Would Thunderbolt connection allow faster speeds from SSD?

[cmdrdredd]

Was thinking on this and I was wondering if the maximum potential of SSD storage was still held back by SATA-III and whether having a SSD that attached to a thunderbolt port with it's theoretical bandwidth being higher, would open up the SSD for faster speeds. I don't think it matters in real world usage, but theoretically would this open up faster read and write speeds?

 

[razel]

Yes it would but it won't be higher than native PCI-E. It may also increase latency since the thunderbolt controller is after PCI-E. Meaning currently most of us have:

PCI-E -> SATA -> SSD

Thunderbolt that is available for SSD would be:

PCI-E -> THUNDERBOLT controller -> THUNDERBOLT device controller -> SATA -> SSD

You're probably hoping for:

PCI-E -> THUNDERBOLT controller -> THUNDERBOLT device controller -> SSD (NAND controller)

but why do that when this is already posssible:

PCI-E -> SSD (NAND controller)

Thunderbolt's primary audience is laptops and makes most sense there.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I understand what you're saying. I wasn't thinking of PCIe SSDs. I was thinking of external solutions. Latency would probably negate some of the benefit.

 

[philipma1957]

I have done a lot of testing. With a lot of t-bolt gear.

The seagate 2.5 inch t-bolt adapter reduces the speed of a sata 3 ssd about 10 percent across the board compared to direct connection to an internal sata 3 jack.

T-bolt chip in cable ---- wire --- t-bolt chip in wire----- seagate controller----sata 3 jack--- ssd.

This slows down any sata 3 ssd. Still it is better with more drives. pegasus r6 for example can run a raid0 with 2 ssds and a raid5 with 4 hdds. lots of speed with the raid0 and safety with the raid 5. this can not work with usb 3

 

[HURRIC4NE]

correct me if im wrong, but MSI is comming out with motherbaords with thunderbolt ports, that do not require you to connect a thunderbolt thing to the pcie... so its direct from SSD to thunderbolt and what not...

 

[paperwastage]

correct me if im wrong, but MSI is comming out with motherbaords with thunderbolt ports, that do not require you to connect a thunderbolt thing to the pcie... so its direct from SSD to thunderbolt and what not...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5829/a-first-look-at-thunderbolt-on-windows-with-msis-z77agd80

it's still connected via PCIe x4 (wiki says thunderbolt is based on displayport+PCIe

the whole point is that PCIe is the "closest" you can get to the chipset/CPU to get max throughput....

unless you create some kind of memory solution (to optimize any kind of SSD write/read access/quirks), and get Intel/AMD to integrate it to the chip/chipset, PCIe will be the best way to hook an SSD up

 

[taltamir]

Yes it would but it won't be higher than native PCI-E. It may also increase latency since the thunderbolt controller is after PCI-E. Meaning currently most of us have:

PCI-E -> SATA -> SSD

good post, but I think this last line here is incorrect.
It is
CPU - > ICH -> SATA -> SSD
without PCI-E being involved.
PIE-E comes off of the CPU and/or the ICH in modern systems.

 

[VirtualLarry]

good post, but I think this last line here is incorrect.
It is
CPU - > ICH -> SATA -> SSD
without PCI-E being involved.
PIE-E comes off of the CPU and/or the ICH in modern systems.

Except, the connection between CPU and ICH is via DMI, which is really just a form of PCI-E. So there's still PCI-E in there somewhere.

 

[groberts101]

Yes.. Thunderbolt will be much faster.

You'll just need to wait for standalone devices(not just enclosures) which are designed and config'd specifically for that interface.

External enclosures using existing SSD inside will surely up the already quite pitiful ante from current external 6G chips(Marvell/ASMedia) and will let a faster 6G SSD fly closer to it's limits but PCI-E will still be king of the hill.

There are many variations being developed right this moment.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5321/oczs-portable-thunderbolt-ssd-lightfoot

 

[taltamir]

Except, the connection between CPU and ICH is via DMI, which is really just a form of PCI-E. So there's still PCI-E in there somewhere.

Oh, good point. And the ICH contains the SATA controller so its not entirely fair to list it separate... so in that regards your original statement was 100% correct. :thumbsup:

 

[Boomhowler]

http://www.pcper.com/news/Storage/CES-2012-OCZ-Shows-Lightfoot-Thunderbolt-External-SATA-Drive

Here it is, the thunderbolt drive without any SATA in sight. Wonderful