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PS5 SSD & I/O Complex Patent

onQ123

Member


Description


BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to an information processing device using a flash memory as a secondary storage device, an access controller, an information processing method and a computer program.

With increase in NAND (Not-AND) flash memory capacities, SSD (Solid State Drive) has come into application as a storage device that replaces a related art HDD (Hard Disk Drive). SSD is advantageous over HDD in that it can access data faster and consumes less power. On the other hand, SSD has a drawback in that it is less durable against repeated rewrites. Therefore, wear leveling, a technique that distributes an area to be rewritten, is used to rewrite data to the SSD. That is, when a rewrite request is issued from a host CPU (Central Processing Unit), a specified logical block address is replaced by a different physical address, thus distributing an area to be rewritten, to the extent possible, to a plurality of memory cells (refer, for example, to WO 2014/132346 A1).

SUMMARY

An address conversion table is necessary for such an arrangement to convert a logical block address into a physical address. An address conversion table generally accounts for about 0.1% in data size of a total SSD capacity. Naturally, a data size of the address conversion table increases with increase in flash memory capacity. It may be possible to cache part of the table to an external DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) so as to efficiently refer to the address conversion table. However, the higher the efficiency pursued, the larger the DRAM capacity necessary. Further, the more frequently the table is referred to, the lower the command processing throughput due to latency involved in accessing the DRAM, possibly impairing the SSD access speed advantage.

The present disclosure has been devised in light of the foregoing, and it is desirable to provide a technology that ensures higher data access efficiency for an information processing device using an SSD.

A mode of the present disclosure relates to an information processing device. The information processing device includes a host unit adapted to request data access by specifying a logical address of a secondary storage device; and a controller adapted to accept the data access request and convert the logical address into a physical address using an address conversion table to perform data access to an associated area of the secondary storage device. An address space defined by the address conversion table includes a coarsely granular address space that collectively associates, with logical addresses, physical addresses that are in units larger than those in which data is read.

Another mode of the present disclosure relates to an access controller. The access controller for controlling data access from a host unit to a secondary storage device in an information processing device, includes a host controller adapted to convert a logical address of an access destination specified by the host unit into a physical address using an address conversion table; and a memory controller adapted to perform data access to the secondary storage device based on the physical address. An address space defined by the address conversion table includes a coarsely granular address space that collectively associates, with logical addresses, physical addresses that are in units larger than those in which data is read.

Still another mode of the present disclosure relates to an information processing method. The information processing method includes, by a host unit, requesting data access by specifying a logical address of a secondary storage device; and, by a controller, accepting the data access request and converting the logical address into a physical address using an address conversion table to perform data access to an associated area of the secondary storage device. An address space defined by the address conversion table includes a coarsely granular address space that collectively associates, with logical addresses, physical addresses that are in units larger than those in which data is read.

Still further mode of the present disclosure relates to a computer program. The computer program for a computer that controls data access from a host unit to a secondary storage device in an information processing device, includes, by a host controller, converting a logical address of an access destination specified by the host unit into a physical address using an address conversion table; and, by a memory controller, performing data access to the secondary storage device based on the physical address. An address space defined by the address conversion table includes a coarsely granular address space that collectively associates, with logical addresses, physical addresses that are in units larger than those in which data is read.

It should be noted that any combinations of the above components and any conversions of expressions of the present disclosure between "method," "device," "system," "computer program," "storage medium storing a computer program," and so on are also effective as modes of the present disclosure.

The present disclosure ensures higher efficiency in an information processing device using an SSD in terms of resources and processing time.
 

GreyHand23

Member
I read the whole patent. It's pretty incredible stuff. Key takeaway is the speeds that Cerny mentioned aren't just the speed you'll get when transferring large files, but they thought about all the bottlenecks that are inherent in the traditional PC interface when it comes to SSDs and found a way to enable the full speed for random access of very small files as well. It will be interesting to see if the quoted speed of the SSD for XSX is what the developers actually get in practice when doing random access instead of just transferring large files.
 
Not to sound like an ass but what the hell does this all mean?

Is PS5 SSD faster than what the numbers say?

Paging @Dr Keo
 
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Is this the translation to english of the whole OP?
I just skipped over the first block. There's probably more functionality here. I'm in a business meeting right now...

I was referring to this here.
SSD is advantageous over HDD in that it can access data faster and consumes less power. On the other hand, SSD has a drawback in that it is less durable against repeated rewrites. Therefore, wear leveling, a technique that distributes an area to be rewritten, is used to rewrite data to the SSD.
 

Radical_3d

Member
I just skipped over the first block. There's probably more functionality here. I'm in a business meeting right now...

I was referring to this here.
I knew it! When I said that constant video recording for the "share" functionality would destroy the SSD in very short time in the Next Gen thread they told me that modern SSDs are capable of handling it.
 

RaySoft

Member
I knew it! When I said that constant video recording for the "share" functionality would destroy the SSD in very short time in the Next Gen thread they told me that modern SSDs are capable of handling it.
The patent depicts a priority structure for files (read/write) so the system always prioritizes game requests over others (i.e. users actions like share/create etc.)
 

martino

Member
They should mandate a USB stick/drive for this. Usb3 bandwidth more than enough for x265 4K 60 video.
Imo it seems obvious you will have a check box to tick to do that on the external hdd if you plug one.
 
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Knch

Member
I knew it! When I said that constant video recording for the "share" functionality would destroy the SSD in very short time in the Next Gen thread they told me that modern SSDs are capable of handling it.
Because "Therefore, wear leveling, a technique that distributes an area to be rewritten, is used to rewrite data to the SSD. " isn't anything new and has been in SSD controllers since fucking forever...

 

Roxkis_ii

Member
Yeah, a layman's explanation would be duly appreciated.

I thought all SSD did the rewrite to cells evenly to reduce wear.

Its part of the reason I heard you aren't supposed to put an SSD in a Ps4, because the os doesn't know to do that., so the ssd will wear out faster.

I'll reserve my judgment for when I know what's going on that mind blowing.
 

Shmunter

Member
Or at least give the option.
Option won’t work because the gist is; we don’t want to reserve 2+ Gig of Ram to hold the game dvr file; And we don’t want to constantly record to the ssd.

To ensure devs can use the 2+ gig of ram it needs to be guaranteed to be available.

Hence the system should tell you, in order to record gameplay you need to plug in external storage.
 

thelastword

Banned
I just skipped over the first block. There's probably more functionality here. I'm in a business meeting right now...

I was referring to this here.
Didn't Micron have a Flex Capacity technology that increased SSD write/rewrite capacity a great deal.....I'm pretty sure there are technologies that are improving the write capacity of SSD drives as we speak, newer NAND technologies.....I'm pretty sure I may have linked a thread on it some time back. By the time PS5 debuts, most of the drives coming out should be using the newer technology that enhances durability and longevity...
 

Allandor

Member
Yeah, a layman's explanation would be duly appreciated.

I thought all SSD did the rewrite to cells evenly to reduce wear.

Its part of the reason I heard you aren't supposed to put an SSD in a Ps4, because the os doesn't know to do that., so the ssd will wear out faster.

I'll reserve my judgment for when I know what's going on that mind blowing.
Yes, this is quite normal for current OSes to use techniques like that.
But if the SSD is quite full, it doesn't help that much. E.g. Tesla had the problem with their earlier cars. The OS got bigger and the flash drive got fuller. Than only in a small section of the flash memory a log was written over and over again. And after a few years the flash-cells were defect. I really hope that there is more flash memory in the next-gen consoles than they announced and use this to evenly write data.
And no, it is not a solution do regular delete games on the drive and copy them onto it when you play the game again. This would be counterproductive.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
It may be possible to cache part of the table to an external DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) so as to efficiently refer to the address conversion table.

People like peak flashy numbers, but the more interesting thing about SSDs is how they deal with lots of mixed access. I think this may be a bigger part of the PS5 SSD magic than the peak figures - lots of DMA channels, DRAM table lookups, the SRAM cache, all making for a very high throughput machine that suffers far less on mixed access.

Even hyper fast SSDs really don't act like DRAM that it's "equivalent" to on speed under mixed loads (i.e we're up there with DDR1 if you look at peak speeds), but this seems all about bringing that bottom line closer to the top line, adding consistency and being one step closer to RAM like.
 
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Mokus

Member
What I get:messenger_sleeping: - the DRAM is not an ideal option (because this and that), so a "secondary storage device" is mentioned quite a lot - to make the use of SSD more efficient?:messenger_dizzy:

What kind of "secondary storage device" will be there?
 
Thanks for sharing but I wish I understood it better.

giphy.gif
 

Bryank75

Banned
This really doesn't have much to do with the patent.
True but people were complaining about having too many SSD threads...

Plus the patent is quite technical, so it allows people to get involved in the thread even if they don't totally understand what the patent is trying to convey...
 
What I get:messenger_sleeping: - the DRAM is not an ideal option (because this and that), so a "secondary storage device" is mentioned quite a lot - to make the use of SSD more efficient?:messenger_dizzy:

What kind of "secondary storage device" will be there?
The IO block has SRAM.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
And what is this then?

How does it differs?

I knew it! When I said that constant video recording for the "share" functionality would destroy the SSD in very short time in the Next Gen thread they told me that modern SSDs are capable of handling it.
That's probably happening in RAM, hence the 3GB of reserved space or whatever or maybe not, it's past midnight.
 
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Radical_3d

Member
And what is this then?

How does it differs?


That's probably happening in RAM, hence the 3GB of reserved space or whatever or maybe not, it's past midnight.
Well, fellow European, the discussion began because I said that the RAM pool in this generation was the tiniest leap in a generation change. And then in top of that you have to record more and better (4K@60) in the RAM. The tech guys correct me and said that no RAM was used in this generation, hence, it’ll use no RAM in the next generation. Then I said that this would utterly destroy a SSD and here we are...
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Well, fellow European, the discussion began because I said that the RAM pool in this generation was the tiniest leap in a generation change. And then in top of that you have to record more and better (4K@60) in the RAM. The tech guys correct me and said that no RAM was used in this generation, hence, it’ll use no RAM in the next generation. Then I said that this would utterly destroy a SSD and here we are...
Apologies then
 
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