• Basics of the NVMe Host Controller Interface model
• The steps for device initialization
• How command queues are set up and managed
• How host software
  • Informs the controller of new commands to execute
  • Learns that commands have been completed
• What commands are defined up to 1.4 spec, and how they work
• Error reporting structures
• Power management options
• Optional PCIe architecture overview on request

Basic Topics (Covered on Day 1)

• Introduction
  • PCIe Overview
  • NVMe concepts and definitions
  • Comparison with SATA
  • NVMe Host-Controller Interface overview
  • HANDS-ON ARBOR LAB: discover register addresses
  • Queue Management
    • Doorbell Head and Tail registers
    • Execution sequence
    • Tracking completion status
• Commands
  • NVMe Admin Commands
    • General Structure of commands
    • Identify command options and results
    • Creation and management of Queues
    • Asynchronous Event Notification
  • HANDS-ON ARBOR LAB: View commands in a queue
  • NVMe IO Commands
    •  Read and Write command structure
    • Optimizing write commands
    • Avoiding write amplification
    • Buffer addressing modes (PRPs vs. SGLs)
    • Priority and Arbitration of commands
    • Completing commands
    •  Handling Metadata (DIF/DIX)
    • Get Features / Set Features – full coverage of features
  • HANDS-ON ARBOR LAB: View get/set features commands, discover queue allocation
• Architecture
  • Error reporting, Error Reporting Structures
    • Asynchronous Events
    • Completion status
    • Log pages
  • Other log pages
  • Firmware updates
  • Controller registers
  • Controller initialization
  • Power Management
  • Reservations

Additional Topics (Requires a 2-day course)

• Summary of changes for 1.3
  • Boot partitions
  • Thermal management by host
  • Write streams
  • Deallocation
  • Virtualization support
  • Debug support – Telemetry, initiated by host or device
  • Self-test options
  • Sanitize command
  • New commands
• Summary of changes for 1.4
  • NVM Sets
  • I/O Determinism
  • Read recovery levels
  • Persistent Memory Region (PMR)
  • Asymmetric Namespace Access (ANA)
  • Namespace write protect
  • Persistent event log
  • Rebuild assist
  • Endurance groups
  • I/O Performance and Endurance Hints
  • Traffic-based Keep Alive
  • Vendor-specific UUIDs
  • Verify - new command
  • Administrative controller
  • SQ Associations
• Other commands
  • Write uncorrectable
  • Write zeroes
  • Compare
  • Dataset management
• PCIe Architecture Overview
  • Introduction
  • Basic operation
  • Transaction types
  • Layers and responsibilities overvie
  • Configuration overview

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