NVM Express protocol appears in OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

The latest update for OS X Yosemite 10.10 arrives with support for NVM Express (NVMe), a new protocol that takes better advantage of the capacities of SSD storage units.

Most of these units currently use the AHCI standard, dating from 2004. The AHCI protocol was originally designed for high latency mechanical storage media, and these new drives with ultra-fast read / write access were obviously not intended, making it impossible to get the most out of them in all circumstances.

Advances in non-volatile storage such as NAND and MRAM memories have led the industry to develop a better software interface for address AHCI limits and go further.

The result of this evolution is found in NVMe, an abbreviation to describe a type of non-volatile memory express and that was developed by an industry consortium with more than 80 members, the development was led by giants such as Intel, Samsung and LSI. NVMe is built specifically for SSD and PCIe NVMe interfaces, this protocol is designed to be able to meet the needs of the industry as we move to future memory technologies, that is, we will probably see how it takes the reins of future RRAM and MRAM which will enter the storage market before 2020.

The biggest advantage of NVMe is its low latency of 2,8 microseconds compared to 6,0 microseconds for AHCI. Thanks to this lower latency, the time of use of the disk will decrease, the computer will spend more time idle and therefore will help in part to obtain a longer battery life. Additionally, there may be some situations where better software support as protocol development progresses further helps with performance.

Apple's first device in supporting this technology is new 12-inch MacBook in addition to being more than likely that future Apple devices will also enjoy NVMe.