Kingston NVMe User Manual

Understanding

SSD Technology

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a communications interface and driver that defines a command set and feature set for PCIe-based SSDs with the goals of increased and efficient performance and interoperability on a broad range of enterprise and client systems.

NVMe was designed for SSD. It communicates between the storage interface and the system CPU using high-speed PCIe sockets, independent of storage form factor.

Input/Output tasks performed using NVMe drivers begin faster, transfer more data and finish faster than older storage models that use older drivers, such as AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface)

– a feature of SATA SSDs. Because it was designed specifically for SSDs, NVMe is becoming the new industry standard.

Storage: Then and now

DATA BUSES: Transport data within a system

SATA	PCIe
Transfers up to...	Transfers up to...

2,000MB/s

Per Lane

1,000MB/s

Per Lane

300MB/s	600MB/s			500MB/s
150MB/s				Per Lane
	1 LANE

1 LANE 1 LANE

SATA I		SATA II

SATA III

16 LANES

16 LANES

16 LANES

PCIe Gen 2

PCIe Gen 3

PCIe Gen 4

Using 16 lanes, PCIe Gen 4 can transfer data at 32,000MB/s

Communication drivers

Used by operating systems to communicate data with storage devices

AHCI		NVMe

1

32

Designed for Hard Drives with				Designed for SSDs with
Spinning Disk technology				Flash technology
Has only	64K			Has
1 command queue				64K command queues
Can send only				Can send
32 commands per queue				64K commands per queue

Commands utilise

Commands utilise

high CPU cycles

low CPU cycles

				AHCI					NVMe
				Has a latency of					Has a latency of
				6 microseconds					2.8 microseconds
				Must communicate with the					Communicates directly with the
				SATA controller					system CPU
				IOPs up to					IOPs over
				100K					1 million

SSD form factors: The shapes and sizes of solid-state storage

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(designed for smaller form factor systems)

(supports AHCI version)

2.5”

mSATA

M.2

HHHL – Half Height, Half Length	M.2	U.2
(also called AIC or Add-In Card)	(supports NVMe version)	(only available in NVMe)

AHCI versions of these drives plug into the PCIe slot, but use the AHCI drivers

Some older versions of HHHL use proprietary drivers

NVMe versions typically use native OS drivers

Beyond the numbers: Benefits of NVMe technology

Optimal performance

Superior storage	Superior speed	Superior compatibility
PCle sockets transfer >25x more	NVMe begins sending commands	NVMe cuts out the middleman by
data than their SATA equivalent	more than 2x faster than AHCI drivers	communicating directly with the
		system CPU
	NVMe input/output operations per	NVMe-based drivers work with all
	second exceeds 1 million and is up to	major operating systems, regardless
	900% faster than its AHCI equivalent	of form factor

Contact your local Kingston representative to find out which Kingston SSD drive is right for you, or visit: kingston.com/en/solutions/servers-data-centers

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