SSDs
When Western Digital introduced its Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs earlier this year, the company did not disclose which controller it used for these drives, which made many observers presume that WD was using an in-house controller. But a recent teardown of the drive shows that is not the case; instead, the company is using a controller from Fadu, a South Korean company founded in 2015 that specializes on enterprise-grade turnkey SSD solutions. The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD is aimed at performance-hungry hyperscale datacenters and enterprise customers which are adopting PCIe Gen5 storage devices these days. And, as uncovered in photos from a recent Storage Review article, the drive is based on Fadu's FC5161 NVMe 2.0-compliant controller. The FC5161 utilizes 16 NAND channels supporting...
The 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 10/18/2019Team Group Joins PCIe 4.0 SSD Race with Cardea Zero Z440 Drives
The rollout of AMD’s PCIe 4.0 Ryzen platform has accelerated releases of PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD drives. Team Group this week introduced its versions of SSDs based on Phison’s...
28 by Anton Shilov on 10/9/2019Micron: 128-Layer 4th 3D NAND with RG Architecture Coming Soon
Micron has taped out its first 4th Generation 3D NAND memory devices with its new replacement gate (RG) architecture. The tape out confirms that the company is on track...
10 by Anton Shilov on 10/4/2019Team Group Unveils MP33 SSDs: Entry-Level PCIe Drives
Team Group has introduced its new family of NVMe SSDs aimed at the budget PC market. The new MP33 drives use controllers from Silicon Motion and Phison and will...
10 by Anton Shilov on 10/3/2019Goke Unveils Toshiba XL-Flash-Based NVMe SSDs: Ultra-Low Latency
Goke Microelectronics has introduced its new NVMe SSDs based on Toshiba’s XL-Flash NAND memory. The new drives are aimed at applications that require an ultra-low latency as well as...
8 by Anton Shilov on 10/2/2019ASUS Shows Off ROG Strix Arion: A RGB USB 3.2 Gen 2 M.2 SSD Enclosure
Having extended its ROG products family from motherboards and graphics cards to pretty much everything that could interest demanding gamers and prosumers with deep pockets, ASUS continues to find...
21 by Anton Shilov on 9/27/2019Intel Announces SSD 665p: Denser, Faster QLC NAND
Intel's Memory and Storage Day event today in South Korea was mostly focused on enterprise and datacenter products, but they did announce an upcoming consumer SSD: The Intel SSD...
27 by Billy Tallis on 9/26/2019Intel Shares New Optane And 3D NAND Roadmap - Barlow Pass DIMMs & 144L QLC NAND in 2020
At a press event today in South Korea (?!) Intel shared plans for many of their next round of storage products, including the second generation of Optane enterprise SSDs...
14 by Billy Tallis on 9/25/2019Western Digital to Exit Storage Systems: Sells Off IntelliFlash Division
Western Digital this week announced that it has made a strategic decision to leave the market for dedicated storage systems, as further development of its IntelliFlash and ActiveScale businesses...
8 by Anton Shilov on 9/20/2019ADATA Releases the XPG SX8100 SSD: Make It Fast & Hold the Bling
While many gaming-branded components come adorned in RGB LEDs, there is thankfully still a market for plainer and saner products. To that end, ADATA has introduced its new family...
4 by Anton Shilov on 9/20/2019The TeamGroup L5 LITE 3D (480GB) SATA SSD Review: Entry-Level Price With Mainstream Performance
The TeamGroup L5 LITE 3D is an older SATA drive that has consistently been one of the cheapest drives on the retail market. Since it doesn't cut corners with...
42 by Billy Tallis on 9/20/2019Samsung’s PCIe Gen 4 Enterprise SSDs Get Reliability & Performance Boost
Almost a year after outlining their first roadmap for PCIe 4.0 SSDs, Samsung's first two models are in mass production: the PM1733 and PM1735 high-end datacenter SSDs. Details about...
5 by Billy Tallis & Anton Shilov on 9/20/2019GIGABYTE’s Aorus Gen4 AIC SSD 8 TB Launched: Up to 15 GB/s
After originally showcasing it at Computex a bit earlier this year, GIGABYTE has officially introduced its quad-SSD PCIe 4.0 adapter card, the AORUS Gen4 AIC. Designed house up to...
24 by Anton Shilov on 9/19/2019Giveaway: QNAP TS-932X NAS & Seagate IronWolf Drive Bundle
We’re back this week with another giveaway, this time courtesy of Seagate. After giving away some of their new Ironwolf 110 SSDs a couple of months back, this month...
29 by Ryan Smith on 9/12/2019Patriot Launches Viper VP4100 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs: Up to 5 GB/s
Patriot’s Viper Gaming division this week officially introduced its first PCIe 4.0 SSDs, several weeks ahead of schedule. The Viper VP4100 drives use Phison’s PS5016-E16 controller and generally resembles...
13 by Anton Shilov on 9/12/2019GOODRAM Reveals IRDM Ultimate X: A Lineup of PCIe 4.0 x4 SSDs
GOODRAM has introduced its first SSDs featuring a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface designed for new-generation high-end PCs. Set to be available in 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB...
22 by Anton Shilov on 9/9/2019YMTC Starts Volume Production of 64-Layer 3D NAND
Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) this week said that it had started volume production of its 64-layer 3D NAND memory that uses its proprietary Xtacking architecture. The bhips were...
4 by Anton Shilov on 9/5/2019Samsung Announces Standards-Compliant Key-Value SSD Prototype
Samsung has announced a new prototype key-value SSD that is compatible with the first industry standard API for key-value storage devices. Earlier this year, the Object Drives working group...
48 by Billy Tallis on 9/5/2019Toshiba Memory to Acquire Lite-On’s SSD Business: Gains IP, R&D, Manufacturing Ops
Toshiba Memory, which is set to rebrand as Kioxia Holdings this October, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SSD business of Lite-On Technology Corp. The decision will enable...
10 by Anton Shilov on 9/3/2019Toshiba'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 8/30/2019