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 Details Upcoming SSDs For Datacenter Including QLC NAND
Intel has finally shared the naming and specifications for their first datacenter SSDs using QLC NAND flash memory, after recently announcing that the then-unnamed drive had entered mass production...
7 by Billy Tallis on 8/3/2018HGST Launches Ultrastar DC SS530 SSDs: 3D TLC NAND, 15.36 TB, SAS 12 Gbps
Western Digital has quietly added its new HGST Ultrastar DC SS530-series SSDs to its lineup of products. The new drives are aimed at mission-critical storage applications, such as financial...
9 by Anton Shilov on 8/2/2018The Silicon Motion SM2262EN SSD Controller Preview: Good And Bad Amplified
Silicon Motion's high-end NVMe controller is being updated as the SM2262EN. It sets new records by improving on the strengths of the original SM2262, but it also exacerbates the...
28 by Billy Tallis on 8/1/2018Toshiba Begins to Construct New BiCS 3D NAND Fab in Iwate Prefecture
Toshiba Memory Corp. this week held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new BiCS 3D NAND flash memory fab, which is located in Japan's Iwate prefecture. Toshiba anticipates construction to...
7 by Anton Shilov on 7/25/2018Samsung Discloses First Details About QLC-Based Client & Server SSDs
It is not a secret that Samsung deliberately avoided QLC NAND with its 64-layer V-NAND flash, in the process citing various reasons. With its 96-layer V-NAND however, the company...
16 by Anton Shilov on 7/25/2018The ADATA XPG SX8200 & GAMMIX S11 NVMe SSD Review: High Performance At All Sizes
With the ADATA XPG SX8200 and the related XPG GAMMIX S11, ADATA has moved past the performance limitations of their earlier NVMe SSDs and finally delivered high-end drives at...
19 by Billy Tallis on 7/25/2018Synology 2018 NAS and Wi-Fi Lineup Sneak Peek
Yesterday we published an interview with Alex Wang, CEO of Synology America, and as part of that interview we were able to get a sneak peak into some of...
14 by Ganesh T S & Anton Shilov on 7/25/2018Next-Gen NAS: An Interview with Alex Wang, CEO of Synology America
At AnandTech, we have been following the consumer and SMB NAS market very closely over the last decade. Synology is one of the leading vendors in this space. Similar...
42 by Ganesh T S on 7/24/2018Toshiba Announces XG6 NVMe SSD With 96L 3D NAND
Toshiba is introducing their first SSD using 96-layer 3D NAND flash memory. The new Toshiba XG6 is an update to their XG5 client NVMe SSD for the OEM market...
9 by Billy Tallis on 7/23/2018The Patriot Evlvr Portable Thunderbolt 3 1TB SSD Capsule Review
Phison introduced a reference design for entry-level Thunderbolt 3 SSDs at the 2018 CES. Patriot was one of the first to announce a product based on the reference design...
19 by Ganesh T S on 7/23/2018Western Digital Begins to Sample QLC BiCS4: 1.33 Tbit 96-Layer 3D NAND
Western Digital has started sampling its 96-layer 3D NAND chips featuring QLC architecture that stores four bits per cell. The chip happens to be the world’s highest-capacity 3D NAND...
40 by Anton Shilov on 7/20/2018Intel Teases Upcoming QLC SSD For Datacenters
Intel has started production of their first datacenter PCIe SSD using QLC 3D NAND flash memory, which stores four bits per memory cell. This isn't a full product announcement...
6 by Billy Tallis on 7/19/2018Western Digital to Shut Down HDD Manufacturing Facility, Increase Production of SSDs
Western Digital this week announced plans to shut down its HDD assembly facility (near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) by the end of 2019, and then sell the property. The factory...
24 by Anton Shilov on 7/19/2018The Phison E12 Reference Design Preview: A Next-Gen NVMe SSD Controller
Phison's latest NVMe SSD controller will soon power a new generation of high-end consumer SSDs that may bring great performance and power efficiency to a cheaper price bracket than...
28 by Billy Tallis on 7/18/2018A DIY Portable Thunderbolt 3 SSD with the TEKQ Rapide and SanDisk Extreme Pro
The emergence of NVMe SSDs in the compact M.2 form-factor, coupled with the rising popularity of Thunderbolt 3, has enabled a new class of portable high-performance flash storage devices...
14 by Ganesh T S on 7/10/2018Samsung Begins Mass Production Of 96L 3D NAND
Samsung has started mass production of their fifth generation of 3D NAND flash memory, which they brand as V-NAND. This new generation bumps the layer count from 64 up...
26 by Billy Tallis on 7/9/2018Marvell Completes Acquisition of Cavium, Gets CPU, Networking & Security Assets
Marvell on Friday announced that it had completed its takeover of Cavium. The combined company will have a broad portfolio of IP and patents that promise to enable the...
15 by Anton Shilov on 7/9/2018The HP EX920 M.2 SSD Review: Finding the Mainstream Sweet Spot
Historically, HP has not been a big player in the consumer storage market. Recently however, the HP brand has been used for several SSDs based on reference designs for...
32 by Billy Tallis on 7/9/2018GIGABYTE Launches CMT4030-Series PCIe 3.0 x8 and PCIe 3.0 x16 SSD Risers
GIGABYTE B2B has launched two PCIe riser cards for M.2 SSDs designed to build ultra-fast storage sub-systems consisting of multiple M.2 drives. The CMT4030-series risers will be available through...
20 by Anton Shilov on 7/6/2018NGD Launches Catalina 2 Programmable SSDs: 16 TB - 32 TB, ARM A-53 Cores
NGD Systems has announced its second-generation SSDs that feature compute capabilities. The Catalina 2 drives come in both 2.5-inch/U.2 and add-in-card form-factors, and are aimed at high-density servers for...
10 by Anton Shilov on 7/5/2018