6x4 performance and latency to real workloads within a 25W form factor

PDF icon SNIA-SDC23-Wells-Does-Gen6x4-Make-Sense-for-SSDs-Claiming-25W-Due-to-Standard-Form-Factor-Recommendations.pdf

---

Steven Wells
Micron Technology
Related Sessions
Solid State Storage Solutions
Maximizing EDSFF E3 SSD design

The EDSFF E3 form factors bring more options and commonality that enterprises and hyperscalers desire compared to traditional U.2, but also bring new challenges.

Favorites
Solid State Storage Solutions
Deep Dive and Comparison of NVMe RAID Solutions: Performance Analysis and Datapath Breakdown

In this presentation, I will delve into the world of NVMe RAID and present a comprehensive analysis and comparison of various NVMe RAID engines.

Davide Villa
Xinnor
Favorites
Solid State Storage Solutions
Standardized Storage Telemetry for Secure Fleet Monitoring and Debug

The conflicting needs of datacenters managers hosting 3rd party and internal data securely and storage vendors needing to have a stream of vendor unique fleet telemetry for monitoring and debug has

Steven Wells
Micron Technology
Favorites