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...

Intel Announces Optane Memory M15: 3D XPoint On M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4

The first major hardware update to Intel's consumer Optane M.2 drives is coming soon, with the Optane Memory M15 drive intended for caching use. Compared to the original Optane...

9 by Billy Tallis on 5/29/2019

Toshiba Announces XG6-P NVMe SSD For Client And Datacenter

Toshiba has announced a new variant of their XG6 client NVMe SSD: the XG6-P that adds a 2TB option to the family. The previous XG5 generation of SSDs followed...

0 by Billy Tallis on 5/29/2019

Corsair Announces MP600 NVMe SSD With PCIe 4.0

Now that AMD has kicked off the transition to PCI Express 4.0 in the consumer PC market, peripheral vendors are racing to follow suit. Phison is on track to...

10 by Billy Tallis on 5/27/2019

GIGABYTE Teases PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD in Press Release: 5 GB/s

A press release sent out by GIGABYTE on Friday said that the company would demonstrate one of the industry’s first SSDs featuring a PCIe 4.0 interface at Computex next...

42 by Anton Shilov on 5/24/2019

ADATA Launches XPG Spectrix S40G RGB SSD: Up to 3.5 GB/s and Loads of RGB

When high performance alone is not enough to impress, RGB lights are here to help. ADATA has officially introduced its XPG Spectrix S40G RGB SSD, which offer's the company’s...

10 by Anton Shilov on 5/24/2019

Mushkin’s Helix-L SSDs Available: Pushing the Price of 3D TLC

Mushkin this week said that it had started shipments of its Helix-L SSDs that promise to combine high performance and relatively low prices. The drives use Silicon Motion’s entry-level...

12 by Anton Shilov on 5/22/2019

Silicon Power’s Bolt B75 Pro: An External SSD up to 2 TB, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C

Silicon Power has introduced its new external SSD series that promises to bring together reliability, performance, and compatibility with the latest PCs featuring a USB Type-C interface. The Silicon...

15 by Anton Shilov on 5/22/2019

Kingston Launches Client-Focused KC2000 M.2 NVMe SSD: 96L TLC On SM2262EN

Kingston's latest flagship client/consumer SSD is launching today: the KC2000, which is set to replace the two year old KC1000. The KC2000 was previewed early this year at CES...

3 by Billy Tallis on 5/20/2019

Toshiba Memory & Western Digital Finalize Fab K1 Investment Agreement

Toshiba Memory and Western Digital on Friday announced that they had finalized a formal agreement regarding a joint investment in the K1 manufacturing facility near Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, Japan...

1 by Anton Shilov on 5/20/2019

The Team Group MP34 512GB SSD Review: Refining Phison's NVMe Workhorse

Team Group's MP34 is a high-end NVMe SSD based on the familiar combination of the Phison E12 controller and Toshiba 3D TLC, but the price drops enabled by the...

17 by Billy Tallis on 5/15/2019

Intel Memory Plans: No New NAND Capacity, Wants to Move 3D XPoint Production to China

Like the rest of NAND flash industry, Intel is not particularly happy with oversupply on the market and decreasing prices. The company already said that it would reduce NAND...

29 by Anton Shilov on 5/13/2019

SK Hynix Begins Sampling of 96-Layer 1 Tb 3D QLC NAND

SK Hynix recently started sampling of its 1 Tb 96-layer NAND flash memory devices featuring its PUC 3D QLC architecture. The new 1 Tb chip will enable SSD makers...

14 by Anton Shilov on 5/10/2019

Behind The Scenes: SSD Testing In 2019 With Quarch's HD Power Module

Every so often we are asked for more behind-the-scenes information on how we test products. So now that we've completed some updates to our SSD testing workflow – thanks...

13 by Billy Tallis on 5/9/2019

SMART Modular HRS-T5E: A Ruggedized SATA SSD with AES-XTS 256

SMART Modular has introduced one of the industry’s first ruggedized SSDs based on 3D TLC NAND memory. Aimed at industrial and military customers, the high-reliability 2.5-inch SATA drive incorporates...

4 by Anton Shilov on 5/8/2019

Western Digital Starts Shipments of Client SSDs Based on 96-Layer BICS4 3D NAND

Western Digital has been continuing to ramp up production of its 96-layer BICS4 3D NAND, and the company has already been using this flash memory for various retail storage...

10 by Anton Shilov on 5/1/2019

Retailers Begin Listing 4 TB WD Blue SSD

A number of Austrian retailers have recently begun to list Western Digital’s as-yet-unannounced WD Blue 4 TB SSD. The drive features a SATA 6 Gbps interface and performance you...

25 by Anton Shilov on 4/29/2019

Samsung Denies Existence of 2 TB 970 Pro SSD

In an unusual move, Samsung on Monday denied existence of a 2 TB version of its M.2-2280 970 Pro SSD. The company said that it did not have plans...

20 by Anton Shilov on 4/29/2019

Samsung 970 Pro 2 TB SSD Model Listed

UPDATE: Samsung Denies Existence of 2 TB 970 Pro SSD At least two retailers have begun listing a 2 TB version of Samsung’s 970 Pro SSD. One of the highest...

17 by Anton Shilov on 4/26/2019

Boom to Bust: Memory Makers Plan to Cut NAND Flash Production

A true cyclical market, the NAND flash business goes through periods of booms and periods of busts. Following a very profitable boom year in 2018, it looks like the...

57 by Anton Shilov on 4/26/2019

The Intel Optane Memory H10 Review: QLC and Optane In One SSD

Intel's latest SSD caching solution using 3D XPoint memory is here. This time, the Optane cache is paired with QLC NAND flash, and all bundled onto one M.2 drive...

60 by Billy Tallis on 4/22/2019

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now