Solid State Drives (SSD)

SSD - History

When SSDs first developed, it was clear that the older SATA data transport system was a bottleneck. The SSDs could transfer data much faster than SATA could send it. NVMe was the answer. It can send data 3–6 times faster, but it needed a faster bus, and PCIe was already there and could do the job. The first NVMe drives used the usual PCIe slot form factor. But that took up a lot of room on the motherboard, and so the M.2 form factor was designed

SSD - Things to Consider

SSD - Types

Subpages

additional details: https://www.snia.org/forums/cmsi/knowledge/formfactors

Types

Description

Physical Connector

Connection Protocol

Connection Technology

Form Factor

Image

2.5” SATA

  • connects over SATA cables
  • similar shape to a traditional 2.5” HDD

SATA

SATA

SATA

2.5”

SAS

  • similar shape to SATA connector

SAS

SAS

SAS

2.5”

mini-SATA
mSATA

  • is a smaller version of the full-size SATA SSD
  • supports only SATA interface

mini-SATA

SATA

SATA

similar to M.2

NVMe M.2

  • TODO

M.2

PCIe

NVMe

M.2

SATA M.2

  • TODO

M.2

SATA

SATA

M.2

U.2

  • typically for high-end servers

SFF-8639

PCIe

NVMe

ANY

U.3

  • U.2 but also supports SATA and SAS

SFF-8639

PCIe/SATA/SAS

NVMe/SATA/SAS

ANY

PCIe

PCIe Slots

PCIe

NVMe

Card

EDSFF

  • is a family of form factors and interface standards for SSDs and rack servers
  • created by a consortium of 15 companies
Link to original

?

PCIe

NVMe

Card