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

Transfers up to...

600MB/s

150MB/s

1 LANE

SATA I SATA II SATA III

300MB/s

1 LANE

1 LANE

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

Designed for Hard Drives with

Spinning Disk technology

PCIe

Transfers up to...

500MB/s

Per Lane

16 LANES

PCIe Gen 2

Designed for SSDs with

Flash technology

1,000MB/s

Per Lane

16 LANES

PCIe Gen 3

NVMe

2,000MB/s

Per Lane

16 LANES

PCIe Gen 4

1

32

Has only

1 command queue

Can send only

32 commands per queue

Commands utilise

high CPU cycles

64K

Has

64K command queues

Can send

64K commands per queue

Commands utilise

low CPU cycles

AHCI NVMe

Has a latency of

6 microseconds

Must communicate with the

SATA controller

IOPs up to

100K

Has a latency of

2.8 microseconds

Communicates directly with the

system CPU

IOPs over

1 million

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

(designed for smaller
form factor systems)

SATAPCIe

2.5”

mSATA

(supports AHCI version)

M.2

HHHL – Half Height, Half Length

(also called AIC or Add-In Card)

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

(supports NVMe version)

M.2

Beyond the numbers: Benefits of NVMe technology

Optimal performance

Superior speed Superior compatibilitySuperior storage

PCle sockets transfer >25x more

data than their SATA equivalent

NVMe begins sending commands

more than 2x faster than AHCI drivers

NVMe input/output operations per

second exceeds 1 million and is up to

900% faster than its AHCI equivalent

U.2

(only available in NVMe)

NVMe cuts out the middleman by

communicating directly with the

system CPU

NVMe-based drivers work with all

major operating systems, regardless

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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