Hard Disk Drives (HDD) / Solid State Drives (SSD)

Content, whether audio, video or data, is driving applications in all market segments towards higher density, high performance and yet energy efficient storage. This key element of all consumer platforms, including DVRs, game consoles and set-top boxes whether in Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Solid State Drive (SSD) form is continuously evolving to deliver more for less and ARM is the architecture that helps OEMs meet the challenge. Through years of working with HDD partners, ARM has perfected its processors, and developed leading edge real-time debug solutions to meet the needs of storage applications. Today, ARM processor cores ship in greater than 50% of the world's HDDs. ARM has strong partnerships with key OEMs and silicon partners in the storage market positioning ARM technology to be successful in the emerging class of Solid State Drive (SSD) storage products.

Optimized ARM Hard Disk Drive Block Diagram

Overview

ARM Value Proposition

Relevant ARM Products

Connected Community

Managing the combination of high rotation speeds, extreme precision requirements of actuators and turbulence caused by fast disk speeds and shock make hard disk drives (HDD) one of the most challenging real-time control systems. The need to pack more data per inch and increase the speed with which data is read/written from/to the disk, is driving processor performance requirements ever higher. All this must be accomplished inside tight budgets, both in regards to power and cost.

A number of applications need higher performance, more reliable storage solutions and with concerns about noise, reliability, many of these customers are starting to consider the use of solid state disks (SSD) instead of HDDs. Although these include no spinning magnetic media, processor performance requirements are equally challenging for SSDs. Driven by ever increasing host interface speeds and memory densities, the complexity and performance needed to deliver on read/write performance while maximizing endurance is staggering.

HDD and SSD systems both require processor cores that can deliver very high levels of performance inside tight guaranteed real-time constraints. One of the key markets used to define the requirements for the Cortex-R4 processor core was the storage segment. Storage OEMs value the unparalleled software tools and debug infrastructure around the ARM architecture that allows them to rapidly evolve and deploy products from generation to generation. The Cortex-R4 processor architecture features the appropriate balance between processor performance, and real-time response times, with a high degree of debugability to support the AMP chip architectures appearing now to address this market. ARM's Phyisical IP libraries and Power Management Kits at 28nm to 65nm, are designed to reduce cost and power usage by minimizing silicon area and leakage, while optimizing performance ensure that the overall device minimizes power leakage. In addition, Physical IP Embedded Memory at 28nm to 65 nm creates high density on-chip memories on a SoC that can exceed 1 Mbyte today. The resultant memories can be optimized for both performance and power, while offering fault tolerance to increase manufacturing yields. Physical IP DDR PHY enables robust off-chip memory interface performance at high clock-speed and low power.