Little by little, the SSD M.2 in PCIe Gen 5 are gaining ground. The release of a new controller competing with the Phison should speed things up.
Let’s be honest, the latest generation M.2 SSDs, in PCI Express 5.0, only represent a tiny part of a market largely dominated by PCIe Gen 3 and Gen 4 models.
There are several reasons for this, but Phison’s near-monopoly on PCIe Gen 5 controllers probably doesn’t help bring prices down. However, the situation should change very soon.
Finally a competitor to Phison on PCIe Gen 5
On the occasion of Computex 2024 organized in Taipei, Taiwan, the Silicon Motion brand presented a product that was interesting to say the least. A product that should put an end to this quasi-monopoly.
Competing with Phison on previous generations of SSD controllers, Silicon Motion had a bit of a “start-up delay” on PCIe Gen 5, but the SM2508 chip appears to be close to being released. If we are to believe the information collected by our colleagues at TechPowerUpthe launch of this PCIe Gen 5 controller is imminent.
Without any SSD manufacturer having clearly announced a date, Silicon Motion seems to believe that the first SSD models to integrate this controller should be marketed at the end of the year.
Better flow rates, better consumption
From the outset, it seems interesting to see another player than Phison in this market segment. This brand was effectively alone since the announcement of the first PCIe Gen 5 SSDs.
In terms of performance, the demonstrations carried out by Silicon Motion during Computex made it possible to highlight very high level speeds, slightly higher than those of Phison’s E26 Max14um controller with gains of 800 MB/s in sequential reading and another 500 MB/s in sequential writing.
Better, this performance seems to be accompanied by better consumption management: we are talking about a total of 7 watts under load for an entire SSD equipped with the SM2508 when an SSD equipped with the Phison E26 can drain up to at 11 watts under load. The Silicon Motion chip would be at the consumption level of the Phison E18, a PCIe Gen 4 controller!
Of course, we will be keen to verify this once the first SSDs equipped with SM2508 arrive on the market. Still, the promise is tempting and could push Phison to rethink his copy.
Source : TechPowerUp
Having fallen into video games at a time when it took a great imagination to see here a football match, there a tank fight in these few bars represented on the screen, I have followed all the developments for forty years. Loyal to the PC, but a fan of all genres, I only have trouble with JRPGs. Otherwise, from the driest turn-based strategy to the most spectacular FPS, including sports simulations or musical games, I can do it all... with a preference for management and games combining several styles. My video game pantheon would consist of three series: Elite, Civilization and Max Payne.
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