Intelligent Power Shield – protecting data against sudden power outage

Intelligent Power Shield

During solid state drive (SSD) operation, data is temporarily stored in the DRAM cache memory. This is done to take advantage of the quick response time of the DRAM to boost the performance of the SSD. As the DRAM cache memory is volatile, an external power supply is required to hold and to flush data.

In a proper power shutdown process, commands are given by the host to the SSD controller that power may be immediately cut. The controller sends an acknowledgement back to the host and then flushes all data that is temporarily stored in the DRAM cache to the NAND flash.