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  1. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    Here's a better technical explanation about the VMD: Effectively, the Intel VMD enables virtual HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) for the connected NVMe SSDs, which allows the SSDs to have direct access to the CPU, removing the need for an HBA entirely.
  2. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    This makes perfect sense since manufacturers shouldn't have to provide separate PCIe 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 buses in laptops like they do for desktops. You can think of each VMD port like a fire hydrant, which is a brilliant idea from Intel.
  3. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    My interpretation of all this stuff is each NVMe drive connected to a VMD port is provided full bandwidth from the PCIe bus. So in the case of my Tiger Lake laptop, the Samsung PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe M.2 SSD is effectively connected to a PCIe 3.0 x4 bus.
  4. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    Since the in-depth details about Intel's VMD controller are proprietary, I wouldn't be surprised if Intel is intentionally omitting info. However, here is some additional info I just discovered from the Intel VROC (VMD NVMe RAID) Quick Configuration Guide, section 3, VMD: "Each member of the...
  5. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    FYI; I am a retired Sr. Electronics Design Engineer. Here is my limited understanding about the VMD controller which was copied from a HP white paper entitled "Intel Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC) For NVM Express (NVMe) SSD RAID": • Each VMD controller supports four PCIe x4 NVMe SSDs. • Each CPU...
  6. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    However, it's entirely possible that the VMD controller is dynamically changing speed from PCIe 2.0 x4 to PCIe 3.0 x4.
  7. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    I tried your suggestion about starting HWiNFO64 during a CrystalDiskMark benchmark test, but nothing changed on the VMD controller screen (I even started HWiNFO64 several times during the benchmark test). It's rather curious why Intel is using the VMD controller on 11th gen laptops instead of...
  8. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    According to my 1st HWiNFO64 attachment, the current link width is "Not negotiated." Note that PCIe 2.0 x8 would support 2.2 GB/s sequential reads, but all PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs only support x4; PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs do not support x8.
  9. I

    Tiger Lake VMD Controller question

    I have a HP Pavilion X360 14m-dw1023dx laptop with a Core i5-1135G7 CPU. According to HWiNFO64, this CPU has a RST VMD Controller with a PCIe 2.0 bus (see attachments) which is connected to a Samsung MZVLQ256HAJD-000H1 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe M.2 SSD. Since PCIe 2.0 x4 is limited to 2.0 GB/s, how is...
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