14
Technical white paper | HP ZBook 15 G2 Mobile Workstation
SATA to PCIe Technology transition
for SSDs
This section highlights the transition from SATA protocol to PCIe protocol as it
relates to Solid State Storage Devices. A new interface and form factor (M.2)
enables this transition of SSD devices onto the PCIe bus. M.2 provides support
for various devices, one of its primary focuses is on SSDs with support for either
the legacy SATA interface or the quickly developing PCI Express interface. This
transition creates great opportunity for performance improvements of SSDs on
the HP ZBook 15 G2 Mobile Workstation. The HP Z Turbo Drive which is built on
the industry standard M.2 form factor is a PCIe based SSD storage device that
takes advantage of this opportunity. The SSD offering is transitioning from an
mSATA SSD offering on the HP ZBook G1 products to the M.2 SSD, now named
the HP Z Turbo Drive, offering on the HP ZBook 15 G2.
Why the transition from SATA to PCIe?
Today’s SATA HDDs and SATA SSDs have reached a performance ceiling. HDDs are limited by the mechanical nature of the
devices while SATA SSDs are limited by the 6 Gb/s (600 MB/s) ceiling of the SATA bus. Furthermore, the SATA-I/O working
group made a strategic decision to not enhance the performance of the SATA bus, instead opting to shift focus to the
multi-lane capabilities of PCI Express.
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
SATA/SAS 6G
HDDs
SATA SSD:
At performance ceiling
SATA HDD:
At performance ceiling
M
B
/s
SSDs
In order to support multi-lane PCIe devices, a new specification was needed to enable performance improvements of
storage in small devices. The PCI Express M.2 specification was created and provides the needed connectivity to the PCIe
bus providing both a significant performance bump today and performance growth for the foreseeable future.
