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Mushkin ALPHA 4 TB

4 TB
Capacity
Phison E12S
Controller
QLC
Flash
PCIe 3.0 x4
Interface
M.2 2280
Form Factor
Front
SSD Controller
Controller
NAND Die
NAND Die
The Mushkin ALPHA is a solid-state drive in the M.2 2280 form factor, launched on December 8th, 2020. It is available in capacities ranging from 4 TB to 8 TB. This page reports specifications for the 4 TB variant. With the rest of the system, the Mushkin ALPHA interfaces using a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 connection. The SSD controller is the PS5012-E12S-32 from Phison, a DRAM cache chip is available. Mushkin has installed 96-layer QLC NAND flash on the ALPHA, the flash chips are made by Micron. To improve write speeds, a pseudo-SLC cache is used, so bursts of incoming writes are soaked up more quickly. The ALPHA is rated for sequential read speeds of up to 3,200 MB/s and 3,000 MB/s write; random IOPS reach up to 550K for reads and 640K for writes.
At its launch, the SSD was priced at 650 USD. The warranty length is set to five years, which is an excellent warranty period. Mushkin guarantees an endurance rating of 900 TBW, a relatively low value compared to other SSDs.

Solid-State-Drive

Capacity: 4 TB (4096 GB)
Variants: 4 TB 8 TB
Overprovisioning: 281.3 GB / 7.4 %
Production: Active
Released: Dec 8th, 2020
Price at Launch: 650 USD
Part Number: MKNSSDAL4TB-D8
Market: Consumer

Physical

Form Factor: M.2 2280 (Double-Sided)
Interface: PCIe 3.0 x4
Protocol: NVMe 1.3
Power Draw: 0.30 W (Idle)
Unknown (Avg)
6.5 W (Max)

Controller

Manufacturer: Phison
Name: PS5012-E12S-32
Architecture: ARM 32-bit Cortex-R5
Core Count: Quad-Core
Frequency: 667 MHz
Foundry: TSMC
Process: 12 nm
Flash Channels: 8 @ 667 MT/s
Chip Enables: 4
Controller Features: DRAM (enabled)

NAND Flash

Manufacturer: Micron
Name: N28A FortisFlash
Type: QLC
Technology: 96-layer
Speed: 50 MT/s .. 800 MT/s
Capacity: 8 chips @ 4 Tbit
ONFI: 4.0
Topology: Floating Gate
Die Size: 115 mm²
(8.9 Gbit/mm²)
Dies per Chip: 4 dies @ 1 Tbit
Planes per Die: 4
Read Time (tR): 90 µs
Program Time (tProg): 2080 µs
Block Erase Time (tBERS): 15 ms
Die Read Speed: 711 MB/s
Die Write Speed: 30 MB/s
Endurance:
(up to)		 1500 P/E Cycles
(30000 in SLC Mode)
Page Size: 16 KB
Block Size: 4608 Pages
Plane Size: 492 Blocks

DRAM Cache

Type: DDR3L
Name: (Rebranded as Kingston)
Capacity: Unknown

Performance

Sequential Read: 3,200 MB/s
Sequential Write: 3,000 MB/s
Random Read: 550,000 IOPS
Random Write: 640,000 IOPS
Endurance: 900 TBW
Warranty: 5 Years
MTBF: 1.5 Million Hours
Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD): 0.1
SLC Write Cache: Yes

Features

TRIM: Yes
SMART: Yes
Power Loss Protection: No
Encryption:
  • Unknown
RGB Lighting: No
PS5 Compatible: No

Notes

Controller:

2 main cores using Cortex-R5 clocked at 667 MHz with CoXProcessor technology (one additional dual-core) Cortex-R5 clocked at a lower clock for better efficience. The difference between this revision and the E12 revision is that this has a nichel IHS to improve the temperature, a smaller size, smaller node (12nm TSMC FinFET) and this works with less DRAM capacity.

NAND Die:

tPROG with overhead: 2080 µs (Avg 30 MB/s per die)
Jun 1st, 2024 12:42 EDT change timezone

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