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1.3 SATA Interface for VRFEM1xxxGP
• The Serial ATA (SATA) interface is compliant with the SATA IO Serial
ATA specification, revision 3.x that supports SATA up to 6Gbps.
• The SATA interface connects the host computer to the SSD subsystem.
• The SATA interface runs at a maximum speed of 6.0Gbps (Gigabits per
second). If the host computer is unable to negotiate a speed of 6.0Gbps,
the SATA interface automatically renegotiates to a speed of 3.0 or 1.5
Gbps.
For a list of supported commands and other specifics, please see Chapter 5.
1.4 Indicator LEDs
There is an optional LED indicator on the Slim SATA module that will flash to
indicate an SATA activity condition. There is also a remote LED indicator at Pin
11 of the Power Segment Connector, called “Device Activity Signal”. For a
remote LED application, an LED should be tied high through a current limiting
resistor on the host side. The Slim SATA will sink current on the module to allow
the LED to flash to indicate an ACTIVITY. If a remote LED is not implemented,
pin 11 may be connected to GND to allow the ACTIVITY LED to remain on and
indicate a Power On condition when using a standard ATX type power supply.
2 Product Specifications
2.1 Performance
Maximum SSD performance can be achieved for certain workloads by:
• Initiating read and write transfers for random accesses with small block
sizes of 4K bytes to optimize IOPs performance for applications such as
databases, OLTP etc.
• Initiating read and write transfers for sequential accesses with large blocks
(128K or larger) to optimize performance toward throughput (MBps) for
applications such as video streaming, data acquisition etc.
• Issuing transfers at starting LBA’s which align the access on 4K
boundaries:
o Minimizes or eliminates internal Read-Modify-Write operations
o Align on 4K boundaries is optimal for SSD capacities up to 256 GB
o For SSD capacities greater than 256 GB, aligning on 8K
boundaries is optimal
• Avoid mixing NCQ and non-NCQ commands
