Tuesday, May 28th 2019

ADATA Unveils its M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD: Ready for AMD X570

May 28th, 2019 05:23 Discuss (23 Comments)

It looks like SSDs will beat graphics cards to utilizing (and benefiting) from the bandwidth of PCI-Express gen 4.0 bus. AMD X570 platform motherboards offer 2-3 M.2 slots with PCIe gen 4.0 x4 wiring (64 Gbps). Corsair formally launched the MP600, and now ADATA joins the party with its unnamed drive. Based on the Silicon Motion SM2267 controller, the drive comes in an unbelievable capacity of up to 8 TB, probably using 96-layer QLC NAND flash.

The controller features DRAM cache, and dynamic SLC caching (all of the NAND flash is treated as SLC until storage demands force portions of them to be treated as MLC, TLC, and eventually QLC). It takes advantage of NVMe 1.3 protocol. As for performance, ADATA claims sequential speeds of up to 4000 MB/s reads. Such speeds were impossible of PCIe gen 3.0 x4 due to various overheads. Sequential writes are still up to 3000 MB/s. 4K random read/write access is rated at 400k IOPS. The company didn't reveal availability details.

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23 Comments on ADATA Unveils its M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD: Ready for AMD X570

londiste

What are the odds that this 4000MB/s sequential is limited to higher-capacity models like 8TB?

EarthDog

londisteWhat are the odds that this 4000MB/s sequential is limited to higher-capacity models like 8TB?

Not much? I mean, were at 3500 and limited by bandwidth not NAND/controller.

xkm1948

Pairing shitty QLC with ultra fast PCIE gen 4. Yeah logic sounds about right

EarthDog

Shitty? Lol...drama much? Come on... :)

cucker tarlson

xkm1948Pairing shitty QLC with ultra fast PCIE gen 4. Yeah logic sounds about right

Tlc can't do it either, speeds like this are only achievable through buffering and caching anyway

Imsochobo

cucker tarlsonTlc can't do it either, speeds like this are only achievable through buffering and caching anyway

atleast I won't have to do much of ramdisk business anymore.

cucker tarlson

That's an interesting approach to caching,they are using less cells instead of a smaller buffer.should alleviate problems that 1tb qlc drives have while still allowing big 2tb or higher drives to offer excellent performance to value

kapone32

My worry about these drives is how long they will last. Adding a bit to a cell causes faster degradation so a QLC at 4 or 5 bits per cell would have 1/2 the endurance of a MLC drive which is approximately 1/2 the endurance of SLC. The highest capacity I have seen for a consumer NVME is 2TB so going to 8TB has me thinking that this drive will write be up to 8 bits per cell.

EarthDog

Even so, writes arent an issue. They havent been in generations. It takes some pretty heavy use scenarios to blow out an ssd before you want something faster.

#10

cucker tarlson

kapone32My worry about these drives is how long they will last. Adding a bit to a cell causes faster degradation so a QLC at 4 or 5 bits per cell would have 1/2 the endurance of a MLC drive which is approximately 1/2 the endurance of SLC. The highest capacity I have seen for a consumer NVME is 2TB so going to 8TB has me thinking that this drive will write be up to 8 bits per cell.

They're not designed for constant file moving anyway.

#11

Valantar

kapone32My worry about these drives is how long they will last. Adding a bit to a cell causes faster degradation so a QLC at 4 or 5 bits per cell would have 1/2 the endurance of a MLC drive which is approximately 1/2 the endurance of SLC. The highest capacity I have seen for a consumer NVME is 2TB so going to 8TB has me thinking that this drive will write be up to 8 bits per cell.

The highest amount of bits per cell possible with current technology is four - QLC, quad level cell. 8 is likely technologically impossible without a gigantic process node, as you'd need to be able to distinguish between a gargantuan amount of voltage levels for that, likely more than there are actual electrons in a modern QLC cell (2^8=256). Even five is a massive challenge, going from 16 to 32 voltage levels. The lower endurance of QLC is precisely because of this - more voltage levels means higher accuracy is needed, and any stuck electrons will mess things up all the more drastically (which is the main cause of NAND deterioration from writes). Still, QLC has perfectly acceptable endurance for the vast majority of consumer workloads.

#12

kapone32

ValantarThe highest amount of bits per cell possible with current technology is four - QLC, quad level cell. 8 is likely technologically impossible without a gigantic process node, as you'd need to be able to distinguish between a gargantuan amount of voltage levels for that, likely more than there are actual electrons in a modern QLC cell (2^8=256). Even five is a massive challenge, going from 16 to 32 voltage levels. The lower endurance of QLC is precisely because of this - more voltage levels means higher accuracy is needed, and any stuck electrons will mess things up all the more drastically (which is the main cause of NAND deterioration from writes). Still, QLC has perfectly acceptable endurance for the vast majority of consumer workloads.

This response is exactly why I am on this site. I love the knowledge that is shared without any malice.

#13

bonehead123

kapone32This response is exactly why I am on this site. I love the knowledge that is shared without any malice.

Me too.... too bad this level of info wasn't shown up front to consumers when nand was first introduced to the market, perhaps then some of us would have had a much better understanding of how it works from day 1 :D

#14

kapone32

bonehead123Me too.... too bad this level of info wasn't shown up front to consumers when nand was first introduced to the market, perhaps then some of us would have had a much better understanding of how it works from day 1 :D

Indeed but NAND started back in the 70s and the original Atari and Nintendo used Nand flash for the cartridges in their games.

#15

TesterAnon

londisteWhat are the odds that this 4000MB/s sequential is limited to higher-capacity models like 8TB?

Write speeds? Probably.
Read speeds? i doubt it.

#16

kapone32

TesterAnonWrite speeds? Probably.
Read speeds? i doubt it.

Based on some of the Crystal Disk mark scores that have been posted it would seem the writes are very close to the reads.

#17

Deathy

bonehead123Me too.... too bad this level of info wasn't shown up front to consumers when nand was first introduced to the market, perhaps then some of us would have had a much better understanding of how it works from day 1 :D

I'd suggest reading more news sites if this is indeed news to you. Anand from Anandtech did a good write up of the NAND flash technology used in SSDs and SLC / MLC comparison all the way back in 2008, when the intel X25-M became one of the first worth while consumer grade SSDs. It's got pretty much all you need to get going. New technology (TLC, QLC, 3D) was discussed when the new products with the relevant tech were being reviewed. This is not rocket science and no one is trying to hide this information by nefarious means.

#18

bonehead123

DeathyI'd suggest reading more news sites if this is indeed news to you. Anand from Anandtech did a good write up of the NAND flash technology used in SSDs and SLC / MLC comparison all the way back in 2008, when the intel X25-M became one of the first worth while consumer grade SSDs. It's got pretty much all you need to get going. New technology (TLC, QLC, 3D) was discussed when the new products with the relevant tech were being reviewed. This is not rocket science and no one is trying to hide this information by nefarious means.

I have known about these things for quite some time (like you said, since '08-ish), and I was not implying any nefarious intentions on anyone's part, but thanks for your concern :)

#19

Valantar

DeathyI'd suggest reading more news sites if this is indeed news to you. Anand from Anandtech did a good write up of the NAND flash technology used in SSDs and SLC / MLC comparison all the way back in 2008, when the intel X25-M became one of the first worth while consumer grade SSDs. It's got pretty much all you need to get going. New technology (TLC, QLC, 3D) was discussed when the new products with the relevant tech were being reviewed. This is not rocket science and no one is trying to hide this information by nefarious means.

AnandTech is 99% of the reason why I understand this stuff. They're still the undisputed authority on in-depth tech explanations and architectural deep-dives.

#20

TheLostSwede

News Editor

ValantarAnandTech is 99% of the reason why I understand this stuff. They're still the undisputed authority on in-depth tech explanations and architectural deep-dives.

If only they'd spend the money on getting an actual editor that proof reads and edits their content...
I miss the days of magazines, when there was an entire team of proof readers and editors...

#21

Valantar

TheLostSwedeIf only they'd spend the money on getting an actual editor that proof reads and edits their content...
I miss the days of magazines, when there was an entire team of proof readers and editors...

...if only they had that money, I think would be more accurate. Like most online publications, I doubt they have any significant revenue (which, I guess, is why they sold to Purch, leaving the site riddled with autoplaying videos and affiliate links). At least they still have real editorial freedom (unlike Tom's) and highly knowledgeable writers. I can deal with typos and poor grammar (even if it annoys me) as long as the content is good.

#22

Tomorrow

Wonder what the 8TB price will be?

Samsung SATA based 4TB models occasionally go on sale under 500€ so im expecting this 8TB model to cost around 1000€. Still too expensive. The capacity is getting up there but i can get a much more reliable and cheaper 14TB enterprise class HDD for 550€ this year and problably a 16-18TB option next year. Granted the SSD is faster but i doubt most will run OS from a 8TB SSD.

#23

EarthDog

TheLostSwedeIf only they'd spend the money on getting an actual editor that proof reads and edits their content...
I miss the days of magazines, when there was an entire team of proof readers and editors...

They do a lot better than here. ;)

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