Yangtze Memory Technology Company (YMTC), China's ambitious new memory manufacturer specializing in NAND flash, launched the first client-segment SSDs under its own brand, the PC005 Active series and the SC001 Active series. Rumors of YMTC developing its own brand SSDs surfaced first in June. Prior to that in May, it was reported that Phison could add support for YMTC NAND flash chips to variants of its existing SSD controllers, and so it's highly likely that the new YMTC SSDs use Phison-sourced controllers. Interestingly, the company deployed its first-generation Xtracking 64-layer 3D TLC NAND flash chips instead of its 2nd generation 128-layer QLC chips.

The PC005 Active comes in the M.2-2280 form-factor with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, leveraging the NVMe 1.3 protocol. The drive is available in 1 TB. 512 GB, and 256 GB capacities. All three variants read sequentially at speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s, wiring at up to 2,900 MB/s, up to 2,500 MB/s, and up to 1,200 MB/s, respectively. Their endurance is rated at 640 TBW for the 1 TB version, 320 TBW for the 512 GB, and 200 TBW for the 256 GB variant. All three are backed by 5-year warranties.The SC001 Active drives come in 2.5-inch form-factor with SATA 6 Gbps interface, coming in the same 1 TB, 512 GB, and 256 GB capacities. All three read at up to 520 MB/s, and up to 510 MB/s writes. Interestingly their endurance is rated higher, with 680 TBW for the 1 TB variant, 370 TBW for the 512 GB variant, and 170 TBW for the 256 GB variant. The three are backed by 3-year warranties. As for availability, YMTC will target its home market of China first, and since it is a beneficiary of the Chinese government's ambitious "3-5-2 plan," it's first buyers could be Chinese state institutions. Chinese retailer JD.com listed the PC005 Active 512 GB for the equivalent of $77 and its 256 GB variant for $54. The SC001 variants are priced at the equivalent of $123 for the 1 TB variant, $67 for the 512 GB variant, and $42 for the 256 GB variant.