Do all appe ssd’s use nvme now?

[patearrings]

A couple of questions about nvme drives.

Are all apple iMac proprietary ssd’s nvme now?

If is how long for? i.e how many years do you have to go back until it doesn’t appear in an iMac?

Is nvme a lot faster than a sata or blade ssd?

Finally once OS X has been installed for a few months, how much space does it take up on an ssd?

Many thanks for any help guys

EDIT: Sorry for the typo in the title, can't change it now

 

[Luis Ortega]

A couple of questions about nvme drives.

Are all apple iMac proprietary ssd’s nvme now?

If is how long for? i.e how many years do you have to go back until it doesn’t appear in an iMac?

Is nvme a lot faster than a sata or blade ssd?

Finally once OS X has been installed for a few months, how much space does it take up on an ssd?

Many thanks for any help guys

EDIT: Sorry for the typo in the title, can't change it now

I'm curious about this as well.
Anybody know?

 

[gusping]

Given the speeds, it's almost certain they do. SATA SSDs max out at 500mbps or so. Only NVME drives can go north of 2000.

 

[curmudgeonette]

Is nvme a lot faster than a sata or blade ssd?

You're mixing three different terminologies:

Today's SSD's commonly come in two form factors: A hard drive equivalent, or a blade.

A blade SSD can be interfaced via SATA or PCIe. (Or Apple's proprietary interface in T2 equipped machines.)

A PCIe interfaced SSD could be either NVME or the older AHCI simulating a SATA interface.

 

[Luis Ortega]

You're mixing three different terminologies:

Today's SSD's commonly come in two form factors: A hard drive equivalent, or a blade.

A blade SSD can be interfaced via SATA or PCIe. (Or Apple's proprietary interface in T2 equipped machines.)

A PCIe interfaced SSD could be either NVME or the older AHCI simulating a SATA interface.

So, does anyone know what is used in the latest iMacs?

 

[curmudgeonette]

So, does anyone know what is used in the latest iMacs?

My 2017 has a proprietary blade connected via PCIe x4 using NVME. I assume the 2019's are exactly the same.

 

[Zandros]

A blade SSD can be interfaced via SATA or PCIe. (Or Apple's proprietary interface in T2 equipped machines.)

I assume the interface from the Intel part of the computer to the T2 is PCIe, and at least the iPhone 6S used an NVMe SSD controller, so it is highly likely that the T2 SSD is also an NVMe drive.

 

[curmudgeonette]

I assume the interface from the Intel part of the computer to the T2 is PCIe, and at least the iPhone 6S used an NVMe SSD controller, so it is highly likely that the T2 SSD is also an NVMe drive.

Yes. I suspect the same. Anyone with a T2 machine could do a quick check and verify how the SSD appears to MacOS.

However, the connection between the T2 and the SSD blades appears to be an Apple proprietary interface. There does not appear to be an SSD controller on the [iMac Pro] blades. There are also a limited number of pins. Ergo, it is some sort of serial interface to raw memory blocks.

I don't know if the Flash chips have an Apple custom interface, or if it is some sort of industry standard. At any rate, it won't be anything that one could find on a regular M.2 or U.2 SSD. If it is an industry standard interface, that creates the hope that a third party will be able to make compatible blades that will have all the performance and features of Apple's SSD!

 

[patearrings]

Yes. I suspect the same. Anyone with a T2 machine could do a quick check and verify how the SSD appears to MacOS.

However, the connection between the T2 and the SSD blades appears to be an Apple proprietary interface. There does not appear to be an SSD controller on the [iMac Pro] blades. There are also a limited number of pins. Ergo, it is some sort of serial interface to raw memory blocks.

I don't know if the Flash chips have an Apple custom interface, or if it is some sort of industry standard. At any rate, it won't be anything that one could find on a regular M.2 or U.2 SSD. If it is an industry standard interface, that creates the hope that a third party will be able to make compatible blades that will have all the performance and features of Apple's SSD!

So does all this mean that Apple's SSD's are faster than anything on the market currently? As it sounds like they are raw memory blocks wired straight onto the logic board?

 

[gilby101]

So does all this mean that Apple's SSD's are faster than anything on the market currently?

The Samsung X5 Thunderbolt SSD is almost as fast and almost as expensive.

 

[gusping]

The Samsung X5 Thunderbolt SSD is almost as fast and almost as expensive.

You can buy the same, or even faster NVMEs from Samsung, look at the 970 evo plus.