Monday, July 26th 2021
Asgard Announces AN4 PCIe 4.0 SSD - 128 Layer 3D TLC NAND, 7,500 MB/s Read
Chinese manufacturer Asgard has announced the company's (and the Chinese market's) first PCIe 4.0 SSD. The AN4 pairs 128 Layer 3D TLC NAND manufactured by YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd) Xtacking 2.0 technology, which uses a two-step manufacturing process wherein both NAND cells and interconnects are manufactured in two separate wafers and then optically fused. The NAND memory is then paired with Innogrit's IG5236 Rainier controller. The AN4 is rated for 7,500 MB/s and 5,500 MB/s sequential read and write speeds and features a "high" TBW endurance rating, though Asgard didn't clarify the exact random performance figures, nor the TBW rating for the SSD. Pricing is similarly up in the air - Asgard has only announced market availability for the 1 TB SSD solution come August, with additional 2 TB and 512 GB capacities being readied to market for a later timeframe.
The manufacturing technology of YMTC results in NAND that's as fast as Micron's latest 192-layer NAND tech, and beats well-established Kioxia's 96-layer technology performance-wise. One Bilibili forum user put the drive through its paces, and discovered that to unlock its full potential, one has to have a system capable of 512 bit maximum payload size (MPS), which is currently only supported by AMD motherboards - maximum Intel MPS currently stands at 256 bit, which "only" enables sequential performance of up to 7,150 MB/s. The user put the AN4 through a variety of tests, including PCMark 10's Drive Performance Consistency Test - a 10 to 20 hours workload marathon that puts more than 23 TB of drives on the SSD. It seems that Chinese manufacturers have achieved parity with the top western manufacturers, meaning there is one more option in the global, high-performance NAND market.
Sources:
Bilibili, via Tom' Hardware
The manufacturing technology of YMTC results in NAND that's as fast as Micron's latest 192-layer NAND tech, and beats well-established Kioxia's 96-layer technology performance-wise. One Bilibili forum user put the drive through its paces, and discovered that to unlock its full potential, one has to have a system capable of 512 bit maximum payload size (MPS), which is currently only supported by AMD motherboards - maximum Intel MPS currently stands at 256 bit, which "only" enables sequential performance of up to 7,150 MB/s. The user put the AN4 through a variety of tests, including PCMark 10's Drive Performance Consistency Test - a 10 to 20 hours workload marathon that puts more than 23 TB of drives on the SSD. It seems that Chinese manufacturers have achieved parity with the top western manufacturers, meaning there is one more option in the global, high-performance NAND market.
11 Comments on Asgard Announces AN4 PCIe 4.0 SSD - 128 Layer 3D TLC NAND, 7,500 MB/s Read
Most of the tools, kitchen utensils, pots & pans, cleaning equipment, etc., that you would find in a general/grocery store are made in China and both look and feel like they would fall apart or break after a couple of weeks use simply because of the low-grade material that is used in the products.
The problem with this new SSD, the company has no history, would you trust them to honor warranty. For my data I'll stick to well established brands.
Powev isn't outrageously old a company (2012) but I swear I ran into a slide with leading RAM sales figures some time last year and Powev was at the top of the food chain together with Kingston, Ramaxel, Team and some others (no particular order).
EDIT: yea here we go www.kingston.com/spain/cn/company/press/article/59057?ArticleTitle=Kingston%20Technology%20Top%20DRAM%20Module%20Supplier%20in%202019%20-%20%2822%20September%29
On the one hand, you have US companies that want to move in there & make big money selling their products in China. Where does that money go? Out of China and into the hands of big US businesses/corporations. This is why I think global trade as it is does more harm to countries than it helps.
On the other hand, China doesn't want to be getting economically looted and controlled by other countries by allowing them to set up shop in their country with little or no strings attached.