Trim

[RainCityMacFan]

ugh.

Then shouldn't the manufacturers write their own drivers to enable TRIM on various operating systems? Just like how graphic card manufacturers do.

One thing I'm curious is, how was Windows/Microsoft able to implement TRIM while OSX/Apple can't?

 

[MikhailT]

ugh.

Then shouldn't the manufacturers write their own drivers to enable TRIM on various operating systems? Just like how graphic card manufacturers do.

One thing I'm curious is, how was Windows/Microsoft able to implement TRIM while OSX/Apple can't?

TRIM requires support on all three points, from the OS to the drive controller to the drive’s firmware. The OS needs to understand the TRIM draft standard, the firmware on SSD needs to pass the TRIM commands and between them, the drive controller has to passthrough the TRIM commands.

Apple knows and validate every SSDs that are sold as BTOs in their Macs, so they can feel safe about supporting the TRIM between the OS/controller and the SSD without any issues.

Windows has genetic TRIM drivers for most of the popular drive controllers and support any SSDs with TRIM support but Microsoft can’t validate all of the SSDs, it is up to the manufacturers to provide the firmware updates to fix any issues with TRIM.

You may have heard that many SSDs have to be flashed a couple of times to fix any issues. SSDs are still famous for firmware issues but they’re getting much better over time.

Eventually over time, TRIM will become an official standard (maybe on its own) and Apple can safely enable it for all incoming new SSDs but I doubt they’ll enable that support any time soon.

 

[axu539]

TRIM requires support on all three points, from the OS to the drive controller to the drive’s firmware. The OS needs to understand the TRIM draft standard, the firmware on SSD needs to pass the TRIM commands and between them, the drive controller has to passthrough the TRIM commands.

Apple knows and validate every SSDs that are sold as BTOs in their Macs, so they can feel safe about supporting the TRIM between the OS/controller and the SSD without any issues.

Windows has genetic TRIM drivers for most of the popular drive controllers and support any SSDs with TRIM support but Microsoft can’t validate all of the SSDs, it is up to the manufacturers to provide the firmware updates to fix any issues with TRIM.

You may have heard that many SSDs have to be flashed a couple of times to fix any issues. SSDs are still famous for firmware issues but they’re getting much better over time.

Eventually over time, TRIM will become an official standard (maybe on its own) and Apple can safely enable it for all incoming new SSDs but I doubt they’ll enable that support any time soon.

This is a perfect answer. I'm still a little baffled as to why the entire TRIM thing wasn't initially introduced as more of a standard from the get-go. Clearly, it's a beneficial and sometimes necessary function, and we'd be way ahead if manufacturers had some sort of standardization.

 

[Atarikid]

Eventually over time, TRIM will become an official standard (maybe on its own) and Apple can safely enable it for all incoming new SSDs but I doubt they’ll enable that support any time soon.

Can you explain why the OWC devs do not advice you to enable TRIM support for their SSDs? As far as I know the Sandforce controller does support TRIM.
It is said OWC SSD do perform lesser when you enable TRIM afterall (with TRIMenabler)

 

[haravikk]

Can you explain why the OWC devs do not advice you to enable TRIM support for their SSDs? As far as I know the Sandforce controller does support TRIM.
It is said OWC SSD do perform lesser when you enable TRIM afterall (with TRIMenabler)

Do their drives have garbage collection? In theory you don't need TRIM and garbage collection, and the two features may actually interfere if activated at the same time.

 

[MikhailT]

Can you explain why the OWC devs do not advice you to enable TRIM support for their SSDs? As far as I know the Sandforce controller does support TRIM.
It is said OWC SSD do perform lesser when you enable TRIM afterall (with TRIMenabler)

Do their drives have garbage collection? In theory you don't need TRIM and garbage collection, and the two features may actually interfere if activated at the same time.

I don't know the full story or what OWC have said but haravikk is right, if Sandforce have IGC (idle garbage collection), TRIM isn't that important to have on and to make it stable, they could recommend it to be turned off. IGC isn't a replacement for TRIM but it is fairly effective.

The other reason might be that there is a known issue with some firmware that would not be compatible with Macs. A small group of people get BSODs on Windows using Sandforce-based SSDs and I believe I have heard of similar issues on Macs.