NVMe
Kioxia this morning is rolling out its next-generation of full-size client SSDs, the XG8 family. Like its predecessors, the XG8 is aimed at the OEM market, for customers who are after a full M.2 2280-sized drive and are looking for better performance than the company’s more integrated and compact BG-series drives. Notable features for the latest-generation drive include a PCIe 4.0-capable controller, as well as capacities as high as 4TB. And while we’d normally use the company’s previous-generation drive as a baseline to illustrate what’s new with the latest drive, today’s announcement of the XG8 is a bit weird, even by Kioxia’s own OEM-centric standards. The predecessor to the XG8 is the XG7, which was launched in November of 2020 with a very similar feature...
Kioxia Releases First PCIe 4.0 SSDs: CD6 & CM6
Following through on their roadmap for transitioning to PCIe 4.0, Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Memory) has announced the availability of their first two PCIe 4.0 SSDs. The CD6 and CM6...
4 by Billy Tallis on 2/20/2020Western Digital Roadmap Updates: Energy Assisted Recording, Multi-Stage Actuators, Zoned Storage
Between CES at the beginning of the month, a series of presentations at Storage Field Day last week and a quarterly earnings report this week, we've heard from just...
115 by Billy Tallis on 1/31/2020Enmotus MiDrive: Rethinking SLC Caching For QLC SSDs
For consumer storage, CES 2020 brought a new wave of competition for PCIe 4.0 SSDs and promise of faster portable SSDs, but the most intriguing product demo was from...
44 by Billy Tallis on 1/30/2020CES 2020: ADATA Preparing Three PCIe 4.0 Consumer SSDs
Among a mountain of new product announcements at CES, ADATA previewed three upcoming high-end consumer SSDs supporting PCIe 4.0. These will launch under their XPG gaming-oriented brand, and will...
29 by Billy Tallis on 1/17/2020Phison At CES 2020: Preparing For QLC To Go Mainstream
NAND flash memory prices are projected to climb in 2020. The manufacturing transitions to 96-layer 3D NAND and beyond are not going to increase bit output as quickly as...
10 by Billy Tallis on 1/17/2020CES 2020: Innogrit SSD Controllers Score Multiple Design Wins
Innogrit is one of the latest SSD controller designers to enter the market, having come out of stealth mode and announced their roadmap last August at Flash Memory Summit...
7 by Billy Tallis on 1/17/2020CES 2020: Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD Makes An Appearance
Samsung's booth at CES 2020 includes our first look at their next flagship consumer SSD, the 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD. This would appear to be Samsung's first client/consumer...
55 by Billy Tallis on 1/7/2020AnandTech Year In Review 2019: Solid State Drives
In 2019, flash memory prices have leveled out and have even crept back upward a bit, and new technologies have been slow to roll out, although we are currently...
42 by Billy Tallis on 12/31/2019The ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro 1TB SSD Review: Realtek's Entry-level NVMe Solution
Realtek's second-generation NVMe SSD controllers are ready for prime time, and ADATA decided to try them out. The XPG SX6000 Pro is an entry-level DRAMless NVMe SSD with competitive...
36 by Billy Tallis on 12/18/2019Western Digital Announces WD Blue SN550 SSD
Western Digital is refreshing their NVMe-based WD Blue product line, replacing the WD Blue SN500 with the new WD Blue SN550. The SN550 updates both the controller and NAND...
15 by Billy Tallis on 12/10/2019Seagate Announces FireCuda 520 PCIe 4.0 SSD
Seagate is refreshing their consumer SSD lineup with 96-layer 3D NAND, and introducing a new flagship model: the FireCuda 520, Seagate's first PCIe 4.0 SSD. As with every other...
16 by Billy Tallis on 11/12/2019Crucial Introduces X8 Portable SSD
Micron's consumer brand Crucial is entering the portable SSD market with the new Crucial X8 Portable SSD. The X8 has a USB-C 10Gb/s (USB 3.1 Gen 2) connection and...
7 by Billy Tallis on 10/24/2019Micron Finally Announces A 3D XPoint Product: Micron X100 NVMe SSD
Micron and Intel co-developed 3D XPoint memory as a high-performance alternative to flash, but so far only Intel has brought products to market, under their Optane brand. Despite owning...
30 by Billy Tallis on 10/24/2019Micron Announces 5300 And 7300 Series Enterprise SSDs
Among several announcements today, Micron is updating two families of enterprise/datacenter SSDs to use their latest 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory. SATA Update The new 5300 series SATA drives are...
2 by Billy Tallis on 10/24/2019The Toshiba/Kioxia BG4 1TB SSD Review: A Look At Your Next Laptop's SSD
Today we're taking a look at Toshiba's tiny, OEM-only BG4 SSD. The BG4 is going to become an increasingly common sight in OEM laptops as manufacturers look to save...
31 by Billy Tallis on 10/18/2019Toshiba's Timeline for PCIe 4.0 SSDs
Following up on several announcements from Flash Memory Summit earlier this month, Toshiba has shared more information about their plans for transitioning their NVMe SSDs to PCI Express 4.0...
10 by Billy Tallis on 8/30/2019Western Digital Reveals Ultrastar DC SN340 SSDs for Read Intensive Workloads
Western Digital has introduced its new accelerator drives designed for very read-intensive workloads. The key feature of the Ultrastar DC SN340 Very Read Intensive (VRI) SSDs is their low...
5 by Anton Shilov on 8/7/2019Western Digital Unveils Ultrastar DC SN640 SSDs: Up to 30.72 TB Capacity
Western Digital has announced its new family of enterprise SSDs aimed at mixed-use-case workloads. The new drives use in-house developed components and come in EDSFF E1.L, U.2, and M.2-22110...
14 by Anton Shilov on 8/7/2019Toshiba Introduces New Tiny NVMe SSD Form Factor
Today at Flash Memory Summit, Toshiba is debuting a new form factor for NVMe SSDs that is small enough to be a removable alternative to soldered-down BGA SSDs. The...
28 by Billy Tallis on 8/6/2019Marvell Announces Client SSD Controllers With PCIe Gen4
Last year Marvell announced updated client NVMe controllers that we have not yet encountered in the retail SSD market, but now that the transition to PCIe gen4 is underway...
17 by Billy Tallis on 8/1/2019