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    Friday, October 22, 2021

    Hardware support: Your SSD's flash chips might be from a scrap smartphone, reported by Chinese blog

    Hardware support: Your SSD's flash chips might be from a scrap smartphone, reported by Chinese blog


    Your SSD's flash chips might be from a scrap smartphone, reported by Chinese blog

    Posted: 21 Oct 2021 02:40 PM PDT

    Source: https://post.smzdm.com/p/aox0kknm/

    Use Google Chrome browser, right click on page, "Translate to English"

    During the ongoing global chip shortage, chips are gold. Products cannot be built without chips.

    The scene is funny -- hundreds of workers in a China factory cut scrap phones open, bake the logic boards to remove storage chips and feed them to a SSD production line.

    What I also learnt, is phones' storage chips have "NAND pins" that allow SSD controllers to bypass the phone's protocol to directly talk with the actual storage.

    First of all, I want to say, why do you want to talk about this all of a sudden? We all know that due to chia mining, enterprise-level SSDs are now out of stock, and some consumer-level SSDs, such as 970EVO, have not been spared. In view of the flurry of demons in the SSD market in the past few years, it is foreseeable that there will definitely be a large number of products made from recycled particles in the future SSD market. So here, it is necessary for you to sort out the difference between various particles and avoid stepping on thunder. This is the original intention of this article. So don't talk nonsense, let's start directly.

    1: Positive film (original pellets)

    The first thing to say is that, in fact, the term "positive film" is our folk name, and particle manufacturers will not use it, including the other particles mentioned below. The name is basically the same. For pellet manufacturers, they only have the difference between qualified and unqualified. So what is a positive film? The so-called positive film refers to the particles independently produced by Micron, Samsung, Toshiba and other particle manufacturers and completely passed their own inspections. This kind of particles will be packaged by the original factory and laser marked, and then sold to other manufacturers, or used in the production of private-label storage products. Kioxia as we know it,Inrad, Western Digital, SanDisk, etc. are all their own brands. Buying these brands of SSD, the particle quality and quality are probably not more worrying. Because the original factory's inspection is very strict, which is related to the reputation of the pellet manufacturer, they will not be ambiguous on this.

    In summary, the positive film is independently produced by the NAND flash memory manufacturer, has passed various tests by the particle manufacturer, and packaged the marked particles. If you have very high requirements for the quality of SSD, please try to buy products with original pellets and high reputation. Of course, the price of original SSD products will be relatively higher, so please buy them according to your budget. The picture below shows the particles packaged by SanDisk's own.

    📷

    2: White film (third-party packaged particles)

    If the name feature film is a folk feature, then white film is even more so. Because for pellet manufacturers, there is no such thing as a white film.

    Most of the definitions of white film on the Internet are also wrong. Most of the information you can find defines white film as: the original film after packaging is detected with defects and eliminated particles. But this statement is actually wrong. This is just one kind of white film, not all of it. Because according to this statement, how many white films are there in the market? And white-chip SSDs are everywhere to tell the truth. Most of the white films defined by individuals are packaged by third-party manufacturers themselves, and are marked with their own laser label particles. Because packaging NAND flash memory is not as complicated as production, many manufacturers have this ability, even some copycat manufacturers (the black film will be mentioned below). We are familiar with ADATA, Phison,Kingston

    focus on brand📷KingstonFans: 3205

    It is an American storage brand founded in 1987 and its headquarter is located in Fangquan Valley, California. Kingston has developed to have more than 2,000 storage products, supporting almost all devices that use storage products from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones.

    • 1887Commodity Encyclopedia
    • 481Good price
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    , Longsys, etc. are well-known manufacturers of self-encapsulated particles. Then you will definitely ask, since they don't produce, where can the pellets come for them to encapsulate? This is actually very simple. Take the large SSD package solution manufacturer Phison as an example. They usually buy wafers directly from NAND manufacturers, inspect them, package them and mark them themselves. This kind of thing does not only exist in NAND flash memory, but also in DRAM memory. For example, the picture below is a M.2 SSD that uses Phison's self-encapsulated particles, which we call white solid state.

    📷

    So now we will usher in the second question: Why does a third-party manufacturer want to encapsulate it by itself, since there are original pellets that can be bought, it is unnecessary to do so? So this is about cost. Before that, I would like to ask a question, in addition to the pellet manufacturers' own brands, how many manufacturers have you seen using original pellets? In fact, this is a very simple thing: pellet manufacturers produce SSDs themselves, and the cost of pellets is the lowest for them because there is no secondary price increase. But it is different for third-party SSD vendors. They buy pellets from pellet vendors and then make SSDs. The cost must be higher than that of their own sons.

    Here is an example from that year. We all know that Samsung does not sell pellets, and Samsung has PM and SM OEM product lines. A large number of OEM solid state PM and SM were purchased by North American and European SSD manufacturers in the form of pellets. After they buy it, they dismantle the flash memory and make it into a solid state, and the cost is lower than buying the pellets directly from the manufacturer. This is also the source of many third-party SSDs of Samsung particles. As for Konka, which used Samsung particles, it should be directly requested by Samsung. After all, the two are very close. Therefore, if third-party manufacturers want to compete with the original SSD and ensure profits, the self-encapsulation road is a must, otherwise it will be a dead end.

    📷

    Then the cost of third-party packaging is lower than that of the original factory, and the quality of the particles is naturally worse than that of the original factory, at least not better than that of the original factory. Because the qualification standards of different manufacturers are different, whether it is the original manufacturer and the third-party package. Maybe the third-party packaging manufacturer can pass the test and package and sell it, but it may not pass the original factory. In addition, the white film sometimes contains the aforementioned particles that cannot be tested by the original manufacturer, but are sold to downstream manufacturers in order to recover the cost.

    To give another simplest example, I posted a test of SX8200Pro a few days ago. Two 2TB SSDs are the same except for flash memory. The running score of ADATA's own particles is not as good as Micron's large S particles. Big S, I will talk about it separately later.

    But even so, there is no need to worry too much about the solid quality of the white tablets, as long as the brand is reliable (except for a large U disk factory). For example, Phison, asPirate Ship, Seagate, GALAXY and other dozens of manufacturers of packaging solution providers, Phison will not smash its own brand. The real thing to worry about is the white-chip SSDs of those small factories. God knows how their white-chips are, and maybe even the problem of mixing particles in the production of SSDs can be solved. Don't think about quality. So even if you want to buy a white-chip SSD, try to buy a big brand with more praise. Of course, the high-end of these large white film manufacturers will generally use the original pellets, because there is a premium to support profits, such as Kingston's A2000, which can be found before buying.

    📷

    3: Big S film (Spec Tek packaged Micron's downgraded film)

    In fact, the big S should be classified as a white film, but considering that the big S is special, let's talk about it separately. After all, there are a lot of solid particles with large S particles, and it happens that I can use the large S to explain what is going on with a downgrade film.

    When it comes to Big S, we have to mention Spec Tek. This is a subsidiary of Micron, responsible for handling the garbage in Micron's NAND flash memory that cannot pass the original factory test. This is the only industry in this industry, so it is quite special. To put it bluntly, Big S is a downgrade film of Micron.

    As for the current big S movies, we mainly have two levels, AS and AL, because only these two levels can be used for SSD. AS is roughly equivalent to the worst category in the feature film, but it is still possible. According to the official Spec Tek document, AL can be given to U disk or SD card. For SSD, it can only be given to low-end SSD. AF, AR, SS, etc., can only be used for less demanding devices such as SD cards or U disks. Of course, it does not rule out that copycat manufacturers can use them for SSDs. As for SS, it's out of rubbish

    So you should be able to understand what a downgrade film is when you see this, that is, particles that cannot pass the original factory test, but can be used normally by reducing performance or shielding bad blocks. These particles will be worse in performance, but to be honest, I would rather buy SSDs for AS tablets, because at least Spec Tek will not deceive people. The following figure shows the particle number and classification description of the official Spec Tek document. At present, Guangwei is more widely used with big S,Asgart, ADATA etc.

    📷

    4: ES film (engineering sample)

    In fact, there are not many ES movies that you have encountered, so I will take it all in one stroke. ES, as the name implies, Engineering Sample, engineering sample. A routine with ES CPU.

    The most common ones are Intel's ES films, and Spec Tek will sell some ES films. Except for the big S, these particles shouldn't flow to the market. But there are always various channels that cause these particles to eventually flow to the market and become SSDs for sale. At present, the most common ES tablets that use ES particles are Guangwei, Asgart, and various DIY SSDs. Sometimes the enterprise-level toothpaste factory will have it, such as P4511, S3500. The suffix of this kind of flash memory will have an obvious sign of ES, which is very easy to distinguish.

    This kind of particles that say positive film is not positive film, say white film is not white film, are practical, otherwise Intel would not use it at the enterprise level. At least my DIY SM2246XT+intel ES chip is still alive and has been used for six or seven years. However, considering that there are few such products, there is no need to be too entangled with ES particles, as long as they are all in one batch, it is not a big problem. For example, the picture below shows the disassembly of S3500, with obvious ES logo on the particles.

    📷

    5: Disassemble the machine piece (all kinds of recycled particles, semi-garbage)

    In fact, SSDs for disassembled tablets are rare now, but in the past few years when NAND flash memory was in short supply, it was a frequent visitor.

    The dismantling piece is simply called the flash memory that has been recycled and disassembled. The source of this type of flash memory may be a broken SSD, such as Intel's enterprise-level SSD (because SSDs are hard to break particles, and they are all bad masters), or they may be flash memory on mobile phones, such as UFS or EMMC. Although these two are considered SSDs in a strict sense, in order to facilitate testing, both UFS and EMMC have reserved contacts so that testers can bypass the main control and directly access the flash memory. Two years ago, a certain brand of SSD used a disassembled UFS to make an SSD. As for which one, I won't say, I don't trouble myself, anyway, there are many.

    Although the disassembly film may be relatively positive, I still do not recommend buying any SSD made of the disassembly film. Because there is no guarantee, this is why almost only copycat factories are doing this. Of course, some brands are also doing this. How much the life of the disassembled chip is used, the main control is unable to read, naturally it is impossible to balance the wear of each particle to write, and ultimately lead to the sudden death of the SSD during use. But this is not the most terrible, because the disassembled pieces are all mixed together after the disassembly, and there is no guarantee that they are a batch of particles when used, and the working voltage may be completely different between different batches, which can lead to SSD The performance is poor, and the most important thing is that the SSD will die soon after use. At present, these particles are generally matched with Phison or Huirong's master, because these two support the poor particles very well.

    The way to avoid these particles is very simple, don't try to buy a small factory or DIY at a low price. For example, the picture below is a flash memory made of disassembled UFS particles that a certain old man bought.

    📷

    6: Black film (unqualified film, one of the real garbage)

    The first time I came into contact with the term black film was in 2011. At that time, OCZ's SSDs were still selling well in the market, but OCZ was the manufacturer that used the most black films. Eventually, OCZ went bankrupt due to the high repair rate.

    The term "black film" is actually the same as white film. It belongs to the folk name. The real name should be a substandard film. And these particles shouldn't flow into the market at all. Most of them are products eliminated by the particle manufacturers at the beginning of the test, and they are not even qualified to enter the garbage collection station of Spec Tek (of course, there are also Spec Tek picking up. Trash). Therefore, SSDs made with black films must not be touched, because they may die suddenly at any time.

    But in the same way, these particles that should have been scrapped flow through various channels to downstream manufacturers (most of them are copycat factories). And these cottage manufacturers often have the ability to encapsulate particles, but the encapsulation process is relatively poor, far inferior to the big white film manufacturers such as Longsys and ADATA. Therefore, the method of distinguishing black films is also very simple. Such particles are often packaged very rough, which has a very obvious texture gap with white films and original films. And most of them are not marked, which is the source of the name black film. The picture below is an SSD with black flake particles, and you can see that the particles are very rough in appearance.

    📷

    7: Scribe film (scrap film, real garbage two)

    The scribed film is just like the black film, it's all rubbish. The name of the scribing sheet is also derived from its appearance. The laser marking of these particles often has several scribing lines to indicate that the particles have been scrapped. At present, there are many manufacturers of scribing chips, and the most common one is Micron, because Micron likes this the most. I have even seen the solid state of the scribing chip made by Yangtze River Storage in the solid state drive bar (below). These particles shouldn't flow to the market, but like the black tablets, they flow into the hands of downstream manufacturers for various reasons and are made into products. Please walk around when you encounter the solid state made by these particles.

    📷

    8: Polishing sheet (good for shoddy, dedicated for fraud)

    The last thing to talk about is the polishing pad. In fact, the polishing sheet is very simple, it is to polish off the original label, and then apply the new label particles. Such particles are often the aforementioned black or scrapped films, and may also be recycled films. If these particles follow the original label, they can easily be found to be unqualified. However, after polishing and marking with a new label, they can be shoddy and disguised as brand new particles. Moreover, the cost of polishing is very low. A chip is only a few hundred dollars for a writing pen, and a marking machine is only two to three hundred. The industry is deeply affected, so I just mention it here, and don't want to trouble myself.

    The method of distinguishing whether it is a real particle is also very simple. The original logo is generally very delicate and the font is clear, and these polished particles are generally not available. After all, the quality of the marking machine is there. The detailed suggestion is to go to Baidu by myself, I won't say more, I still don't want to trouble myself.

    submitted by /u/innofuel
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