NVMe is a protocol, while SSD refers to the underlying storage technology. SSDs are flash-based storage devices that don’t use the spinning metal platters of traditional hard drives, but support the same kind of high-speed interface. USB flash drives weren’t called “SSDs” until relatively recently because they couldn’t even run on SATA 3 until USB started extending its speeds into the 10Gbps range.
NVMe is how the drive communicates with the rest of the system. This allows the device to be directly connected to his PCIe lane on the host computer, allowing much higher transfer speeds than his SATA 3 hovering at 6Gbps. In fact, even later.
SSDs reached the limit of SATA cables speeding up transfer speeds a few years ago, and that’s where NVMe comes in. In addition to the fast data rates of the underlying hardware, NVMe ameliorate the significant overhead of inefficient protocols. SATA was developed in an era of much slower mechanical drives.
NVMe drives for consumer systems mostly come in form factors that eliminate the need for oversized packaging in drive cases. drive. SATA can also be used with M.2. This is because the bare card form factor makes connecting devices easier and cheaper. NVMe drives are also available in many other form factors. B. Full size PCIe slot card or 2.5 inch drive. Common in large enterprise class drives. In the consumer space, M.2 is very popular due to its small size, no external cables, and low manufacturing costs.
