MTFDDAK1T9TCC-1AR16ABYY Micron 5100 Max 1.92TB SATA 6GBPS SFF Internal SSD

Micron MTFDDAK1T9TCC-1AR16ABYY 5100 Max 1.92TB SSD

Core Series Overview: 5100 ECO, PRO, and MAX

Micron strategically segments the 5100 series into three distinct sub-categories to match specific workload profiles. Understanding these tiers is crucial for proper deployment. The 5100 ECO is optimized for read-intensive applications, offering the most affordable entry point with a lower drive-writes-per-day (DWPD) rating, ideal for boot drives, web serving, and archival storage. The 5100 PRO steps up to a mixed-use profile, handling a balanced blend of read and write operations, suitable for virtualization, databases, and mainstream server applications. The flagship 5100 MAX, which includes the 1.92TB model in focus, is engineered for write-intensive workloads, offering the highest endurance (DWPD) and sustained performance within the series, targeting demanding cloud infrastructure, high-frequency logging, and write-heavy analytics.

Model MTFDDAK1T9TCC-1AR16ABYY: Decoding the Part Number

The part number provides a precise specification breakdown. MTF denotes Micron Technology Formulated. DD indicates a 2.5-inch form factor. AK specifies a SATA 6Gb/s interface. 1T9 reveals the native NAND capacity of 1.92 Terabytes. T confirms the use of 3D TLC NAND. CC is a internal revision code. The suffix 1AR16ABYY further defines the product line (5100 MAX), density, and specific configuration. This granular coding ensures exact identification for procurement and compatibility checks in data center environments.

Key Specifications

This section provides an exhaustive breakdown of the technical attributes that define the performance and capabilities of the Micron 5100 MAX 1.92TB SSD.

Form Factor, Interface, and Capacity

The MTFDDAK1T9TCC-1AR16ABYY drive utilizes the industry-standard 2.5-inch form factor with a 7mm z-height. This allows for seamless integration into existing server bays, storage shelves, and upgrade kits designed for 2.5-inch SATA drives. It is fully compliant with the SATA 3.2 specification, supporting the SATA 6Gb/s interface rate, ensuring broad backward compatibility with server and storage system motherboards and host bus adapters released in the past decade.

Host Interface and Protocol Support

The drive employs a SATA 6Gb/s interface, providing a mature, stable, and widely deployed connectivity standard. It supports the ATA-8 command set with essential enterprise features, including S.M.A.R.T. reporting, Temperature Monitoring, and TRIM. While not offering the peak sequential speeds of NVMe drives, the SATA interface eliminates potential bottlenecks related to PCIe lane availability and offers a cost-effective path to high-density all-flash storage arrays.

Usable and NAND Capacity

The MTFDDAK1T9TCC-1AR16ABYY drive is marketed as a 1.92TB solid-state drive. This usable capacity is presented to the host system. The physical NAND flash capacity is higher, incorporating necessary over-provisioning—reserved space not visible to the host—which is critical for flash management, garbage collection, wear leveling, and sustaining high write performance and endurance over the drive's lifespan.

NAND Flash Memory and Controller

Micron 3D TLC NAND Technology

At the heart of the drive is Micron's proprietary 64-layer (or subsequent generation) 3D TLC (Triple-Level Cell) NAND flash memory. This technology stacks memory cells vertically, achieving greater density, improved reliability, and lower cost per gigabyte compared to planar (2D) NAND. TLC NAND stores three bits of data per cell, offering an excellent balance of capacity, endurance, and performance for enterprise workloads when managed by a sophisticated controller.

Endurance Advantages of 3D NAND

The transition to 3D architecture allows for larger process geometries at the individual cell level while increasing overall density, which enhances data retention and program/erase cycle endurance compared to 2D TLC NAND. This is fundamental to the 5100 MAX's ability to target write-intensive use cases.

Enterprise-Grade SATA Controller

The drive is powered by a purpose-built, multi-core SATA SSD controller designed by Micron. This controller is optimized for managing the complexities of 3D TLC NAND in server environments. Key controller functions include advanced error correction (LDPC), dynamic and static wear leveling across all NAND blocks, bad block management, garbage collection, and handling of the substantial over-provisioning to ensure consistent latency and QoS.

Performance Metrics

Sequential Read and Write Speeds

The Micron MTFDDAK1T9TCC-1AR16ABYY 5100 MAX 1.92TB model delivers maximum sequential read speeds of up to 560 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 510 MB/s. These figures saturate a significant portion of the SATA 6Gb/s interface bandwidth, ensuring fast data transfers for large file operations, backup, restoration, and content streaming tasks.

Random I/O Performance (IOPS)

Random performance is critical for server workloads. This drive is rated for up to 97,000 random read IOPS and up to 36,000 random write IOPS (4KB block size, queue depth dependent). This high random read performance accelerates database queries, virtualization boot storms, and file system metadata operations, while the robust random write performance supports logging, write-back caching, and transactional updates.

Latency

Enterprise drives prioritize consistent latency. The 5100 MAX is engineered to provide predictable low latency for both read and write operations, a key differentiator from client SSDs. Excellent QoS metrics ensure that 99.9% of I/O operations complete within a specified time frame, preventing performance outliers that can stall critical applications in multi-tenant or high-demand scenarios.

Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate (UBER) and Data Integrity

The Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate (UBER) is a critical measure of data integrity. The 5100 MAX meets or exceeds the JEDEC enterprise specification of less than 1 sector error per 10^17 bits read. This is safeguarded by strong end-to-end data path protection, power-loss protection circuits, and advanced LDPC error-correcting code.

Power-Loss Protection (PLP) Implementation

A suite of hardware and firmware features ensures data-at-rest and data-in-flight protection during unexpected power loss. Holdup capacitors provide sufficient backup power for the controller to complete in-progress writes and commit data from volatile caches to the non-volatile NAND memory, preventing corruption.

Target Applications and Use Cases

The combination of high capacity, high endurance, and SATA compatibility makes this drive category suitable for a wide array of enterprise deployments.

Cloud and Hyperscale Infrastructure

As a cost-effective, high-density storage tier for read/write-intensive cloud workloads, including object storage, block storage, and big data analytics platforms where SATA infrastructure is prevalent.

Enterprise Server Boot and Application Drives

Ideal for hosting hypervisors (ESXi, Hyper-V, KVM), operating systems, and applications where fast boot times, low latency, and reliability are paramount. The high DWPD of the MAX model is perfect for servers with significant logging or local swap/cache activity.

Database Storage Tiering

Well-suited for storing hot data in relational (SQL) and NoSQL databases, or for holding database logs (transaction logs, redo logs) which are characterized by continuous, sequential write operations demanding high endurance and consistent performance.

Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and Streaming

The high sequential read performance and capacity make it effective for caching or storing popular media content at the edge of CDNs, accelerating video and software streaming services.

Comparison with Other Storage Tiers

Understanding where the 5100 MAX fits in the broader storage hierarchy aids in technology selection.

SATA SSDs

Unlike client SSDs, the 5100 MAX features significantly higher endurance (TBW), power-loss protection, consistent QoS, and firmware tuned for 24/7 operation. Client drives are not designed for the sustained write pressure and environmental conditions of a server.

Enterprise NVMe SSDs

NVMe drives offer superior bandwidth and lower latency via the PCIe interface. The 5100 MAX SATA drive provides a more economical, high-density solution for workloads where SATA bandwidth is sufficient, maximizing storage capacity per server unit and reducing total cost.

Enterprise SAS SSDs

SAS drives offer dual-port redundancy for high-availability systems. The SATA-based 5100 MAX is a single-port drive, best suited for applications where host-level redundancy (e.g., RAID, distributed storage) is employed, often at a lower price point than equivalent SAS SSDs.