5 ms·

Hard to tell from appearance only but my initial impression is that's an inductor, not a capacitor. The circuit looks like a switching power regulator. The capa

by bunnie 3y ago

Hard to tell from appearance only but my initial impression is that's an inductor, not a capacitor. The circuit looks like a switching power regulator. The capacitors would be beige with silver ends, this one looks like an over molded inductor, similar to [1], and is used as the main power inductor in a buck regulator. If this is an inductor, my gut reaction is it has an insufficient current rating for the application and it is overheating. Inductors have a bunch of loss mechanisms that contribute to heating. Depending on the type of metal used to build the core, it can 'hard saturate' and effectively walk itself off a cliff once the current draw gets too high. At some point, it gets hot enough to desolder itself from the circuit board. It's possible they did not see this in validation because the power draw of SSDs depend heavily on the work load and process variations in the chips; erase current can have a fairly wide variation. fwiw, voiding of solder joints is a problem. The solder is applied as a paste - fine particles of metal solder suspended in solder flux. During reflow the flux evaporates and leaves the metal behind, but if the process isn't tuned right bubbles of gas can be trapped in the joint. This can lead to reliability problems. It can also increase the effective thermal resistance to the circuit board, which for tiny components like this can often be the primary path for heat removal during normal operation. [1] https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/pulse-electronics/ADCC002016121R5MC1/19200518 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/pulse-electronics...

Scoundreller 3y ago
The article says: > the problem lies in hardware, not firmware, which could explain the lack of corrective firmware updates for those models and SanDisk's continued silence about the source of the issues. But I'd guess a firmware update that slowed down the erase process could let it cool down. But the performance hit. Are they not using charge pumps and these are some of the first SSDs upgraded to on-board inductored boost convertors? These messes could be solved if system power supplies had a 20V rail instead of requiring tiny devices to make it. Maybe an integrated manufacturer (hi apple) will spec out proprietary SSDs like this one day. Charge pumps are cheap and small, but not as efficient (ie: HEAT!): > By using the boost converter with the optimized inductor, the energy during write-operation of the proposed 1.8-V 3D-SSD is decreased by 68% compared with the conventional 3.3-V 3D-SSD with the charge pump. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1594233.1594253 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1594233.1594253 2023 paper: > One of the main causes is the on-die charge pump circuit, which has a low conversion efficiency and induces high heat generation. > Using the in package boost converter, we show that the power consumption can be reduced by up to 39% while the temperature rise can be reduced by 50%. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10145971 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10145971
- dotancohen 3y ago
  > These messes could be solved if system power supplies had a 20V rail instead of requiring tiny devices to make it. Maybe an integrated manufacturer (hi apple) will spec out proprietary SSDs like this one day. Then you'll get people (like me) who will deride Apple for requiring a proprietary component where COTS components are available, calling it an anti-consumer move.
  - Scoundreller 3y ago
    me too, but we're talking about a few extra minutes of battery life here. That's catnip to cat people.
    - jona-f 3y ago
      Oh, if it were also smaller and lighter, we'd be in heaven. If it weren't for the proprietary devil lurking in the corner, showing us a fake heaven while having us in chains, sucking the life of our dreams.
  - sonicanatidae 3y ago
    The last thing the world needs is another proprietary connector. With you on that.
3seashells 3y ago
No vacumoven?

by bunnie 3y ago

Scoundreller 3y ago

The article says: > the problem lies in hardware, not firmware, which could explain the lack of corrective firmware updates for those models and SanDisk's continued silence about the source of the issues. But I'd guess a firmware update that slowed down the erase process could let it cool down. But the performance hit. Are they not using charge pumps and these are some of the first SSDs upgraded to on-board inductored boost convertors? These messes could be solved if system power supplies had a 20V rail instead of requiring tiny devices to make it. Maybe an integrated manufacturer (hi apple) will spec out proprietary SSDs like this one day. Charge pumps are cheap and small, but not as efficient (ie: HEAT!): > By using the boost converter with the optimized inductor, the energy during write-operation of the proposed 1.8-V 3D-SSD is decreased by 68% compared with the conventional 3.3-V 3D-SSD with the charge pump. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1594233.1594253 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1594233.1594253 2023 paper: > One of the main causes is the on-die charge pump circuit, which has a low conversion efficiency and induces high heat generation. > Using the in package boost converter, we show that the power consumption can be reduced by up to 39% while the temperature rise can be reduced by 50%. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10145971 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10145971

dotancohen 3y ago
> These messes could be solved if system power supplies had a 20V rail instead of requiring tiny devices to make it. Maybe an integrated manufacturer (hi apple) will spec out proprietary SSDs like this one day. Then you'll get people (like me) who will deride Apple for requiring a proprietary component where COTS components are available, calling it an anti-consumer move.
- Scoundreller 3y ago
  me too, but we're talking about a few extra minutes of battery life here. That's catnip to cat people.
  - jona-f 3y ago
    Oh, if it were also smaller and lighter, we'd be in heaven. If it weren't for the proprietary devil lurking in the corner, showing us a fake heaven while having us in chains, sucking the life of our dreams.
- sonicanatidae 3y ago
  The last thing the world needs is another proprietary connector. With you on that.

3seashells 3y ago

No vacumoven?