For China, mass production of SSD controllers is as important as organizing domestic production of NAND flash and DRAM memory. Limited production of 32-layer 3D NAND and DDR4 chips has already started in the country. But what about the controllers?
According to the website , around ten companies are developing SSD controllers in China. All of them use some combination of ARM cores or architecture (instruction sets). However, one company has managed to surprise: recently, a national developer from China introduced controllers based on the first Chinese microprocessor architecture, Godson.
The Godson architecture or cores has become the basis of the widely known Loongson processors. The Godson architecture is based on MIPS instructions and is, in principle, no worse for SSD controllers than ARM architecture. The controller using Godson IP was created by the Chinese company Guokewei. It is the GK2302 solution with a SATA 6 Gb/s interface and a working speed of up to 500 MB/s.
According to the company, the GK2302 controller using Godson IP is 15% more efficient than the previous ARM core development (GK2301) and consumes 6.5% less power. There is currently no other information about GK2302. For reference, GK2301 supports four memory channels with LDPC error correction and allows the creation of SSDs with a capacity of up to 4 TB (up to 32 NAND MLC/TLC/QLC chips). Supported interfaces are ONFI 3.0/Toggle 2.0, as well as SM2/3/4 encryption (national standard) and SHA-256/AES-256. Something similar can be expected from the new controller.
A few words about Guokewei. It was established in 2008, although it went public only in 2017. The company specializes in the development of chips for TV set-top boxes, data storage systems, controllers for sensors, and Internet of Things devices. In 2018, Guokewei's revenue amounted to about $57.68 million. At the same time, the company receives subsidies from Chinese government funds, allowing it to move forward without worrying about profitability.
Source: 3dnews.ru
