Team-innovateEngineers
Microchip Technology has unveiled the Flashtec NVMe 5016 Solid State Drive (SSD) controller, a revolutionary 16-channel, PCIe Gen 5 NVM Express® (NVMe) controller designed to address the growing demands for high-performance, efficient, and reliable data centers driven by the AI boom and rapid expansion of cloud-based services.
“Data center technology must evolve to keep up with significant advancements in AI and Machine Learning (ML). Our fifth-generation Flashtec NVMe controller is designed to lead the market in fulfilling the increased need for high-performance, power-optimized SSDs,” said Pete Hazen, Vice President of Microchip’s Data Center Solutions Business Unit. “The NVMe 5016 Flashtec PCIe controller can be deployed in data centers to facilitate effective and secure cloud computing and business-critical applications.”
Key Performance Enhancements
- Energy Efficiency: Up to 5% improvement.
- Motor Downsizing: 25% smaller motors for the same power output.
- Cooling Needs: 35% reduction.
- Component Downsizing: Up to 30 times smaller passive components.
The Flashtec NVMe 5016 controller is engineered for enterprise applications such as online transaction processing, financial data processing, database mining, and latency-sensitive performance applications. It also meets growing AI demands with higher throughput for reading and writing large datasets used in model training and inference processing. With sequential read performance exceeding 14 GB per second, the NVMe 5016 controller maximizes the usage of valuable compute resources in traditional and AI-accelerated servers under demanding workloads.
Advanced Features
- AxEC Capability: Hard real-time control across multiple parallel applications with adaptable hardware.
- SiLant: Safe, deterministic multi-core processing with guaranteed worst-case execution times.
- FHSM: Flexible hardware security modules to counter current and future cybersecurity threats.
- Compliance: ISO 26262 ASIL-D and ISO/SAE 21434 standards for safety and security.
Technical Specifications
- Processors: Powered by three Cortex-R52 processors running at 350MHz, delivering 2196 DMIPS.
- AxEC 2.0 Feature: Includes two FLUs operating at 175MHz, providing 400 GOPS and 9.1 GMAC.
- Memory: Robust memory options with 8MB P-Flash, 256kB D-Flash, and 1MB SRAM.
- Communication: Supports CAN FD, CAN XL, and Ethernet.
- Certification: Certified AEC-Q100 Grade 1.
- Package: Comes in a 292 BGA package.
Industry Collaboration and Support
“Microchip’s latest Flashtec PCIe controller, utilizing advanced 6 nm process technology, addresses the power optimization requirements for demanding applications. Its flexible architecture delivers the processing power needed for cutting-edge AI workloads in a compact package,” said Greg Matson, Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Marketing for Solidigm.
“Longsys and Microchip have cultivated a strong relationship to drive the rapidly expanding enterprise SSD market,” said Huabo Cai, Chairman and CEO of Longsys. “Microchip’s reliable and flexible architecture of the PCIe Flashtec products offers an excellent foundation for Longsys’ enterprise solutions with multiple advanced NAND Flash, delivering efficiency and reliability to standard or customized high-performance enterprise SSDs.”
Security and Reliability
The Flashtec NVMe 5016 controller ensures enterprise-level integrity and dependability with comprehensive data protection, uninterrupted operations, and safeguarding of confidential information. Security features include Secure Boot with a hardware Root-of-Trust, dual signature authentication, encryption for data-in-transit and data-at-rest, and sophisticated key management practices adhering to stringent security protocols, including FIPS 140-3 Level 2 and TCG Opal standards.
For data integrity, the controller features end-to-end data protection with NVMe Protection Information (NVMe PI), single error correction and double error detection (SECDED) ECC, Adaptive LDPC, and RAID failover recovery mechanisms.
Development Tools and Availability
The Flashtec NVMe 5016 PCIe Gen 5 SSD controller is supported by an ecosystem of tools, including evaluation boards, a Software Development Kit (SDK), and Microchip’s ChipLink tool for advanced debugging.
Microchip Flashtec NVMe 5016 controllers are available for sampling to qualified customers. Contact your Microchip salesperson for details or visit Microchip’s global sales and distribution page.
Explore more about Microchip’s data center solutions on their website.
