News

Official NVMe 1.3 Specification Have Been Released

NVM Express, Inc. is the consortium responsible for the development of the NVM Express specification, and they’ve now released the NVMe 1.3 specifications. NVMe 1.2 has been around since 2014, and we’ll probably see NVMe 1.3 specifications arrive around the end or this year, maybe early next year.

S.M.A.R.T.-like Self-Test Feature

One of the new improvements is a self-test feature similar to S.M.A.R.T. which we know from SATA drives. The host machine can now command the drive to perform a self-test, without having to mount any volumes and expose their contents. The self-test parameters can be left up to the drive vendor and could include both hardware and data integrity tests.

Real Boot-Partitions for NVMe

Right now, it is possible to boot from NVMe drives; else my workstation wouldn’t have started this morning. But it isn’t your NVMe drive’s feature, it’s your motherboard’s. As it is now, a small boot partition with the bootloader resides on your motherboard’s SPI flash chip. That is the chip which holds the UEFI firmware. With NVMe 1.3, we get the full support for boot partitions. A feature that I’m sure will be welcomed with open arms.

Drive Sanitation

A new sanitise command is also part of the NVMe 1.3 protocol. It will perform a hardware-level secure-erase which doesn’t just clear the user-accessible NAND. The feature takes care of the controller memory buffer, the overprovisioning area, the DRAM cache, and any other place with your data too. It is a much safer way to destroy all possible data on the drive. If you want to sell it, for example, then you don’t want buyers able to recover your data.

The Full NVMe 1.3 Specifications

The full NVMe 1.3 specifications come in a PDF file with 282 pages. In the case that you’re interested in all the details and technical information, then you’ll be able to find it by clicking here.

Bohs Hansen

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Plaion Launches Retro ZX Spectrum Computer

Plaion, a leading video game publisher, and Retro Games Ltd., a specialist in reimagined classic…

2 days ago

NVIDIA Warns of GeForce RTX 40 Graphics Card Shortages in November and December

During the latest earnings call, NVIDIA CFO Colette Kress warned of a potential GPU supply…

2 days ago

GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 Reportedly Coming in Q1 2025

Chinese sources say the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070…

2 days ago

GTA 6 Already Winning Awards Before Its Launch

GTA 6 doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it has already earned a…

2 days ago

DJI Osmo Mobile 6, 3-Axis Phone Gimbal

Stay on Point with ActiveTrack 6.0 - With upgraded tracking tech, OM 6 sticks to…

2 days ago

Drayton Wiser Smart Radiator Thermostat TRV

Pack includes three Wiser Radiator Thermostats. These smart radiator thermostats are only designed to work…

2 days ago