SSDs
Western Digital expanded its WD Blue NVMe family of budget SSDs this week with the introduction of the the WD Blue SN5000 series, an updated lineup of SSDs that, among other things, adds a 4 TB model. Being budget drives, the SN5000 series is not going to be a performance monster, but their combination of capacity, reliability, and relatively low price could make them popular both among casual buyers and among enthusiasts looking for relatively cheap bulk solid-state storage. Western Digital's WD Blue SN500 NVMe drives come in an M.2-2280 form-factor and are based around an in-house WD controller (the company rarely discloses their codenames these days). WD's controller is a 4 channel, DRAMless design, which is what we typically see for budget and mainstream...
USB 3.2 Gen 2 Portable SSDs Roundup - Featuring the Samsung T7 Touch and the SanDisk Extreme Pro
External bus-powered storage devices have grown in storage capacity as well as speeds over the last decade. Palm-sized flash-based storage devices with a Thunderbolt 3 interface are capable of...
38 by Ganesh T S on 1/23/2020CES 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: Patriot Goes Big on Bandwidth For New EVLVR 2 TB3 SSDs
At this year's CES, Patriot has introduced an enhanced version of its EVLVR (Evolver) Thunderbolt 3 external SSD. The new drive is set to offer radically improved sequential read/write...
5 by Anton Shilov on 1/10/2020CES 2020: Patriot Demonstrates PXD External SSD w/ USB-C
Among the many storage vendors at this year's CES was Patriot, who was showcasing its upcoming PXD external SSD. The device features a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C interface...
5 by Anton Shilov on 1/9/2020ASUS Going Fast: Quad PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD Storage Add-in Card Hyper M.2
One of the driving features of performance in the high-end desktop space is the creator community: the need for fast CPUs and fast storage is strong, regardless of cost...
19 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 1/9/2020Samsung Launches Portable SSD T7 Touch with Fingerprint Security
Samsung's mass-market external drive, the Portable SSD T-series, was last updated in August 2017 with the introduction of the T5 with 64-layer V-NAND. The Portable SSD T5 came with...
8 by Ganesh T S on 1/8/2020Fire At Kioxia & Western Digital NAND Fab - Impact on Supply to be Minimal
Kioxia has reportedly informed its customers that a production tool at one of its fabs caught fire early on Tuesday. The fire was promptly extinguished and no casualties were...
6 by Anton Shilov on 1/8/2020CES 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 1/7/2020Samsung’s Fab in Hwaseong Suffers Power Outage
Samsung had to stop production of DRAM and V-NAND memory at its fab near Hwaseong, South Korea, due to power outage earlier this week. Damage caused by disruption of...
48 by Anton Shilov on 1/2/2020AnandTech 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 12/31/2019Kioxia: 3D Stacked Storage Class Memory, like 3D XPoint, Isn’t the Future
One of the key battlegrounds of the next decade is going to be storage: density, speed, and demand. Naturally all the major players in the space want to promote...
23 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 12/30/2019OWC Releases Accelsior 4M2 SSD: Quad-M.2 For Over 6000 MB/s
Just in time for the launch of Apple's newly redesigned Mac Pro tower, OWC has introduced the ‘fastest SSD [they've] ever built’, the Accelsior 4M2. The high-end solid state...
24 by Anton Shilov on 12/23/2019Micron Obtains License to Sell DRAM & NAND to Huawei
The inclusion of Huawei into the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List and consequent restrictions to work with the Chinese giant clearly made it much harder for the U.S.-based...
12 by Anton Shilov on 12/19/2019The 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 12/18/2019Samsung to Expand 3D NAND Fab in China
Samsung reportedly plans to invest billions of dollars to expand its 3D NAND production facility in Xian, China. If the company proceeds with the plan, bit production capacity of...
5 by Anton Shilov on 12/17/2019OWC Launches ThunderBay 4 Mini DAS: 4 SATA Bays With SoftRAID, Up to 1.5 GB/s
OWC has introduced a new small form factor high performance, high redundancy DAS for the professional market. The ThunderBay 4 Mini incorporates 4 2.5-inch storage bays, allowing it to...
29 by Anton Shilov on 12/16/2019Western 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 12/10/2019The ADATA Ultimate SU750 1TB SSD Review: Realtek Does Storage, Part 1
Realtek has entered the SSD controller market and scored several design wins with ADATA for retail SSDs. The ADATA SU750 entry-level SATA drive is not as important to their...
54 by Billy Tallis on 12/6/2019