Indilinx Barefoot TRIM firmware is out?

I have been reading on Anand that Indilix has released a TRIM enabled firmware revision for it's Barefoot controller (The one found in Corsair Extreme Series SSD's). Three of the other SSD manufacturers have already released their firmware for their Indilix Barefoot based drives. Whats the ETA on Corsair releasing a TRIM enabled firmware for the Extreme Series SSD's?

 

I just checked. Nope. The firmware updates are still available for other SSD manufacturers using Indilinx Barefoot controllers. No reports of issues.

 

If Corsair isn't going to support TRIM just tell us.:sigh!:

 

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CORSAIR

If you will check the support forums for the other manufacturers you will find HUGE threads about complaints with these firmware updates. These updates are not safe yet. We are not going to offer updates until Indilinx can offer completely stable and fully functional firmwares that do not create bricks.

I would imagine it's in the pipeline, but I would wait a while to see what transpires. There's a lot being asked about the new firmware and it has to be written in a specific way to ensure that there is no conflict between TRIM and the inbuilt Garbage Collection; this is especially relevent to those using the Performance series drives.

 

ATM the X series has its own built in version of TRIM and any new firmware will either have to be one or the other - TRIM cannot exist in an environment that has built in GC as they conflict with each other and could ultimately *brick* your drive.

 

I believe that Corsair are treading carefully before they jump in and release new firmware just because everyone else is - you have to remember that this is all *new* and untested in the real world. An example is one m/f jumping the gun and trying to be clever by releasing a TRIM enabled firmware that was eventually discovered to caused a problem in 64 bit Windows 7; the firmware was removed from download and the m/f had to try and find a way to backward flash the old firmware.

 

Just hang tight and wait and see what develops; after all we've lived this long without TRIM I'm sure a little while longer won't hurt ;-)

I have been reading on Anand that Indilix has released a TRIM enabled firmware revision for it's Barefoot controller (The one found in Corsair Extreme Series SSD's). Three of the other SSD manufacturers have already released their firmware for their Indilix Barefoot based drives. Whats the ETA on Corsair releasing a TRIM enabled firmware for the Extreme Series SSD's?

In which case you will also have noticed that Intel as since withdrawn its firmware update pending further investigation. Ramguy has already confirmed that a firmware update is available to fix the X drive missing problems but they need to have a reliable method of allowing user upgrade. One would also hope that Corsair will test it thoroughly before letting us get our hands on it and unleashing another flood of issues. Sometimes it is good not to be first.....

I'm not in any rush. I use RAID with my HDD's so I'm still waiting on Intel to provide a Matrix Storage driver that will pass TRIM commands to a non-member disk for the SSD. I was merely curious as three of Indilinx's other tier one partner companies have released their Indilix Barefoot TRIM firmware to the public. Time will tell if they jumped the gun but so far there are no reports of any issues with the Barefoot firmware upgrades.

I am sorry as we do not have any updates at this time and as far as I know the new firmware mentioned above had some issues and was or will be pulled until further notice. But we are still working on it.

 

I just checked. Nope. The firmware updates are still available for other SSD manufacturers using Indilinx Barefoot controllers. No reports of issues.

 

If Corsair isn't going to support TRIM just tell us.:sigh!:

so far Indilinx only customized the frimware for one SSD manufacturer to support both TRIM and GC, and the rest of the SSD manufacturers can only get the 1819 TRIM one.

so far Indilinx only customized the frimware for one SSD manufacturer to support both TRIM and GC, and the rest of the SSD manufacturers can only get the 1819 TRIM one.

 

Why would I need both GC and TRIM? TRIM will allow Windows to tell the SSD controller which files are deleted so they can be added to the free block pool. No need for garbage collection.

Why would I need both GC and TRIM? TRIM will allow Windows to tell the SSD controller which files are deleted so they can be added to the free block pool. No need for garbage collection.

 

You can't have both - it has been discovered that the two conflict with each other corrupting the image of the drive. It is now being debated whether to have two versions of the firmware - one that supports TRIM and the other that supports G/C. We'll just have to wait and see what pans out.

Why would I need both GC and TRIM? TRIM will allow Windows to tell the SSD controller which files are deleted so they can be added to the free block pool. No need for garbage collection.

 

you cant have both at the same time, but you can have a choice between TRIM and GC. I believe when you go to different SSD forums, you will notice that only one SSD company has 2 different firmwares for barefoot controller, and the rest of the companies only have 1819 firmware, or doesn't get any new firmware at all. From my understanding of my friends SSD company in China, he told me indilinx does not want to give out 1819 firmware unless you make another controller order through them, and he asked the indilinx representative for another firmware with GC feature, and the representative refused to give out because that one was only written for one company which had a big business with them.

I just checked. Nope. The firmware updates are still available for other SSD manufacturers using Indilinx Barefoot controllers. No reports of issues.

 

If Corsair isn't going to support TRIM just tell us.:sigh!:

If you will check the support forums for the other manufacturers you will find HUGE threads about complaints with these firmware updates. These updates are not safe yet. We are not going to offer updates until Indilinx can offer completely stable and fully functional firmwares that do not create bricks.

Why would I need both GC and TRIM? TRIM will allow Windows to tell the SSD controller which files are deleted so they can be added to the free block pool. No need for garbage collection.

 

I might be wrong but let be define what I think the GC and Trim functions (in a generic sense) do.

 

Garbage collection is the process of combining NAND Flash pages from several NAND blocks into other empty NAND blocks. After the NAND pages (from partially filled NAND blocks) have been combined into other NAND blocks, the released NAND blocks can/should be pre-erased (reset to all ones). If the released blocks are not erased, they would need to be erased (which takes a long time!) before new data can be written into the pages of the block. Garbage collection should be something the SSD firmware does automatically during idle time and the exact algorithm could very among SSD vendors.

 

Trim (If supported by the OS, file system and SSD) is a command sent over the ATA bus to inform the SSD firmware what page(s) (normally 4K Byte NAND pages that map to the 4K Byte default NTFS clusters that constitute a user file) have been released (deleted for example) for (Hopefully) later "Garbage Collection" and Pre-erase.

 

From the above definitions, I conclude that Trim without GC is of little value because the pages would be release by the Trim command but the GC and NAND block pre-erase functions would be required to improve subsequent write performance. I suppose the ATA Trim command sent over the ATA bus could be used to BOTH inform the SSD firmware what NAND pages are no longer needed and initiate the GC function; however, I don't believe the Trim command (as defined in the ATA specs) has anything to do with initiating GC? It's possible the Wear-leveling algorithm could be responsible for erasing empty NAND blocks resulting from the GC function (not logical); likewise, NAND blocks released as a result of the Wear Leveling process need to be pre-erased to improve write performance.

 

Confused!!!

Regards, Ron

 

Comments to straighten out my logic are welcome.

If you will check the support forums for the other manufacturers you will find HUGE threads about complaints with these firmware updates. These updates are not safe yet. We are not going to offer updates until Indilinx can offer completely stable and fully functional firmwares that do not create bricks.

 

Does it imply Indilinx only give out good work to its BIG customer? from another forum, ppl can flash either 1.40 or 1.41 and they havent had any issue on both firmware. I am wondering why that SSD company can have both working TRIM and GC firmwares? and the rest can only have the unstable 1819?

Sounds like it was a special firmware they paid to have developed.

Does it imply Indilinx only give out good work to its BIG customer? from another forum, ppl can flash either 1.40 or 1.41 and they havent had any issue on both firmware. I am wondering why that SSD company can have both working TRIM and GC firmwares? and the rest can only have the unstable 1819?

 

Like Davyc said in his thread, this is the cutting edge of technology. Play with it incorrectly, and you'll get burned.

 

This is also a new frontier for the realm of data storage. They (Indilinx/Samsung) working just as fast as they can to provide updates to their hardware but there are MANY issues that can pop up in the wild (bad ACHI drivers, broken RAID firmware, etc). Corsair is doing it's part by waiting until 99.99% of the bugs are worked out. In the short term, they look like the bad guy but that isn't their aim - they want to stand by their products and offer quality support for those products. In this case, it means wait a little bit and proceed with caution.

 

Those firmware's may look good now, but who knows what will happen when the next gen mainboards come out with newer chipsets? Or when Windows 7 SP1 comes out?

 

Just some food for thought.

Does it imply Indilinx only give out good work to its BIG customer? from another forum, ppl can flash either 1.40 or 1.41 and they havent had any issue on both firmware. I am wondering why that SSD company can have both working TRIM and GC firmwares? and the rest can only have the unstable 1819?

 

I'm not sure where you are getting your information but there are no trouble free firmwares out for these drives. That's why we're not offering one yet.

indilinx Rep told my friends SSD company in China that there would be a final version of 1819, coz he had 1819 from indilinx and it didn't work at all on his first batch.

I'm not sure where you are getting your information but there are no trouble free firmwares out for these drives. That's why we're not offering one yet.

 

I have that SSD and flashed 1.40 without problem and I can flash back and forth to 1.41. So I considered indilinx did a good job than Samsung, I have samsung 256G as well, then I got a good deal from my friend on X256, but after I got it, i couldn't flash any new firmware.

Talking about the information I got, it was from my friend in China, he has a SSD company with both Indilinx and Sanfroce lines, and he told me 1.40 and 1.41 were special made by Indilinx coz that company paid alot to indilinx. When he got 1819 firmware from indilinx, he started producing first batch, 50 pieces, and non of them worked good, so he had to flash back to older verison. He told me there was a way I can put 1.40/1.41 on X256, but I didn't want to void the warranty

Hi Ronan

 

It's good that you have a friend in China that can help you out :-)

 

As for the firmware issues - the 1.40/1.41 firmware you refer to does work for *some* people, but there are others who are having issues with it. I believe I know the company you are referring to and if you go to their support forum you will see that a lot of people are having issues and need to backflash to older firmware.

 

This is where Corsair are taking the lead - in as much as, nothing goes out to our customers until we believe there will be minimum impact or issues; that's my belief and I congratulate Corsair on taking the time and the flak to make sure that we don't end up in tears.

Apparently some companies re-name the Indilinx firmware version number.

forget about 1819, 1848 will be released soon, my friend just send the 1848 frimware to me and I flashed to X256, it works pretty good, all the reading/writing speed are recovered.

FYI you've just voided your warranty.

FYI you've just voided your warranty.

 

yeah, i understand the warranty statement. I use this as my backup drive, so i hope it won't go bad.