The way the Sandforce controller operates - the write amplification of these drives - without any external TRIM - are by far among the lowest in the industry. We have posted data from years of real world use in our own operation and typically the write amp is LESS than 1. In a worst case scenario - 100% incompressible data - the write amp was still under 3. This is far lower than other controllers.
What does that mean - planning a road trip.
As the crow flies, the most direct route is would be the same as a write amp of 1.0
Because your car doesn't fly - the route isn't direct.. and with SSDs - data is written and then re-organized which results in a multiple of of the actual write amount/ (distance in the analogy) occurring to actually complete the 'trip'. This can be 2-3 to even 5-20X depending on the type of data and also the size of the data blocks being written as there are other things occurring as well.
The Sandforce Processors, which utilize both advanced internal data management and compression with utilization of their over provisioned space for real time redundancy during the write process, have always been extremely efficient for minimizing write cycles. Bottom line is that Sandforce driven SSDs - like ours, like Intels- put less ware on the NAND for the same data sets than other drives and do so even with completely incompressible data.
A write Amp of less than 3.0 for a normal data mix on a typical SSD is really good... that such is the worst case scenario for Sandforce based SSDs makes them really a drive a part from the rest. That being said - TRIM can be a far more important aspect with NAND longevity with other drives.
Chakravartin wrote:
[quote=OWC Larry]
Our drives we've been building for Mac first since day one and it is a true benefit that no TRIM hack is needed to get the most from them in your Mac.
I get that your SSDs are fast and reliable -- some of the best in the industry -- but what about durability/lifespan without TRIM?
Flash cells have limited write cycles. Enhanced speed comes not just from better logic, but from smaller cells subject to more disturbance effects at the atomic level. SSDs slow as they age not just because of garbage collection, but also because with more writes it becomes harder and harder to distinguish the state of a memory-cell and the controller has to make repeat-attempts to read/write data.
Without TRIM, SSDs will be doing a lot of unnecessary garbage collection and wear-leveling and that implies that the inevitable slowing down and eventual failure will arrive sooner than otherwise.
