SSD Market Share by Technology, Application, and Company

From Trend focus analysis of flash NAND Solid State Drive (SSD) market growth, prices by application and technology:

• "MLC dominated the NAND market in CQ1 with 77.9% share, up 8% quarter on quarter.
• TLC (3bit/cell) is gaining traction and rose 8% from quarter-to-quarter.
• Samsung is the only company shipping TLC-based SSDs in volume.
• SLC is declining quickly as demand transitions to MLC, except in certain high performance, high-endurance applications such as military, industrial, medical and automotive."

Additional details below.

More about Cache SSD Shipments to Explode and Apple's iPad, iCloud Drive Semiconductor Industry reports from June 2012

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

SSD Units Grew 22% from 4Q12 to 1Q13 - Trendfocus

This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on Wed, May 22nd, 2013

http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/marketreport/trendfocus-ssd-market

Leaders being in order Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba and Intel

The NAND market continued to heat up, as NAND supply was tight in CQ1 '13 due to healthy demand and supply constraints. Nevertheless, the SSD market grew from the prior quarter to 13.28 million, up 22% quarter on quarter. 

In CQ1, the client SSD market was up 19% sequentially to 12.06 million. Enterprise SSD growth rates continue to outpace any seasonal server or storage system softness - this market was up 66% from CQ4 '12, to 1.22 million.

Client SSDs were dominated by NAND suppliers, especially Samsung, who took the lead in selling TLC (3bit/cell) into PC OEMs and the retail channel. Toshiba and SanDisk, who had been the main drivers for TLC in the industry up to this point, could not sustain the momentum and lost share in the market.

The enterprise SSD market is gaining more traction in data centers and cloud storage, as the $/GB metric decreased to levels low enough to drive an inflection in demand. TCO and performance arguments are far more compelling at today's $/GB levels and with costs expected to continue downward, enterprise SSD adoption will continue to grow at rates outpacing other storage devices.

        Total SSD Market by Application

Units in million	CQ1 '13   actuals	CQ1 '14  Forecast	Y/Y  Growth
Client SSDs
Stand-Alone Units	7.073	10.180	44%
Cache Units	4.986	8.319	67%
Total	12.059	18.499	53%
Enterprise SSDs
SATA Units	1.009	1.151	14%
SAS Units	0.170	0.198	16%
PCIe Units	0.037	0.042	14%
Total	1.216	1.391	14%
Total SSD Units	13.275	19.890	50%

  (Source: Trendfocus, May 2013)

           Total NAND Market Share by Technology

 (Source: Trendfocus, May 2013)

• 
  

                         Spot Market Pricing of SSDs

   (Source: Trendfocus, May 2013)

• Price for SSDs in the spot market continues to rise due to constrained NAND supply. OEM and large-scale contracts can be markedly different than spot market pricing.
• 256GB SSD increased 57% from $145 in January to $227 in first week of May.
• 128GB SSD increased 87% since January to $140.

    SSD Supplier Market Share in 1Q13

in million   of units	Client	Enterprise	Total	Share
Samsung	4.092	0.060	4.152	31.3%
SanDisk	2.200	0.026	2.226	16.8%
Toshiba	1.222	0.000	1.222	9.2%
Intel	0.832	0.025	0.857	6.5%
HGST	0.000	0.094	0.094	0.7%
STEC	0.000	0.044	0.044	0.3%
Others	3.713	0.967	4.680	35.3%
Total	12.059	1.216	13.275	100%

 (Source: Trendfocus, May 2013)

Our comments :

Now Trendfocus is becoming a serious analyst firm in SSDs after being concentrated for several years on HDDs disk heads and media only. Other ones in this flash sector include IDC and IHS iSuppli.

It's a difficult job because there are over 100 SSD makers around the world. It's easier to track HDDs with only three manufacturers remaining.

What is published above is a small abstract of the 29 pages of the Trenfocus report NAND/SSD Information Service - May 13, 2013, CQ1'13 Quarterly Update. 

We just found the Californian analysts relatively conservative concerning the growth of the enterprise PCIe SSD market compared to the SAS one, and more globally on enterprise SSDs.

Tablets,Smartphones, and SSDs Market Share of NAND in 2013

The Smartphones, Tablet PCs, SSDs Propelling NAND Flash Sales in 2013 report  discusses the percentages of NAND sales to the various end markets.  NAND demand is being impacted quite a bit by the growth of tablets that are replacing laptops.   iPad market grew fast and the pc makers have been marketing and testing out various tablet forms that are gaining acceptance.  Tablets are expected to reach 12% of the $30.0 Billion NAND flash market in 2013.  In addition, every Tablet has an SSD storage, so the growth of Tablets will lead to increased demand of SSDs.

More about Tablets are the new mobile (Tablets are the new mobile, the slide deck in the article shows the growth of mobile and Tablets in the Apple and Android eco-sphere. There are many other slides at the link below. The future of mobile was discussed in the April 15, 2009 Mobile Computing the Next Big Market article)

Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.Semiconductor information and news at - www.maltiel-consulting.com

IBM Acquires Texas Memory (SSD Vendor)

It is interesting that IBM buy an hardware company. It further highlights the rising importance of flash memory solid state drives (SSD) as part of data storage system, cloud infrastructures, and the need for more and better storage in-house. Gaining in house knowledge would help IBM in thier consulting and services projects.
Ron




More about IBM buying a 30 years old vendor of SSD
IBM selects 'mature' flash option, buys Texas Memory Systems


"TMS has been around since 1978 but remains relatively small with 100 employees. It started with memory systems for seismic processing for the oil and gas industry. TMS was among the first solid-state storage vendors, shipping its first NAND flash system – the RamSan-500 – in 2007."

and
IBM to Buy Solid-State Storage Supplier TMS

"TMS, in fact, has been selling IT transformation for years. An early player in the Flash-based storage market, the 34-year-old company sells rackmount systems and PCIe cards under its RamSan brand. The purpose of these solutions is to improve the performance of IT systems, using less power and smaller form factors.
Performance and throughput are getting more important than ever, thanks to big-data, cloud infrastructures, and the need for more and better storage in-house -- at lower-than-ever prices.

TMS makes its own solid-state storage modules with its own controllers and designs. It claims patented RAID technologies -- an important feature, given that early solid-state storage systems were sometimes accused of being less durable than hard-disk drives."



IBM Solidifies SSD Strategy With Texas Memory Acquisition

In what could be one of the most important acquisitions of the year, IBM today announced plans to acquire Texas Memory Systems. While the details will be presented later on today, we think this is an excellent move on the part of IBM. Texas Memory brings a deep technical bench and excellent leadership that will allow IBM to differentiate itself from other large storage vendors.

As we described in our article "  IBM Storage Makes Its SSD Case "  this purchase significantly strengthens IBM's SSD Strategy. As the Texas Memory products are integrated into the IBM portfolio it puts IBM on par, if not ahead of EMC for completeness of flash offering.

Now the race will be to see who can address the integration of all of these flash domains (server, network, storage) as well as automate these domains. Doing so is a key requirement in eliminating performance sprawl as we describe in our latest chalktalk

NAND Flash +DRAM Improves Memory Sys

Fusion io's blog discusses their collaboration with computer scientists at Princeton University

"  Volatile DRAM is faster—but much more expensive at high densities—than flash. NAND flash has much greater density than DRAM, and requires substantially less power to do its job. The Extended Memory library transparently tiers data between available DRAM in the system and the persistent NAND flash tier, making it much more affordable for organizations to greatly expand the size of their in-memory data sets without re-writing their applications."

See more about this partnership below:

Intel's approach regarding  PC memory organization is discussed in How SSDs conquered mobile devices and modern OSes




Other approaches for internal PC memory organizations were covered in a May blog -

Apple NAND Storage in Upcoming MacBook Pros


"There is a room for an overall personal computer hierarchy reorganization. Maybe Apple could lead here.
Currently in PC/ Mac we have a microprocessor (with some fast DRAM memory) connected to long term storage in flash SSD or HDD.
There would be many benefits to adding a small flash NAND between the microprocessor and the long term storage. Such computer hierarchy would benefit from the faster operation of the small flash NAND storage and its long term non volatile storage. It will also reduce power consumption.
The NAND memory could support the microprocessor operations or be used for storage of the operating system."


Ron




Princeton Scientists Partner On DRAM Innovation

http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/princeton-scientists-partner-on-dram-inn/240003554
By Adrian Bridgwater, July 11, 2012


Fusion-io technology now extends memory from DRAM to NAND flash



A collaboration between computer scientists at Princeton University and Fusion-io has led to the development of a new Extended Memory subsystem to be made available as part of the firm's own brand SDK.





The Extended Memory subsystem works to extend system memory from DRAM onto flash, providing what has been described as "much more high-performance memory capacity" than currently possible with DRAM alone.





The firm's message to software programmers is that this is an extended memory option for developers who chose to customize applications to leverage ioMemory technology. Applications can then extend their in-memory data from DRAM onto ioMemory, which — generally speaking — should also save money as DRAM is argued to be cost-prohibitive, not persistent, and limited in capacity.





Will this garner interest from developers attracted to the benefits of storing all data in-memory, especially to meet the needs of web-scale, cloud, and big data computing? It is an attractive sounding option for sure, but success here will be based on whether this Extended Memory's ability to intelligently tier data between available DRAM in the system and the persistent NAND flash tier works as well as described.



"The Fusion ioMemory architecture is uniquely suited to innovation like the Extended Memory subsystem," said Chris Mason, Fusion-io director of kernel engineering and principal author of the Btrfs filesystem for Linux. "Since Fusion ioMemory has moved beyond legacy disk-era protocols, we can integrate new features like the Extended Memory subsystem to truly advance application performance for enterprise computing in ways that are simply not possible with traditional SSDs."







The Extended Memory subsystem dynamically moves frequently accessed data pages into memory on-demand while migrating rarely accessed data pages from DRAM into ioMemory. This says Fusion-io allows developers to simplify application design by assuming that entire datasets are in-memory, without the costs associated with DRAM purchase and operation.





Application developers are able to further tune performance through software development kit tools that lock selected pages into DRAM, giving access to NAND flash as memory, instead of treating it as an extension of disk storage. This allows legacy applications to scale up with flash memory, instead of scaling out, boosting performance and reducing total cost of ownership.

Flash Memory Controller is the Secret Sauce

This is the the fifth SSD controller company to be acquired recently:
* In March of last year OCZ acquired Indilinx
* In may 2011 SanDisk bought Pliant
* LSI acquired SandForce in October
* December brought Apple's acquisition of Anobit
* Now SK Hynix has acquired Link_A_Media

At the  Flash Summit in August 2011, Sandisk discussed The Future of SSD Architectures. Several of the key technical issues of a flash NAND memory controller were highlighted.

Having controller knowledge in-house is a key edge in designing fast and low power flash memory systems.

Ron






SK Hynix to Acquire Link_A_Media Devices

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sk-hynix-acquire-media-devices-222500217.html
SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--



SK hynix Inc. (‘SK hynix’ or ‘the Company’) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire California-based storage solution company Link_A_Media Devices Corporation (‘LAMD’). LAMD, founded in 2004, is a leader in the development of semiconductor system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for the data storage market. These SoC solutions, also called controllers, interface with processors to significantly increase the speed and reliability of Flash memory. Upon completion of the acquisition, LAMD will join SK hynix as a business unit focused on customized NAND based solutions.



As various mobile applications such as smartphones and tablet PCs are being rapidly adopted and cloud computing grows in popularity, the NAND Flash market has been evolving from raw NAND memory solutions for USB and memory cards to value-added products equipped with controllers. The role of the NAND controller in premium products such as e-MMC (embedded Multi Media Card) and SSDs (Solid State Drives) has become increasingly important to meet the high memory densities and improved interface speeds required by end users.



“We expect our NAND Flash competitiveness will be further strengthened by the acquisition of LAMD which has extensive expertise in controller technology and excellent engineering resources. SK hynix will leverage this acquisition and continuously develop value-added NAND solutions and respond to our customers’ needs,” said Mr. Oh Chul Kwon, President and CEO of SK hynix.



“We are excited to become a part of the SK hynix family. This will enable us to bring our advanced controller solutions to a wide range of data storage products to meet the rapidly increasing demands of the worldwide business and consumer markets,” said Dr. Hemant Thapar, Founder and CEO of LAMD.

Cache SSD Shipments to Explode

"Hybrid hard disk drives (HDD) containing a built-in layer of NAND flash memory may offer the advantage of consolidated storage for increasingly popular ultrabooks, but cache solid state drives (SSD) will remain the mainstream ultrabook storage solution".

In 2012 "cache SSD volume this year to 23.9 million unit...
dedicated SSDs that contain no cache component, will attain shipments this year of 18 million...
 hybrid HDDs will reach two million units this year...on their way to reaching 25 million units by 2016"

A key driver of cache SSD  is Intel's strong support of ultrabooks.

In January 2012 IHS report "Fueled by rising sales of ultrabooks, shipments of cache SSD units in 2012 are projected to reach 25.7 million units, up from 881,000 units in 2011 when the technology first appeared. Next year, cache SSD shipments will amount to 68.2 million units, on their way to approximately 121.0 million units by 2015, as shown in the figure below.

The majority of cache SSD units will find their way into devices known as ultrabooks—the superthin mobile computers launched by chipmaker Intel in 2011—even though non-ultrabook desktops and notebooks also will account for cache SSD use. Of the more than 25 million cache SSDs to be shipped this year, about 22 million units will be present in ultrabooks, up from a mere 500,000 last year."


Ron




Cache is king in solid state drive market, says IHS
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120615PR200.html?mod=2
Press release; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 15 June 2012]

Hybrid hard disk drives (HDD) containing a built-in layer of NAND flash memory may offer the advantage of consolidated storage for increasingly popular ultrabooks, but cache solid state drives (SSD) will remain the mainstream ultrabook storage solution, according to IHS iSuppli.

Already the leading storage form factor in ultrabooks, cache SSDs will see their shipments rise even more this year to 23.9 million units, up by an astounding 2,660% from just 864,000 units in 2011, IHS said. Shipments will then jump to 67.7 million units in 2013, cross the hundred-million-unit mark in 2015, and hit 163 million units by 2016, IHS forecast.

In comparison, shipments of hybrid HDDs will reach two million units this year, up from one million in 2011, on their way to reaching 25 million units by 2016, IHS indicated. A third form of flash storage, dedicated SSDs that contain no cache component, will attain shipments this year of 18 million in consumer applications, gradually ramping up to 69 million units in 2016, IHS said.



Consisting of a traditional HDD and an integrated NAND flash layer within one self-contained form factor, hybrid HDDs are a new storage option being considered for the super-thin ultrabooks. The Momentus XT hybrid product from Seagate Technology has up to 8GB of single-level-cell NAND and 750GB of memory on two 2.5-inch platters. Seagate rivals Western Digital and Toshiba are also considering hybrid HDDs of their own, with drives containing 8GB or more of NAND cache.



In contrast to hybrid HDDs, cache SSDs are employed as a discrete, separate memory component alongside a HDD, with both elements existing side by side, not together in one housing unit. A sample cache SSD configuration from Acer's Aspire S3 ultrabook carried a 20GB SSD next to 320GB of hard disk space.



"The cache SSD solution was first hit upon by PC manufacturers because the use of a dedicated solid state drive proved too expensive when passed on to consumers in the retail market," said Ryan Chien, analyst for memory & storage at IHS. "However, a combined physical hard disk drive with a smaller cache component allowed PC makers to reap the advantages of faster responsiveness and larger capacities while keeping costs down."



Cache SSDs also offer more advantages than consolidated hybrid HDDs. For instance, discrete cache SSDs and HDDs are much more scalable and efficient for mainstream storage, given the broad selection of drive manufacturers, IHS said. And because SSDs and HDDs have lately been focused on more mobile sizes, few changes are needed for cache SSDs or thin HDDs to keep their manufacturing processes cost effective.



Moreover, the expected evolution of cache SSDs to a swappable mSATA form factor not only helps narrow the convenience advantage currently enjoyed by hybrid HDDs but also facilitates upgradability akin to DRAM modules or USB drives, IHS noted. HDDs sized 7mm are available with 500GB in 2.5-inch platters, with a 5mm z-height as the next step, while hybrid HDDs are still 9mm high. SATA SSDs are also getting denser, and NAND on the motherboard is becoming more feasible.



Such benefits overall highlight the strength of discrete, dedicated hardware emblematic of cache SSDs over those of hybrids, which tend to make compromises in exchange for volume implementation, IHS said. Cost concerns, longer design cycles and tighter engineering tolerances in the case of hybrid HDDs also add to their difficulty of use in ultrabooks, IHS added.



As a result, the gain achieved through a consolidated form factor supposed to be a strength of hybrid HDDs will actually be a weakness in a few years as cache SSDs overcome that advantage, IHS said. For their part, cache SSDs will remain as the favored storage solution in ultrabooks, with penetration of the desktop and the rest of the notebook segments anticipated to follow.