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> That is, unless the CPU comes from some off the shelve design that can't be changed due to volume constraints. Most SSDs (with exceptions like Samsung's) sim

> That is, unless the CPU comes from some off the shelve design that can't be changed due to volume constraints. Most SSDs (with exceptions like Samsung's) simply use SiliconMotion's IP (https://www.siliconmotion.com/products/client/detail https://www.siliconmotion.com/products/client/detail) for their controllers. > But I don't think SSDs have that kind of low volume. If a custom design adds a cent or two to the BOM then it doesn't matter, but when you need to verify that the changes works as intented and that the data isn't corrupted (beyond specifications) that's a lot of cents to be saved. Plus, SiliconMotion can request to TSMC to fabricate it at a lower cost per unit (because there is only one pattern to manufacture) than to customise the controllers for each drive.

wtallis 3y ago
You're vastly overestimating Silicon Motion's market share. Samsung, Micron, Western Digital, SK Hynix(+Intel), and Kioxia all use in-house SSD controller designs for at least some of their product line. Among second-tier SSD brands that don't have in-house chip design or fabrication, Phison is dominant for high-performance consumer SSDs. Speaking about SSD controllers in general: they do use off-the-shelf ARM CPU core designs (eg. Cortex-R series), but those are usually the least important IP blocks in the chip. The ARM CPU cores are mostly handling the control plane rather than the data plane, and the latter is what is performance-critical and power-hungry when pushing many GB/s.