Western Digital WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD User manual

WD Blue™3D NAND SATA SSD
Internal SSD Storage
User Manual

Accessing Online Support
Visit our product support website at http://support.wdc.com and choose from these topics:
▪Downloads — Download software and updates for your WD product
▪Registration — Register your WD product to get the latest updates and special offers at
http://register.wdc.com
▪Warranty & RMA Services — Get warranty, product replacement (RMA), RMA status, and data recovery
information
▪Knowledge Base — Search by keyword, phrase, or Answer ID
▪Installation — Get online installation help for your WD product or software
▪WD Community — Share your thoughts and connect with other WD users at http://community.wdc.com

Table of Contents
_________
Accessing Online Support.................................................................................ii
_________
1 Preface............................................................................................................. 1
Typographical Conventions Used...................................................................................1
Glossary of Abbreviations and Acronyms...................................................................... 1
_________
2 Introduction................................................................................................... 2
General Description.........................................................................................................2
Key Features.....................................................................................................................2
Functional Description.....................................................................................................4
Advanced Flash Management.........................................................................................4
Defect and Error Management...........................................................................................4
Wear Leveling......................................................................................................................4
Bad Block Management...................................................................................................... 5
Background Garbage Collection....................................................................................... 5
Tiered Caching.................................................................................................................... 5
Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC)......................................................................................5
Advanced Power Management.......................................................................................5
_________
3 General Product Specifications....................................................................7
Interface............................................................................................................................ 7
Hardware Configuration..................................................................................................7
Storage Capacity............................................................................................................. 7
_________
4 Performance...................................................................................................9
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD 2.5"/7mm Cased...........................................................9
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280.........................................................................9
_________
5 Power Characteristics..................................................................................10
Supply Voltage............................................................................................................... 10
Average Active Power Consumption........................................................................... 10
Average Maximum Operating Power Consumption.................................................... 11
Peak Power and Maximum Current Consumption........................................................11
Maximum In-Rush Current Power Consumption..........................................................12
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual i

Low Power Consumption Modes..................................................................................12
Power Mode Transition Times....................................................................................... 13
Graceful Power-off Requirements.................................................................................13
_________
6 Thermal Throttling........................................................................................14
_________
7 Endurance..................................................................................................... 15
_________
8 Field Firmware Update (FFU)...................................................................... 16
_________
9 Physical Specifications.................................................................................17
SATA 2.5"/7mm Cased Form Factor.............................................................................17
M.2 2280 Form Factor.................................................................................................... 18
_________
10 Environmental Specifications................................................................... 20
Temperature...................................................................................................................20
Humidity......................................................................................................................... 20
Vibration.........................................................................................................................20
Shock.............................................................................................................................. 20
Altitude............................................................................................................................21
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)........................................................................................21
Acoustics.........................................................................................................................21
EMI/RFI Compliance.......................................................................................................21
Chemical Restrictions.................................................................................................... 21
_________
11 Regulatory Standards and Compliance....................................................22
_________
12 Windows Device Certifications................................................................ 24
HCK Certification........................................................................................................... 24
HLK Certification............................................................................................................24
_________
13 Reliability Characteristics..........................................................................25
Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate (UBER)............................................................................25
Mean Time to Failure (MTTF).........................................................................................25
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual ii

_________
14 Interface......................................................................................................26
Supported Standards.....................................................................................................26
SATA Pin Assignments: Signal.......................................................................................26
SATA Pin Assignments: Power......................................................................................26
M.2 Pin Assignments...................................................................................................... 27
_________
15 Supported ATA Commands......................................................................30
Command Set................................................................................................................ 30
Identify Device Data...................................................................................................... 34
Log Pages....................................................................................................................... 38
_________
16 Ordering Information................................................................................. 39
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual iii

1Preface
Typographical Conventions Used
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
▪ Italics – Used to indicate a technically defined term or state.
▪ Constant width – Used to show a literal technical command or response.
Glossary of Abbreviations and Acronyms
DEVSLP Device Sleep
DIPM Device Initiated Power Management
ESD Electrostatic Discharge
FFU Field Firmware Update
HIPM Host Initiated Power Management
IOPS Input/Output Operations Per Second
LBA Logical Block Addressing
LDPC Low-density Parity-check
MTTF Mean Time to Failure
NGFF Next Generation Form Factor
SLC Single Level Cell
SMART Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting
Technology
SSD Solid State Drive
TBW Terabytes Written
TLC Triple Level Cell
Preface
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 1

2Introduction
This product manual describes the functional, mechanical, and interface
specifications for the WD Blue™3D NAND SATA SSD (solid-state drive).
General Description
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD delivers high performance and reliability with low
power consumption in large capacities. It is based on state-of-the-art BiCS3 64L
TLC (triple level cell) flash technology and incorporates the proven tiered caching
architecture designed to improve responsiveness for corporate and consumer
workloads.
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD is optimized for the demanding power
management requirements of Ultrathin and small form factor products. It features
Device Sleep (DEVSLP), more frequent use of low-power modes, and fast transitions
between various power modes.
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD also features a robust error-handling mechanism
technology which uses a page-level striping with distributed parity for an added
layer of data protection. This mechanism thus recovers errors, without interrupting
user data flow that other traditional error correction mechanisms cannot.
Available in either a SATA 2.5”/7mm cased or an M.2 2280 form factor, the WD Blue
3D NAND SATA SSD offers drive capacities of 250 gigabyte1(GB), 500GB, 1
terabyte2(TB), and 2TB.
Key Features
▪ Flash Technology
◦BiCS3 64L 3D TLC
▪ Unformatted Capacities3
◦250GB
◦500GB
◦1TB
◦2TB
▪ Form Factors
◦SATA 2.5”/7mm cased: complies with SFF-8223 and SFF-8201
◦M.2 2280-S2-B-M4: complies with PCI Express M.2 (NGFF) Electromechanical
Specification, rev. 1.0
11 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. Some of the drive capacity is used for formatting and
other functions and is not available for data storage.
21 terabyte (TB) = 1 trillion bytes. Available in both the 2.5”/7mm cased and M.2 2280
form factors.
3Logical capacity of the drive conforms to the IDEMA HDD Specification. See
www.idema.org for details. A portion of the drive capacity is not available for data
storage. 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. 1 terabyte (TB) = 1 trillion bytes.
4250GB, 500GB, and 1TB comply with 2280-S2-B-M, while 2TB complies with 2280-S3-B-
M.
Introduction
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 2

◦M.2 2280 is single-sided for all capacities
▪ Interface to Host
◦SATA III 6Gb/s (rev. 3.2) compliant
◦Backwards compatible with SATA II 3Gb/s and SATA I 1.5Gb/s
◦ATA 8 command set ACS-4
◦NCQ support up to queue depth of 32
◦SMART support
▪ High Performance5
◦Sequential read up to: 560 MB/s
◦Sequential write up to: 530 MB/s
◦4K random read up to: 95,000 IOPS
◦4K random write up to: 84,000 IOPS
▪ Low Power Consumption6
◦Maximum active power: less than or equal to 7,900mW
◦Average power: 60mW
◦Slumber low-power mode: 49.9mW - 56.5mW
◦DEVSLP low-power mode: 4.9mW - 11.9mW
▪ Endurance7
◦Up to 500 TBW
▪ Advanced Flash Management
◦Tiered caching architecture
◦Error-management system
◦TRIM command support
◦Dynamic and static wear leveling
◦Bad block management
◦Background garbage collection
▪ Dynamic Thermal Throttling
◦Performance may be throttled in order to avoid cases where the temperature
exceeds the product allowable temperature envelope
◦Three modes dependent on thermal conditions
▪ High Reliability
◦Mean time to failure (MTTF): Up to 1,752,000 hours
◦Uncorrectable bit error rate (UBER): 1 bit per 1016 bits read
◦Operational and non-operational shock: 1,500G, 0.5ms half sine
◦Operational vibration: 5gRMS, 10–2000 Hz
◦Non-operational vibration: 4.9gRMS, 7–800 Hz
◦Operational temperature8: 0˚C to 70˚C (32˚F to 158˚F)
◦Non-operational temperature and storage8,9: -55˚C to +85˚C (-67˚F to 185˚F)
5Performance measured for 500GB product, using CrystalDiskMark (1000MB LBA range)
on SATA 6Gb/s host.
6Power measured (all capacities) via MobileMark™2014 @ 3.3V on SATA 6Gb/s host
(drive configured, DIPM enabled, HIPM disabled)
72TB capacity using JEDEC client workload (JESD219).
8Operational temperature is defined as ambient temperature around the SSD. It is not
measured from the on-board temperature sensor. It is important to note that on-board
temperature sensor readings are expected to be higher than ambient temperature
when the SSD is placed inside a system.
Introduction
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 3

Functional Description
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD supports the following features:
▪ Support for multi-stream – improves user experience in multitasking systems
▪ Support for TRIM command – sustains drive’s high performance over time
▪ Minimal write amplification – increases endurance and performance
▪ Tiered caching, including use of allocated SLC blocks
▪ Support for ATA register and command set (ATA-8/ACS-4 standard)
▪ SMART feature support
▪ Error recovery using Error Correction Code (ECC)
▪ Self-management of NAND memory defects
▪ Advanced power management for low-power operation, including DEVSLP
capability
▪ Error-management system - provides a last line of data protection
▪ Dynamic and static wear leveling to extend the life of the WD Blue 3D NAND
SATA SSD
Advanced Flash Management
Defect and Error Management
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD contains an enhanced defect and error
management system that is similar to systems found in hard disk drives (HDDs). If
necessary, the device will rewrite data from a defective block to a good block. This
action is completely transparent to the host and does not consume any user data
space.
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD soft error rate specification is superior to the HDD
specification. In the rare case when a read error occurs, the drive uses Error
Detection Code (EDC) and Error Correction Code (ECC) algorithms to recover the
data. These defect and error management systems give it unparalleled reliability.
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD also includes a robust error handling mechanism
which can recover errors that other traditional error correction mechanisms cannot.
This mechanism can leverage a hardware XOR core to calculate the extra parity on-
the-fly with minimal impact in performance.
Wear Leveling
Wear leveling is an intrinsic part of the erase pooling functionality. NAND-based
SSDs use dynamic and static wear leveling and automatic block management to
ensure an even distribution of write/erase cycles throughout the entire device.
These processes guarantee high data reliability and maximize flash life expectancy.
Wear leveling is done between all TLC blocks and separately between all SLC
blocks.
9Non-operational storage temperature does not guarantee data retention.
Introduction
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 4

Bad Block Management
Bad blocks are occasionally created during the life cycle of a flash component.
These bad blocks must be marked and replaced dynamically in order to prevent
read/write failures. When a bad block is detected, the embedded Bad Block
Mapping algorithm removes the block from future use.
Background Garbage Collection
The flash management firmware will perform internal housekeeping activities, such
consolidating and flushing the SLC blocks to the TLC storage or reorganizing the
data in the TLC array or SLC array. These activities are performed in the background
and are transparent to the host, thus improving performance while providing a
seamless user experience.
Tiered Caching
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD uses a tiered caching structure to improve write
performance and endurance.
Modern operating systems typically access the storage device using small access
blocks; the majority of these being 4KB. These access blocks are incongruent with
the physical block size (less than 1MB) of the newer generation of flash memory
technology, and writing directly to the TLC array is also slower than writing to SLC
blocks. To overcome these hurdles, the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD employs three
storage layers:
▪ Volatile cache — DDR DRAM cache
▪ Tiered Caching structure — A non-volatile flash write cache
▪ Mass storage — TLC NAND flash
The tiered caching structure is a pool of X1 blocks which are used as write cache to
accumulate and consolidate all writes at high speed. It works in the background,
then flushes them into the larger X3 storage blocks and uses optimized write
transaction sizes to maximize endurance.
All host data is written to X1 blocks to achieve the highest performance. Three X1
blocks are copied sequentially into one X3 block during the flush to mass storage
when exceeding their threshold.
Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC)
An enhancement introduced with the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD is the low-
density parity-check (LDPC) error correction code (ECC) technology. LDPC
significantly improves reliability over the previous generation of BCH code,
supports progressive levels of error correction, and runs on-the-fly using a
dedicated hardware core to minimize latency and impact on overall drive
performance. Consequently, it uses less power than deeper dynamic read retries.
Advanced Power Management
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD includes an advanced power management
system that supports Device Initiated Power Management (DIPM). Host Initiated
Power Management (HIPM) has been disabled in the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD.
Introduction
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 5

The device can enter in to the SATA Partial and Slumber low-power modes through
DIPM. In DIPM, the device sends a request to the host to enter into Slumber mode
upon completion of any command.
The device also supports the SATA Device Sleep (DEVSLP) mode. For more
information, refer to the SATA revision 3.2 specification available at www.t13.org
Introduction
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 6

3General Product Specifications
Interface
The device interface complies with the Serial ATA standard published by ANSI. It
complies with the SATA 6Gb/s (rev. 3.2) specification and supports ATA-8
Command Set ACS-4. It is also backwards compatible with SATA 3Gb/s (rev. 2.0)
and SATA 1.5Gb/s (rev. 1.0).
For more information, refer to the American National Standard X3.221: AT
Attachment for Interface for Disk Drives document. Order this document from IHS
by calling 1–800–854–7179 or by accessing their web site: http://global.ihs.com
Hardware Configuration
The following table provides the basic hardware configuration values for the WD
Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD.
Form Factor NAND Capacity Memory
2.5"/7mm cased BiCS3 64L eX3 250GB 4 x 2D BGA
2.5"/7mm cased BiCS3 64L eX3 500GB 4 x 4D BGA
2.5"/7mm cased BiCS3 64L eX3 1TB 8 x 4D BGA
2.5"/7mm cased BiCS3 64L eX3 2TB 8 x 8D BGA
M.2–2280 S2 BiCS3 64L eX3 250GB 4 x 2D BGA
M.2–2280 S2 BiCS3 64L eX3 500GB 4 x 4D BGA
M.2–2280 S2 BiCS3 64L eX3 1TB 4 x 8D BGA
M.2–2280 S3 BiCS3 64L eX3 2TB10 4 x 16D BGA
Storage Capacity
The following table provides the storage capacities for the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA
SSD 2.5”/7mm cased and M.2 2280 form factors.
Unformatted
Capacity11
Sectors in LBA
Mode12
Logical Cylinders Number of Logical
Heads
Logical Sectors
per Track
250GB 488,397,168 16,383 16 63
500GB 976,773,168 16,383 16 63
1TB 1,953,525,168 16,383 16 63
10 2TB (16D) height is up to 1.5mm in soldered state
11 A portion of the drive capacity used for formatting and other functions is not available for
data storage.
12 1 Sector = 512 bytes. LBA count based on IDEMA standard.
General Product Specifications
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 7

Unformatted
Capacity11
Sectors in LBA
Mode12
Logical Cylinders Number of Logical
Heads
Logical Sectors
per Track
2TB 3,907,029,168 16,383 16 63
11 A portion of the drive capacity used for formatting and other functions is not available for
data storage.
12 1 Sector = 512 bytes. LBA count based on IDEMA standard.
General Product Specifications
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 8

4Performance
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD 2.5"/7mm Cased
Parameter Unit Queue
Depth
250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
Sequential
Read13 up to:
MB/s 32 550 560 560 560
Sequential
Write13 up
to:
MB/s 32 525 530 530 530
Random
Read [4KB]13
up to:
IOPS 1 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000
Random
Read [4KB]13
up to:
IOPS 32 95,000 95,000 95,000 95,000
Random
Write
[4KB]13 up
to:
IOPS 1 32,000 32,000 32,000 32,000
Random
Write
[4KB]13 up
to:
IOPS 32 81,000 84,000 84,000 84,000
OFF to ON
Resume
Time14
ms N/A 100 100 100 100
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280
Performance values for the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280 form factor are
identical to the performance values for the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD 2.5"/7mm
cased form factor.
13 Measured using CrystalDiskMark, 1000MB LBA range, on Desktop with Intel Z77 chipset,
Windows 8 with Intel iRST version 11.7.0.1013, secondary drive.
14 OFF to ON resume time assumes graceful shutdown. Resume time is measured from
when power is applied to the time when the device is able to complete a host
command, e.g., a 4KB read.
Performance
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 9

5Power Characteristics
This section provides the measured voltage, power, and current consumed by the
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD.15
Supply Voltage
Parameter Specification
Input Voltage: 2.5"/7mm cased 5V ± 5%
Input Voltage: M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5%
Maximum Ripple 100mV (peak to peak), 0Hz to 30MHz
Maximum Supply Rise Time 100ms
Average Active Power Consumption
The average active power consumption
16 is defined as the blended read/write/idle
power used by the drive while in operation with a commonly used operating
system. It is measured using the MobileMark®2014 benchmark with DIPM (Device
Initiated Power Management) enabled. When DIPM is enabled, the drive is allowed
to enter low-power modes during host idle times. This benchmark simulates the
typical usage of user applications in a Windows environment, providing a
reproducible test for measuring average active power consumption.
The following table provides the average active power and average current values
for all WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD storage capacities (250GB, 500GB, 1TB and
2TB).
Form Factor Input
Voltage
Test 250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
2.5"/7mm
cased
5V ± 5% Average
Power
52mW 54mW 66mW 60mW
Average
Current
10.4mA 10.8mA 13.2mA 12mA
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% Average
Power
51mW 49mW 58mW 60mW
Average
Current
15.4mA 14.8mA 17.5mA 18.1mA
15 Power measurements for WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD on SATA 6Gb/s host. Numbers
subject to change during release.
16 Power measurements at 25°C. Based on firmware version with DIPM enabled. Measured
using MobileMark®2014 on PC with Intel®QM87 chipset, Intel®Core™i5–4300M
Processor, 4GB RAM, Windows 8 64-bit.
Power Characteristics
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 10

Average Maximum Operating Power Consumption
Average maximum operating power consumption
17 is measured while the WD Blue
3D NAND SATA SSD is continuously processing sequential read and write
commands (tested separately) for at least 1 minute, with a transfer size of 256
sectors per command (128KB). The sampling interval is 125 milliseconds. This
benchmark is designed to test the worst-case scenario, i.e., when continuous
power is required by the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD during long read or write
command sequences.
Note: The power and current values in the following table are average
maximum with 20% margin.
Form Factor Input
Voltage
Test 250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
2.5"/7mm
cased
5V ± 5% Read: Power 2200mW 2050mW 2550mW 2650mW
Read:
Current
440mA 410mA 510mA 530mA
Write: Power 2250mW 3350mW 3750mW 3800mW
Write:
Current
450mA 670mA 750mA 760mA
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% Read: Power 2200mW 2050mW 2300mW 3000mW
Read:
Current
667mA 621mA 697mA 909mA
Write: Power 2200mW 3300mW 3750mW 3800mW
Write:
Current
667mA 1000mA 1136mA 1152mA
Peak Power and Maximum Current Consumption
Peak power consumption
17is the maximum instantaneous power consumption
measured while the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD is continuously processing
sequential read and write commands (tested separately) for at least one minute
with a transfer size of 256 sectors per command (128KB). The sampling interval is
10µs (microseconds). This benchmark is designed to test the worst-case scenario,
i.e., when continuous power is required by the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD during
long read or write command sequences.
Maximum current refers to the maximum operating power that can be applied
continuously to the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD drive without harming the drive.
Note: The power and current values in the following table are average
maximum with 20% margin.
17 Measured at 25°C. Power consumption can vary due to input voltage and ambient
temperature variation.
Power Characteristics
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 11

Form Factor Input
Voltage
Test 250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
2.5"/7mm
cased
5V ± 5% Peak Power 4300mW 5550mW 7600mW 7900mW
Maximum
Current
860mA 1110mA 1520mA 1580mA
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% Peak Power 4350mW 5650mW 7100mW 7350mW
Maximum
Current
1318mA 1712mA 2152mA 2227mA
Maximum In-Rush Current Power Consumption
Maximum in-rush current refers to the maximum instantaneous power consumption
of the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD drive after a power cycle until all voltage rails
required for operation are stabilized to their nominal values on the drive. The
sampling interval is 10µs (microseconds).
Form Factor Input Voltage Test Maximum In-Rush
2.5"/7mm cased 5V ± 5% 1.5A
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% 1.5A
Low Power Consumption Modes
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD supports the Partial, Slumber, and DEVSLP low
power consumption modes.17
Note: Note: The power and current values in the following table are averages
for a typical WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD drive.
Form Factor Input
Voltage
Power Mode 250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
2.5"/7mm
cased
5V ± 5% Slumber
(Power)
51.4mW 55.4mW 56.0mW 54.5mW
2.5"/7mm
cased
5V ± 5% Slumber
(Current)
10.3mA 11.1mA 11.2mA 10.9mA
2.5"/7mm
cased
5V ± 5% DEVSLP
(Power)
6.9mW 5.7mW 11.9mW 11.9mW
2.5"/7mm
cased
5V ± 5% DEVSLP
(Current)
1.4mA 1.1mA 2.4mA 2.4mA
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% Slumber
(Power)
55.9mW 54.7mW 56.5mW 54.7mW
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% Slumber
(Current)
16.9mA 16.6mA 17.1mA 16.6mA
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% DEVSLP
(Power)
5.1mW 4.9mW 4.9mW 4.9mW
Power Characteristics
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 12

Form Factor Input
Voltage
Power Mode 250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
M.2 2280 3.3V ± 5% DEVSLP
(Current)
1.6mA 1.5mA 1.5mA 1.5mA
Power Mode Transition Times
The following table specifies the transition times between the DEVSLP and active
power states.
Power Mode 250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
DEVSLP (Resume) 72ms 79ms 104ms 131ms
Graceful Power-off Requirements
On most operating systems, Write Cache is enabled by default. This is a feature of
the ATA standard and is not specific to WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSDs. There may
be data residing in the WD Blue 3D NAND cache that have not been written to the
flash memory. To ensure that the data is properly committed to flash memory, the
WD Blue 3D NAND requires a STANDBY IMMEDIATE command before power down.
This command instructs the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD to write all of its volatile
data cache to flash memory and returns a GOOD status to the host after its
successful completion. This command is handled transparently by most operating
systems during the shutdown sequence (e. g., hibernation, shutdown, and
standby).
However, if power is lost without warning – leading to an ungraceful shutdown –
data loss may occur. This may also lead to a longer power-on time for the
subsequent power-up.
Power Characteristics
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 13

6Thermal Throttling
To protect the integrity of the data and prevent excessive heat dissipation, the
X600 3D NAND SATA SSD uses an integrated thermal sensor in the NAND to monitor
its critical component temperature. If the sensor temperature rises above the
allowable limit, system performance is throttled until the temperature decreases to
an acceptable level. The X600 returns to full performance when the temperature
returns to a normal range. This performance throttling technique acts as a safety
measure.
The X600 3D NAND SATA SSD reads temperature from the integrated thermal
sensor every one second. The device then autonomously decides which throttling
level is required and reduces performance appropriate to the state.
The following table details the thermal throttling behavior for both the X600 3D
NAND SATA SSD 2.5”/7mm cased and M.2 2280 form factors.
Thermal Band ≤74°C ≥75°C ≥83°C ≥87°C
Thermal Throttle
State
Normal Light (up to) Heavy (up to) Emergency
Shutdown
250GB Read Refer to
Performance
Section
250 150 No host I/O
available in this
state
250GB Write Refer to
Performance
Section
60 20 No host I/O
available in this
state
500GB Read Refer to
Performance
Section
250 140 No host I/O
available in this
state
500GB Write Refer to
Performance
Section
60 20 No host I/O
available in this
state
1TB Read Refer to
Performance
Section
250 140 No host I/O
available in this
state
1TB Write Refer to
Performance
Section
60 20 No host I/O
available in this
state
2TB Read Refer to
Performance
Section
240 150 No host I/O
available in this
state
2TB Write Refer to
Performance
Section
70 20 No host I/O
available in this
state
Light Thermal Throttle performance is defined has performance defined as 10% of
Normal. Heavy Thermal Throttle has performance is defined as 650% of Normal.
Emergency Shutdown is activated if device temperature is equal to or higher than
87°C for 20 seconds.
Thermal Throttling
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 14

7Endurance
The endurance (longevity) of the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD is calculated using
JEDEC client workload (JESD219). Endurance is a direct function of user workload
and access pattern. Defined in terms of terabytes written (TBW), endurance
represents the amount of data that can be written to the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA
SSD during the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD lifetime and varies by product
capacity.
Refer to the table below.
Parameter 250GB 500GB 1TB 2TB
Endurance 100 TBW 200 TBW 400 TBW 500 TBW
Endurance
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
User Manual 15