P400E Internals

Once popped open we note the black shim utilized for expanding the P400E into a 9.5mm z-height. For 7mm z-height applications, a simple removal of the shim creates a much thinner form factor. This provides the user flexibility for a number of applications, allowing deployment of the P400E as a boot device for a business laptop or easy integration into server racks.

The blue thermal pad is an important feature of enterprise class SSDs that allows for effective heat dissipation from the Marvell 9174 6Gb/s controller. Heat dissipation is very important in handling the higher temperatures that this SSD will experience in comparison to a typical consumer SSD. The thermal pad, placed against the thick bottom casing of the SSD, allows the Marvell controller to run cooler over the course of its life and increases its lifespan.

The rear of the PCB holds eight IMFT 25nm 29F128G08CFAAB NAND packages. The 256MB DDR3-1333 SDRAM chip, also produced by Micron, is located to the bottom right of the picture.

Removing the thermal pad reveals the Marvell 9174 controller, which is utilized in a multitude of enterprise applications. The IMFT NAND packages each contain 16GB of capacity. With eight packages on the top and eight more on the bottom of the PCB, there is a total of 256GB of raw NAND on the PCB.

Only 200GB is user addressable, due to the hefty 28% of overprovisioning that Micron has employed to smooth out performance and boost longevity.