Reliability characterization and modeling of solid-state drives

Solid-state Drive (SSD) technology and product reliability is discussed in this paper from the perspective of overall system reliability and memory subsystem reliability. As relatively new but strongly growing segment of the high-performance storage industry, characterization of SSD reliability may be approached and clarified both from empirical system-level evaluations as well as on the basis of fundamental metrics of wear in the memory subsystem. Further, while expectations of solid-state product reliability ma y be viewed from a design standpoint of component and assembly, they require reconciliation with empirical observations of field reliability and test validations. The authors illustrate these various approaches based on reliability characterizations and modeling of SSD products. Based on such characterization data, understanding is developed on the impact of operational and environmental factors, such as, wear in the memory subsystem and temperature impact on product reliability. Reliability modeling based on intrinsic error rates of the memory subsystem across SSD populations is also presented to provide statistical estimates of SSD life based on goodness of fit analysis. Thereby, the authors explore and illustrate new conceptual underpinnings by focusing on specific characterizations and modeling towards comprehensive reliability evaluation of SSD technology and products.