Show notes
The Solidigm D5-P5430 is the mainstream tier of Solidigm’s QLC data center line. It’s the drive that sits below the capacity-maximizing D5-P5336 and carries a smaller indirection unit for the mixed and small-block write workloads a 16KB-IU drive handles poorly. We reviewed the 15.36TB P5430 at launch in 2023, when the story was the jump from the P5316’s 64KB indirection unit to 4KB and what that did for small-block writes. The 30.72TB E3.S model in the lab now tops the family with an 8KB indirection unit, and it arrives into a very different comparison set: the high-capacity QLC class has moved to 61TB, 122TB, and 245TB drives, several of them on Gen5, while the P5430 is a PCIe 4.0 x4 drive, tested here in the 7.5mm E3.S form factor the family offers alongside U.2 and E1.S. Solidigm rates the family at up to 7,000MB/s sequential read and 3,000MB/s sequential write, up to 971K random read IOPS and 120K random write IOPS, with the 30.72TB model specifically listed at 934.5K random read IOPS and 31.92PBW of endurance, which works out to 0.58 DWPD over the five-year warranty on a 100 percent random write workload. Power is rated at up to 25W active and 5W idle. Solidigm’s pitch for the P5430 has always been density with a TLC-like read profile at QLC cost. The drive carries the enterprise checklist: 192-layer 3D QLC NAND behind Solidigm’s own controller and firmware, PCIe 4.0 x4 with NVMe 1.4c, end-to-end data protection with ECC and CRC active together, power loss protection, secure boot, TCG Opal 2.0 and FIPS 140-2 Level 2 options, OCP 2.0 telemetry, and platform validation on Intel, AMD, Ampere, and NVIDIA. The family spans 3.84TB to 30.72TB in U.2 15mm and E3.S 7.5mm, with E1.S 9.5mm topping out at 15.36TB. Solidigm D5-P5430 30.72TB Specifications Specification Solidigm D5-P5430 30.72TB Platform Overview Capacity (tested) 30.72TB Family Capacities U.2 and E3.S: 3.84TB, 7.68TB, 15.36TB, 30.72TBE1.S: 3.84TB, 7.68TB, 15.36TB Form Factor U.2 15mmE3.S 7.5mm (tested)E1.S 9.5mm Interface PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4c NAND 192-layer 3D QLC Indirection Unit 8KB (30.72TB)4KB (3.84TB to 15.36TB) Performance (vendor rated) Sequential Read Up to 7,000MB/s Sequential Write Up to 3,000MB/s Random 4K Read Up to 971K IOPS (family)934.5K IOPS (30.72TB) Random 4K Write Up to 120K IOPS Power and Endurance Endurance 31.92PBW (30.72TB)Up to 0.58 DWPD, 100% random write Power Up to 25W activeUp to 5W idle Warranty 5 years Features Data Protection End-to-end data protection (ECC and CRC)Power loss protectionUBER tested to 1E-17 Security Secure bootTCG Opal 2.0FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (select SKUs) Management OCP 2.0 log pages and telemetry Platform Validation Intel, AMD, Ampere, NVIDIA Solidigm D5-P5430 30.72TB Performance Drive Testing Platform We use a Dell PowerEdge R760 running Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS as our test platform for all workloads in this review. Equipped with a Serial Cables Gen5 JBOF, it offers wide compatibility with U.2, E1.S, E3.S, and M.2 SSDs. Our system configuration is outlined below: 2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6430 (32-Core, 2.1GHz) 16 x 64GB DDR5-4400 480GB Dell BOSS SSD Serial Cables Gen5 JBOF Drives Compared Solidigm D5-P5430 30.72TB (Gen4 | E3.S 7.5mm) Solidigm D5-P5336 61.44TB (Gen4 | U.2) Solidigm D5-P5336 122.88TB (Gen4 | U.2) DapuStor J5060 61.44TB (Gen4 | U.2) DapuStor R6060 122.88TB (Gen5 | E3.L) Micron 6550 ION 61.44TB (Gen5 | E3.S, TLC) Micron 6600 ION 245.76TB (Gen5 | E3.L) The comparison group is the high-capacity QLC class as it stands today, with one TLC drive included for scale. The P5430 is the smallest drive in the set and the only one below 61TB, and it shares a Gen4 link with the P5336 61.44TB and P5336 122.88TB and the DapuStor J5060, all three in U.2. The DapuStor R6060, Micron 6600 ION, and Micron 6550 ION bring Gen5 links, so where the P5430 keeps pace with them, it’s doing so with half the bus. Only the TLC 6550 ION shares the P5430’s E3.S form factor; the point of the group is to show where a 30TB Gen4 QLC drive lands when the alternatives on the shelf are bigger, newer, or both. FIO Performance Benchmark To measure the storage performance of each SSD across common industry metrics, we use FIO. Each drive undergoes the same testing process, which includes a preconditioning step of two full drive fills with a sequential write workload, followed by steady-state performance measurement. As each workload type being measured changes, we run another preconditioning fill of that new transfer size. In this section, we focus on the following FIO benchmarks: 128K Sequential 64K Random 4K Random 128K Sequential Write (IODepth 16 / NumJobs 1) The P5430 delivered 3,150.2MB/s in the 128K sequential write test, exceeding its 3,000MB/s rating and matching the Solidigm P5336 122.88TB at 3,152.5MB/s for the Gen4 QLC lead. The DapuStor R6060 122.88TB reached 3,920.6MB/s on its Gen5 link, and the TLC Micron 6550 ION 61.44TB sat far above the rest at 10,456.4MB/s. Below the P5430 were the DapuStor J5060 61.44TB at 2,883.1MB/s, the Micron 6600 ION 245.76TB at 2,838.0MB/s, and the Solidigm P5336 61.44TB at 2,503.5MB/s, putting the 30.72TB P5430 312.2MB/s ahead of the 245.76TB 6600 ION. 128K Sequential Write Latency (IODepth 16 / NumJobs 1) Latency followed bandwidth, with the P5430 at 634.5µs, a whisker from the P5336 122.88TB at 634.0µs and behind only the 6550 ION at 191.0µs and the R6060 at 509.7µs. The J5060 at 693.3µs, the 6600 ION at 704.3µs, and the P5336 61.44TB at 798.4µs trailed. 128K Sequential Read (IODepth 64 / NumJobs 1) The P5430 posted 7,132.1MB/s in 128K sequential read, effectively identical to the P5336 61.44TB at 7,132.3MB/s, the J5060 at 7,126.8MB/s, and the P5336 122.88TB at 7,121.6MB/s, and a touch above the drive’s 7,000MB/s rating. All four Gen4 drives are pinned at the same ceiling, and the Gen5 drives run away from it: the 6550 ION at 13,979.7MB/s, the 6600 ION at 12,729.8MB/s, and the R6060 at 11,554.0MB/s. 128K Sequential Read Latency (IODepth 64 / NumJobs 1) The P5430 recorded 1,121.3µs in 128K sequential read latency, tied with the P5336 61.44TB at 1,121.3µs and within 2µs of the J5060 and P5336 122.88TB. The Gen5 drives finished between 571.9µs (6550 ION) and 692.1µs (R6060). 64K Random Write The P5430 opened the 64K random write sweep at 2,359.9MB/s and 37.8K IOPS at 1/1, reached 3,149.9MB/s at 2/1, and then held between 3,090.7MB/s and 3,156.5MB/s across the remaining 16 points of the sweep, peaking at 3,156.5MB/s and 50.5K IOPS at 32/4 and closing at 3,149.6MB/s at 32/8. That’s the same 3.15GB/s write ceiling the 128K test found, and from 2/1 on, the P5430 sat at that level at every queue depth and job count. In the group, the P5336 122.88TB ran a near-identical plateau, from 2,429.9MB/s to 3,182.7MB/s, and the R6060 held between 3,913.8MB/s and 3,916.9MB/s after starting at 3,477.9MB/s. The J5060 stayed close to 2,883MB/s with two dips into the 2,700MB/s range, and the P5336 61.44TB ran between 2,412.9MB/s and 2,721.4MB/s. The 6600 ION swung between 569.1MB/s and 2,999.6MB/s depending on the combination, and finished at 694.8MB/s and 11.1K IOPS at 32/8, while the TLC 6550 ION sat in another class, reaching up to 10,413.1MB/s. 64K Random Write Latency Because throughput was flat, the P5430’s latency scaled almost exactly with outstanding I/O: 26.1µs at 1/1, 39.3µs at 2/1, 79.0µs to 80.5µs at four outstanding, 158.3µs to 161.4µs at eight, 317.1µs to 322.9µs at 16, 633.7µs to 645.2µs at 32, 1,268.6µs at 64, 2,533.9µs to 2,539.5µs at 128, and 5,079.3µs at 32/8. The P5336 122.88TB ended at 5,121.2µs, the J5060 at 5,548.9µs, and the P5336 61.44TB at 6,026.4µs, while the R6060 closed at 4,086.6µs and the 6550 ION at 1,588.0µs. The 6600 ION’s write swings showed up in latency too, at 23,020.7µs at 32/8. 64K Random Read The P5430 climbed from 273.3MB/s and 4.4K IOPS at 1/1 through 1,038.8MB/s at 1/4, 1,951.8MB/s at 1/8, 3,447.6MB/s at 2/8, and 5,591.4MB/s at 4/8, then hit the Gen4 wall at 7,124.8MB/s and 114.0K IOPS at 8/8 and stayed there, within 1MB/s, for the last five points of the sweep. The three other Gen4 drives, the J5060 and both P5336s, topped out at the same 7,125MB/s, and the Gen5 drives cleared it by a wide margin: the R6060 at 13,274.8MB/s, the 6550 ION at 13,204.6MB/s, and the 6600 ION at 11,946.5MB/s. 64K Random Read Latency Read latency for the P5430 started at 228.2µs at 1/1 and stayed between 240µs and 296µs through the eight-outstanding points, then rose to 290µs to 321µs at 16 outstanding, 357µs to 374µs at 32 outstanding, 560.9µs at 64 outstanding, 1,122µs at 128 outstanding, and 2,244.9µs at 32/8 once the drive was bandwidth-bound. The J5060 and both P5336 drives ended within 1µs of the same 2,245µs figure, since all four are saturating the same link; the Gen5 drives finished between 1,204.5µs for the R6060 and 1,467.8µs for the 6600 ION. At the light end, the P5430’s 228.2µs was among the slowest first-access figures in the group, alongside the P5336 122.88TB at 227.5µs, with the 6600 ION quickest at 110.3µs. 4K Random Read The P5430 scaled from 10.0K IOPS at 1/1 to 77.1K at 1/8, 147.0K at 2/8, 273.3K at 4/8, 495.5K at 8/8, and 822.6K at 16/8, then peaked at 975.2K IOPS and 3,809.2MB/s at 32/8. That peak is above Solidigm’s 934.5K rating for the 30.72TB model, and it beat both P5336 drives, at 948.9K for the 61.44TB and 935.8K for the 122.88TB. The single-job points scaled far more slowly, reaching only 130.2K at 32/1, so the drive needs parallel jobs to reach its rating. The Gen5 drives and the J5060 went well past it at 32/8: the 6550 ION at 1.797M, the 6600 ION at 1.727M, the R6060 at 1.656M, and the J5060 at 1.322M. 4K Random Read Latency The P5430’s 4K read latency was 99.8µs at 1/1 and stayed between 102µs and 130µs on the multi-job points through 8/8, while the single-job deep-queue points at 8/1, 16/1, and 32/1 ranged from 166µs to 245µs. It rose to 142.4µs at 16/4, 155.0µs at 16/8, 172.6µs at 32/4, and 261.8µs at 32/8 as the drive approached its IOPS ceiling. The two P5336 drives followed the same curve within a few microseconds and ended at 268.8µs and 272.0µs at 32/8. The 6600 ION had the lowest first-access figure at 52.4µs and the 6550 ION the lowest at the top end at 141.5µs. 4K Random Write The P5430 opened the 4K random write sweep at 81.8K IOPS at 1/1 with 11.8µs of latency, climbed to 134.1K at 1/4, and peaked at 152.5K IOPS and 595.8MB/s at 1/8. After that peak, it held between 111.7K and 149.7K on every remaining combination up to 64 outstanding I/Os, except for a dip to 84.6K on the single-job 32/1 point, and settled at 88.2K at 16/8, 90.3K at 32/4, and 74.2K at 32/8 once 128 or more writes were outstanding. Solidigm rates the drive at 120K, and the P5430 cleared that on nine of the 18 points, all of them between four and 32 outstanding I/Os. It stayed within 7 percent of the rating at 64 outstanding and fell 25 to 38 percent below it at the two deepest queue levels. The closest QLC drive, the 6600 ION, peaked at 113.8K but oscillated between 41K and 114K across the sweep and finished at 41.4K; the R6060 peaked at 51.2K and finished at 30.8K; the P5336 122.88TB peaked at 45.5K and finished at 25.9K. The TLC 6550 ION was the only drive in the same range, at a 116.2K peak and 95.5K at 32/8. The J5060 and the P5336 61.44TB didn’t complete the 4K random write test when this group was originally run, so they’re absent from this chart. 4K Random Write Latency Latency stayed at 11.8µs at 1/1, 19.2µs at 2/1, 29.3µs at 1/4, 51.8µs at 1/8, and 106µs to 126µs at 16 outstanding, then rose with queue depth to 255µs to 378µs at 32, 558µs to 572µs at 64, 1,416µs to 1,450µs at 128, and 3,449.4µs at 32/8. That final figure compares with 2,676.6µs for the 6550 ION, 6,141.0µs for the 6600 ION, 8,295.3µs for the R6060, and 9,859.8µs for the P5336 122.88TB. GPU Direct Storage One of the tests we conducted on this testbench was the Magnum IO GPU Direct Storage (GDS) test. GDS is a feature developed by NVIDIA that allows GPUs to bypass the CPU when accessing data stored on NVMe drives or other high-speed storage devices. GDS moves data directly between the storage device and GPU memory without staging it in system memory, reducing latency and increasing throughput. Traditionally, when a GPU processes data stored on an NVMe drive, the data must first travel through the CPU and system memory before reaching the GPU. This process introduces bottlenecks, as the CPU acts as an intermediary, adding latency and consuming CPU cycles and memory bandwidth. GPU Direct Storage removes that hop by letting the GPU access data directly from the storage device via the PCIe bus, and for AI workloads that stream terabytes through a training or inference pipeline, that direct path is what keeps GPUs from sitting idle on I/O. Our GDSIO sweep runs sequential reads and writes at transfer sizes of 16K, 128K, and 1M across 1 to 128 threads, and we report throughput, IOPS, and average latency for each point. GDSIO Sequential Read Throughput The P5430’s read curve has the shape we’ve come to expect from Solidigm’s QLC controllers: uneven at 16K, then a clean climb once the transfer size grows. At 16K, it opened at 537MiB/s on a single thread, dropped to 166MiB/s at four threads and 179MiB/s at eight, then recovered to 345MiB/s at 16, 501MiB/s at 32, and 808MiB/s at 64, finishing at 1.1GiB/s on 128 threads. That single-thread dip and recovery is the same pattern the P5336 drives and both DapuStors showed in the small-block section, and it left the P5430 in the middle of the group at 16K, well behind the Micron 6600 ION’s 1.9GiB/s at the top end but ahead of the two DapuStors and level with the 6550 ION through the mid-thread range. At 128K, the P5430 moved from 290MiB/s with one thread to 713MiB/s with four, 1.1GiB/s with eight, 1.6GiB/s with 16, 2.0GiB/s with 32, 2.1GiB/s with 64, and 2.3GiB/s with 128. That tracked the P5336 122.88TB almost point-for-point and finished on par with the 6550 ION, but the Gen5 drives pulled away here: the 6600 ION reached 5.3GiB/s, the R6060 4.9GiB/s, and the J5060 3.8GiB/s at 128 threads, with the P5336 61.44TB at 2.8GiB/s. The 1M results are where the P5430’s Gen4 link shows its ceiling. It started at 1.0GiB/s on one thread, jumped to 2.9GiB/s at four and 3.3GiB/s at eight, then flattened at 3.6GiB/s from 16 threads, 3.7GiB/s at 64, and 3.8GiB/s at 128. The plateau from 16 threads onward is the drive running out of bus, and it puts the P5430 in a tight cluster with the three other Gen4 drives: the P5336 122.88TB at 4.1GiB/s and the P5336 61.44TB and J5060 at 4.3GiB/s. The Gen5 pair at the top separated cleanly, with the R6060 and the 6600 ION both at 5.9GiB/s, while the TLC 6550 ION trailed the group at 2.6GiB/s in this test. On a large-block GPU read stream, the P5430 delivers roughly 90 percent of what the larger Gen4 QLC drives do and about two-thirds of the Gen5 leaders. GDSIO Sequential Read IOPS The P5430 peaked at 74.8K IOPS on the 16K workload at 128 threads, which placed it fourth in the group behind the 6600 ION at 130.4K, the P5336 61.44TB at 93.3K, and the P5336 122.88TB at 83.0K, and ahead of the R6060 at 62.6K, the 6550 ION at 62.1K, and the J5060 at 54.7K. The 128K and 1M IOPS curves follow the throughput plateaus above, with the P5430 leveling just under 19K IOPS at 128K and about 3.8K IOPS at 1M once the Gen4 link saturates. GDSIO Sequential Read Latency At the light end of the sweep, the P5430’s single-thread 16K read latency of 27.8µs trailed only the two DapuStors, at 20.2µs for the J5060 and 22.1µs for the R6060, and edged the P5336 61.44TB at 28.4µs. The 6600 ION sat at 38.6µs, and the two drives that struggled at QD1 were the P5336 122.88TB at 82.1µs and the 6550 ION at 90.9µs, both of which pay a first-access penalty the P5430 doesn’t. As thread counts climbed, latency rose with queue depth, as it does for every drive in the group, and at 1M and 128 threads, the P5430 ended up around 33ms, above the Gen5 drives at 21ms but below the…
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