Transcend’s 2.5″ SATA III SSD452P and SATA III M.2 SSD MTS952P tap Intelligent Power Shield (IPS) technology to deliver greater stability for industrial applications. Engineered with 3D NAND flash, these two types of solid-state drive (SSD) feature huge capacity by stacking memory cells vertically up to 96 layers for endurance as high as 3K P/E cycles.

Transcend provides extended-temperature models that ensure reliable operations from -20°C to 75°C. In addition to IPS for greater data integrity, the built-in LDPC Error Correction Code (ECC) function guarantees the data can be written correctly in firmware. This feature improves the overall performance in mission-critical applications on servers, workstations, and mobile computing devices.

Why do we need IPS?

When an SSD is in operation, the built-in DRAM cache memory temporarily stores data. This allows faster response time and lower latency while data is being stored to long-term NAND flash. The drawback is that DRAM cache is volatile memory.

If a sudden power outage occurs, data in transit can neither be stored on nor flushed to the flash memory. In this case, data stored on the SSD is not updated, which can lead to a problem with data incompatibility, data corruption, or even total device failure.

Data integrity is what counts: Intelligent Power Shield (IPS)

What is IPS?
Intelligent Power Shield (IPS) is a technology for SSDs with DRAM cache to work at operating voltage to ensure the integrity of data in the event of a sudden power outage.

By adding tantalum capacitors, IPS can prolong the time to complete the flushing process after a sudden power loss. When the power is turned on, these capacitors act as batteries and are charged with electricity from the computer. During an unexpected power loss, the charged tantalum capacitors can continue offering power to the SSD, allowing the data to complete the writing process.

When the voltage drops, how does IPS work?

1. Let’s take the SSD452P for example,
   The voltage detector triggers IPS as soon as the voltage drops from 5V to 4V. At this stage, IPS ensures that data stored in NAND remains intact.
2. The built-in capacitors continue to feed power to the DRAM cache, allowing data to flush to the NAND flash.
3. When the voltage drops below 2.3V, the NAND flash enters a write-protection mode and no more data can be written.

   Thanks to IPS, the SSD has more than 90-100 milliseconds to complete the data flushing process before write-protection mode kicks in. Without IPS, the SSD only has 2 milliseconds.