In recent quarters, we have seen a change in the laptop landscape of Intel and Realtek networking options. A few OEMs, particularly Dell, are now implementing Killer networking on devices such as the XPS line of notebooks and their gaming PCs. However, given the gaming roots of the Killer design, it perhaps seems out of place to put a Killer network port into a more business/enterprise aimed device like an Inspiron. To that end, Dell and Rivet Networks have implemented a solution offering the software optimization mechanisms that Killer has developed for select Dell Inspiron models in a package called SmartByte.

At a high level, this is prioritization software aimed squarely for Dell’s business customers and moving to make video the higher priority for network traffic, especially when other software is using the network. In the metrics given for the software, it was claimed that with a concurrent download in place, whereas a base system would only offer a 320×180 Skype video call with 14% lost data packets, with SmartByte in place the system could support 960×540 video with zero lost packages and a 40-50% lower ping. Similarly, when trying to stream video online while hitting the limit on an internet connection, the SmartByte software should give zero stream freezes.

The SmartByte software is designed to work on both Intel and Realtek networking options offered in the Inspiron range, which leads to one obvious question which I put to Rivet Network: if you can do this all in software, why bother offering a physical Killer network solution at all? We were told that the physical solution allows for greater offload and packet examination, both freeing up resources and reducing latency, as well as tracking metrics better for optimization and a few other internal tweaks. The SmartByte software works primarily for video only, and will only work for select system IDs (so there is no instance to install on other machines). Rivet stated that the requirements for this software were for it to be simple, as in ‘one-button’ simple if a user wanted to disable it for some reason.

We were told to expect to see some Dell announcements in the coming weeks and months, with mentions of SmartByte in the marketing materials.

Related Reading

• Kaby Lake Motherboards at $140: MSI Z270 SLI Plus vs. ASRock Z270 Killer SLI
• Linksys WRT32X Gaming Router Announced with Killer Prioritization Engine from Rivet Networks
• Dell Updates XPS 13 with Intel’s Kaby Lake, Killer Wi-Fi, Now Also in Rose Gold
• Rivet Networks Launches the Killer E2500 Network Controller: Website Detection, New UI

Source: AnandTech – Rivet Networks Announces SmartByte for Dell Inspiron Systems

As part of several announcements today, Rivet Networks (the company behind the Killer branded network controllers, and formerly a brand under Qualcomm) is starting their Computex news with software support for upcoming platforms featuring multi-gigabit technologies. In the past few months we have seen network controllers, such as those from Aquantia, supporting new multi-gigabit standards, such as 2.5G and 5G, in a single chip (and some chips support 10G as well). In order to propagate the Killer networking infrastructure moving forward, Rivet is working with their motherboard partners to offer Killer-based software solutions on top of these new multi-gigabit controllers. To start this is a fully software-enabled enterprise tightly coupled to the motherboard vendors and certain multi-gigabit chipsets, but we were told to expect hardware solutions from Killer in the future (time-scale is TBD).

We discussed with Rivet Networks about the software solutions, which will allow users to prioritize traffic and take advantage of lower ping/fewer freezes when the network is being saturated from the same machines, compared to the current hardware solutions available. When using their own silicon and controller, Rivet stated that they are able to do more, offload more, and implement more features without impacting system performance. The software solution does a number of similar things, but it’s not complete. That being said, the venture into supporting certain multi-gigabit chipsets such as the Aquantia ones is a step forward into preparing for their own silicon. It should be noted that the collaboration is more at the motherboard manufacturer level rather than the silicon level, so Rivet has had to peel through documents and test the supported chipsets to see what features they can offer.

In discussions with Aquantia, we are expecting to see more vendors offer the AQtion solutions over the coming months, especially with the launch of several high-end desktop platforms in the mix, and these multi-gigabit solutions should be functionality plus points for some premium models. However, to have the Killer software enabled in the software stack, the motherboard vendor must work with Rivet in order to do so.

With Computex this week, we’re expecting to see motherboards for Intel’s upcoming X299 platform, as well as a sneak peek or two at AMD’s ThreadRipper platform and the new chipset. I expect to see some integrated multi-gigabit solutions there as well.

Related Reading

• Kaby Lake Motherboards at $140: MSI Z270 SLI Plus vs. ASRock Z270 Killer SLI
• Linksys WRT32X Gaming Router Announced with Killer Prioritization Engine from Rivet Networks
• Dell Updates XPS 13 with Intel’s Kaby Lake, Killer Wi-Fi, Now Also in Rose Gold
• Rivet Networks Launches the Killer E2500 Network Controller: Website Detection, New UI

Source: AnandTech – Rivet Networks Announces Killer Support for 10 Gbps Network Controllers

Western Digital on Monday officially launched its first consumer SSDs based on its 64-layer 3D NAND memory. The new drives will be available under the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD and SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD brands and will feature the same controllers, the same capacity points and the same level of performance that one might expect from SATA drives. Western Digital cites reliability and endurance as important selling points of the new SSDs.

After Western Digital acquired SanDisk, it not only got its own NAND flash manufacturing capacities and became one the most diverse suppliers of storage devices, but also obtained multiple product lineups as well as renowned brands. This is where Western Digital ran into its first dilemma. On the one hand, Western Digital needs to promote its own trademark, after all, it is one of two vertically integrated companies in the world that can produce both HDD and SSD products. On the other hand, SanDisk is one of the very well-known suppliers of NAND flash-based devices (including removable storage and SSDs) and many customers trust this brand. Therefore, Western Digital just cannot cease using the trademark and write down millions in goodwill.

Meanwhile, to keep SanDisk products competitive, it has to constantly release new devices under the name and this is where Western Digital ran into its second dilemma. On the one hand, it can keep developing different product lines for both brands, which would mean additional R&D and manufacturing costs, as well as internal competition, but which would further diversify its product lineup. On the other hand, it can unify development of certain product families and then just sell the same products under different brands.

Only time will tell what Western Digital will do with its higher-end and enterprise SanDisk product families, but when it comes to entry-level consumer SSDs, Western Digital decided to go with releasing similar/identical products under the two brands. Such approach makes a lot of sense from the costs standpoint: there is a cut-throat competition on the market of inexpensive SSDs because it is gradually expanding and there are way too many contenders (at least so far) that compete by offering attractive prices of their products, so such strategy makes sense there.

Given the approach just mentioned, the new WD Blue 3D NAND SATA and the SanDisk Ultra 3D drives share not only 64-layer 3D TLC NAND memory chips, but also a Marvell controller (presumably, the 88S1074 or the 88NV1120) with some additional engineering and in-house developed firmware. Both aforementioned ICs support Marvell’s third-gen LDPC-based ECC technology, but the 88NV1120 does not require any DRAM cache to work, lowering BOM of the drives. Western Digital has not confirmed the exact controller it uses, but all modern Marvell SSD ICs support LDPC.

The new products will be available in 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB configurations, but in different form-factors: 2.5″/7mm and M.2-2280 for the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSDs as well as 2.5″/7mm for the SanDisk Ultra 3D SSDs. As for performance, we are talking about up to 560 MB/s sequential read speed and up to 532 MB/s sequential write speed, which is in line with what other consumer-class SATA drives offer nowadays. Since we are dealing with 3D TLC memory here, the firmware uses pseudo-SLC cache to boost write speed, so, write speeds are bursty, depending on how full the cache is. As for random reads and writes, we are looking at 95K IOPS and 84K IOPS, respectively, which is comparable to other mainstream SSDs with the same interface.

Western Digital rates its 3D TLC NAND-based drives for 1.75 million hours MTBF, which is higher than their drives featuring planar TLC memory, but a bit lower than the MTBF number offered by some competing devices. When it comes to total write ratings, Western Digital also seems to be conservative with its 100 TBW for the 250 GB model, 200 TBW for the 500 GB configuration and so on, even in comparison with ADATA’s SU700. Since the new WD Blue 3D NAND SATA and SanDisk Ultra 3D are Western Digital’s first mass market client drives featuring 64-layer 3D TLC NAND chips, it is not surprising that the company decided to go with SATA and moderate reliability/endurance ratings. The firm needs to understand what to expect from mass-production 64-layer 3D TLC NAND on the SSD side of things, which is why it does not want to make big promises. Meanwhile, Western Digital claims in its materials for press that average consumers write about 10 GB of data per day and therefore asserts that its WD Blue 3D NAND SATA and SanDisk Ultra 3D drives will last for years even under heavy workloads.

Western Digital is not very specific about pricing of the drives. 250 GB versions of the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA and SanDisk Ultra 3D SSDs will cost $99.99 (all form-factors) when they are available in Q3 2017, but the manufacturer does not say a word about MSRPs for other configurations.

Related Reading:

• The Western Digital Black PCIe SSD (512GB) Review
• Western Digital Ships Client SSDs Based on 512 Gb 3D TLC NAND Chips
• ADATA Launches the SU700 SSD Range: Maxiotek MK8115, 3D TLC, Up to 960 GB
• Previewing Maxiotek’s MK8115 SSD Controller: Can DRAM-less Drives Make The Cut?
• Mushkin Launches Reactor Armor 3D and Triactor 3D 2TB SATA SSDs: 3D NAND, SM2258

Source: AnandTech – WD Blue 3D NAND SATA & SanDisk Ultra 3D SSDs Launched: 3D TLC NAND, SATA, Marvell