Zeus SSD Functional Blocks

Functional Description

 

 

2.1.2SSD Control Block

The Zeus SSD’s control block comprises three integrated components:

•SimpleTech Zeus SSD controller

•RISC Microcontroller

•NAND SLC flash memory

SimpleTech’s Zeus FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) controller is the heart of the Zeus SSD. The Zeus controller provides the drive’s ATA interface to the host, and the IDE interface to the drive’s local flash memory. The Zeus controller’s integrated DMA controller interfaces with system memory to facilitate data transfer between the host and the SSD’s local flash memory.

An integrated microcontroller is responsible for initiating and controlling all activity within the Zeus ATA controller. The microcontroller features more than 1 Mbit of on-chip SRAM and a wide range of peripheral functions, with 8 Mbits of flash memory into a single compact 120-ball BGA package, providing a powerful and flexible solution for the SSD’s embedded control applications. The SSD’s embedded microcontroller is a high- performance processor with a high-density instruction set and very low power consumption. In addition, a large number of internally banked registers provide very fast exception handling—making it ideal for the real-time application control requirements of the SSD. The 8-level priority-vectored interrupt controller, together with the Peripheral Data Controller, significantly enhance the SSD’s real-time performance.

The SSD’s flash memory controller architecture requires only minimal external component support. The SSD’s flash controller works with flash memory devices from Samsung ® and Toshiba ®, as well as a number of compatible flash memory devices from other manufacturers.

Features of the drive’s flash memory controller include:

•Built-in 3.3V voltage regulator for flash memory supply

•Data transfer rates up to 60 MB/sec (controller to flash memory)

•True-IDE mode support

•Embedded ECC unit

•Wear-leveling and bad-block mapping software

Zeus Ultra DMA Solid State Drives

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