NUREMBERG, Germany, April 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —Micron Technology, Inc., a manufacturer of memory and storage solutions, announced it is sampling the automotive-grade Micron 4150AT SSD, the quad-port SSD, capable of interfacing with up to four systems on chips (SoCs) to centralize storage for software-defined intelligent vehicles. The Micron 4150AT SSD combines market-leading features such as single-root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV), a PCIe® Generation 4 interface and ruggedized automotive design. With these features, the automotive-grade SSD provides the ecosystem with data center-level flexibility and power.
“As storage requirements race to keep up with rich in-vehicle experiences featuring AI and advanced algorithms for higher levels of autonomous safety, this era demands a new paradigm for automotive storage to match,” said Michael Basca, Micron vice president of embedded products and systems. “Micron has reimagined storage from the ground up to deliver the world’s first quad-port SSD — the Micron 4150AT. Moreover, this innovation builds on our collaboration with the innovators redefining next-generation automotive architectures, providing the industry flexibility and horsepower to roll out the transformative technologies on the horizon.”
Micron’s 4150AT SSD brings enterprise-class speeds to consumer vehicles. Random read and write speeds surpass 600,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and 100,000 IOPS, respectively, for a 4-kilobyte transfer. This high performance allows the drive to efficiently manage data streams from multiple SoCs at once. Moreover, it makes it an ideal solution for vehicles that must increasingly multitask to handle diverse systems. These systems range from advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) to in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) to AI-enabled cabin experiences.
Micron built its 4150AT SSD to provide powerful, customizable features inspired by the design of data center SSDs but tailored to the unique challenges of next-generation automotive architectures including:
- Multi-port capability: The first SSD across any end market with four ports, the Micron 4150AT SSD can connect up to four SoCs, bringing unmatched flexibility and creating a single source of truth. For example, an automotive OEM can connect one port to an ADAS system and another to an IVI system, allowing each to store private data while accessing a common set of critical map data and reducing cost per gigabyte of storage. Boosting performance and dissolving bottlenecks, simultaneous access to shared data eliminates redundancy, improving efficiency without duplicating data. The 4150AT’s quad ports also reduce the need for extra storage devices. Existing solutions can typically connect to only one SoC on their own. Moreover, they typically localize within each automotive system, resulting in unused capacity. Alternatively, OEMs require utilizing a costly automotive-grade PCIe switch to connect a drive to multiple SoCs. By centralizing storage for multiple systems, the SSD dramatically improves efficiency while streamlining architecture.
- Virtualization: The 4150AT’s SR-IOV capability provides high performance for heavy multi-host workloads of up to 64 virtual machines (VMs). The unique virtualization grants individual SoCs and their virtual machines separate storage areas for local operations, optimizing resource utilization. This support for multi-host workloads is essential as today’s automotive SoCs increasingly use VMs to multitask across different functions, from autonomous driving to vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The SR-IOV capability offers an advantage by directing input/outputs (I/Os) from the VMs directly to the SSD hardware. In contrast to typical paravirtualization, where a software hypervisor routes I/Os to the SSD, creating latency, this method does not involve passive voices. By bypassing the software layer, the drive improves random read performance up to three times.4
- Boosted security: Due to its unique virtualization, the 4150AT drive also enables increased security for carmakers. The SR-IOV virtualization isolates data of each VM in the hardware, mitigating risks of data or code leakage between them. This approach also curtails hacking attempts in one VM from compromising another, maintaining critical data privacy and security.
- Customizable endurance modes: Micron’s 4150AT SSD is built with its triple-level cell (TLC) NAND. It can be configured to support single-level cell (SLC) and high-endurance (HE-SLC) data endurance groups too, which respectively offer 20 times and 50 times the endurance of TLC, to best meet unique data requirements. For example, the HE-SLC endurance group facilitates heavy-write use cases. These include continuous black box data recording, in which cars must constantly rerecord critical data from sensors, cameras, and lidar. Moreover, in such a scenario where data is being programmed and erased every few minutes. The HE-SLC mode offers the required endurance while eliminating the need for more expensive volatile memory such as DRAM.
- Designed for the automotive industry’s rigorous requirements: The Micron 4150AT SSD delivers Automotive Safety Integrity Level B (ASIL-B) capability to support safety system requirements. This product comes in a ball grid array package to withstand the shock and vibration typical of vehicles’ rugged environments. Micron engineers its drive to endure automotive temperature ranges, crafting it for durability in vehicle applications, much like its portfolio.
Micron is now delivering samples of the 4150AT SSD to automotive customers worldwide. The drive is offered in capacities up to 1.8 terabytes. Efficient storage of AI algorithms, large language models, infotainment, and telemetry data empowers next-gen vehicles with advanced capabilities. The company is demonstrating their SSD at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany, booth 5-109, from April 9-11.
