Monday, November 9th 2020

Phison Delivers Fastest PCIe Gen 4x4 NVMe SSD Controller, the E18 Series

Phison Electronics, the industry leader in flash controller technology, is delivering the storage industry's fastest PCIe Gen 4x4 NVMe SSD solution, its second generation PS5018-E18 (E18) PCIe 4.0 controller. The E18 succeeds the PS5016-E16 released in late 2019.

Phison designed the new E18 from the ground up on the efficient TSMC 12 nm process node. This provides SSD manufacturers with a state-of-the-art controller solution in an increasingly competitive field. The controller utilizes Phison's proprietary CoXProcessor 2.0 technology, an innovative SSD architecture that enables E18 to deliver exceptional performance and power efficiency. Phison architecture is also primed for AI-assisted storage, where its distributed architecture uses many small cores to perform the workload in parallel. The E18 is ideal for gamers, content creators, and computing enthusiasts, which demand the best experience. This ultra-low latency is possible only with NVMe SSDs.
The E18 maximizes use of the available bandwidth of PCIe 4.0 to improve sequential read performance up to 7.4 GB/s and write performance to 7.0 GB/s, making E18 the only solution in the market to break the 7.0 GB/s on both read and write access. When fully utilized, the eight-channel E18 delivers up to 1 million IOPS and scales to a massive 8 TB capacity.


"AMD leads the industry with the first desktop processor and chipset support for PCIe 4.0. As we continue to build new platforms that support PCIe 4.0 technologies, we are happy to see companies like Phison expanding their Gen 4 SSD product offerings," said Chris Kilburn, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Client Component business unit, AMD. "In partnership with industry leading storage companies like Phison, we are committed to delivering new levels of storage performance across the entire PC landscape."

"It is forecasted that over the next few years, PCIe Gen 4 will lead in the client SSD market. Phison was one of the first to ship a Gen 4x4 SSD and has a leadership position in providing customers the best-in-class SSD for high performance client and desktop applications and gaming," says Don Jeanette, Vice President, SSD Research at TrendFocus.

"While other companies are just now starting to release their first generation of PCIe Gen4 products, we have had a year-and-a-half lead with our ecosystem partner AMD. I am very excited that our next generation controller E18 will enable our partners to fully utilize the PCIe Gen 4x4 bandwidth and generate 7.4 GB/s performance for their customers. We are proud to be leading the way in advancing this technology and we look forward to enhancing it in the years to come," says K.S Pua, CEO of Phison Electronics.
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25 Comments on Phison Delivers Fastest PCIe Gen 4x4 NVMe SSD Controller, the E18 Series

#2
Space Lynx
Astronaut
DeathtoGnomesWhen is expected launch?
read this article to find out same thing... im really hoping to get a 1tb sabrent rocket plus when it launches... hopefully soon...
Posted on Reply
#3
Solid State Soul ( SSS )
Crazy how storage solutions maxes out PCIe 4 bandwidth in about a year when graphics cards only started fully utilizing the bandwidth of PCIe 3 recently since forever
Posted on Reply
#4
DeathtoGnomes
Solid State Soul ( SSS )Crazy how storage solutions maxes out PCIe 4 bandwidth in about a year when graphics cards only started fully utilizing the bandwidth of PCIe 3 recently since forever
as fast as the the PCI standards are being released PCIe 5 is likely being skipped in favor of PCIe6.
Posted on Reply
#5
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
DeathtoGnomesWhen is expected launch?
SSD manufacturers are free to launch their designs featuring the E18.
Posted on Reply
#6
AnarchoPrimitiv
I can't wait for the Sabrent Rocket 4 plus with 7000MB/s read and 6800MB/s writes....should be coming out very soon
Posted on Reply
#7
Calmmo
We've been hearing about this controller for what feels like months. Need to actually see it on an actual product.
Posted on Reply
#8
Vya Domus
Solid State Soul ( SSS )Crazy how storage solutions maxes out PCIe 4 bandwidth in about a year when graphics cards only started fully utilizing the bandwidth of PCIe 3 recently since forever
GPUs do uses as much PCIe bandwidth as possible but not very often.
Posted on Reply
#9
Searing
You don't need to wait anyways. The Western Digital SN850 is out this week, and is the fastest drive available, period. Faster than the 980 Pro, so no reason to wait for the Sabrent most likely. WD has done a very good job with their 2nd gen controller (Sandisk).
Posted on Reply
#10
b1k3rdude
More marketing blah blah, what i want is 4KQD1 speeds please. Also is it me or did the music sound like a doom tune ripoff?
Posted on Reply
#11
Makaveli
DeathtoGnomesas fast as the the PCI standards are being released PCIe 5 is likely being skipped in favor of PCIe6.
I doubt it.

Just because a standard is released doesn't mean it will get used right away. When AMD first released PCIe 4.0 chipset all the intels fans were staying intel will skip it and go to 5.0 never happened. They are only officially releasing a 4.0 Chipset with Rocket lake and that only has features equal to AMD B550 chipset not the X570 one.

Both Intel and AMD are suppose to go going PCIe 5.0 in 2021, however the server market is the one that will see an immediate benefit from this and less so on the desktop. I don't think we will see Products use PCie 6.0 for many years still.
SearingYou don't need to wait anyways. The Western Digital SN850 is out this week, and is the fastest drive available, period. Faster than the 980 Pro, so no reason to wait for the Sabrent most likely. WD has done a very good job with their 2nd gen controller (Sandisk).
The controller on that drive is slower than the E18 controller.

7000 MB/s read
5300 MB/s write
vs
7400 MB/s read
7000 MB/s write
Posted on Reply
#12
Jism
Solid State Soul ( SSS )Crazy how storage solutions maxes out PCIe 4 bandwidth in about a year when graphics cards only started fully utilizing the bandwidth of PCIe 3 recently since forever
It's 2 different things your comparing. PCI-E Graphics usually request small block of data, where storage requests big chunks of data.

in a way graphics saturize the highway in relation of maximum capable speed, a NVME ssd attempts to fully itilitize all the available lanes which much slower speeds.

But if 7000MB Read / writes are'nt enough, boards these days allow you to pair up to 3 NVME's in Raid-0. On PCI-E 3.0 your looking at 9GB per second and on PCI-E 4.0 20GB p/s.

But there are'nt alot of workloads really that could tax the full 20GB a second; unless your running a fileserver on a LAN or so.
Posted on Reply
#13
Searing
MakaveliThe controller on that drive is slower than the E18 controller.

7000MB/s read
5300MB/s write
vs
7400 MB/s read
7000MB/s write
Seriously? You are quoting max sequential? Max sequential is not the most important thing. Reviews have shown the WD SN850 is the fastest drive. Go check out Tweaktown. The Rocket Plus won't be a meaningful upgrade.
Posted on Reply
#14
Makaveli
SearingSeriously? You are quoting max sequential? Max sequential is not the most important thing. Reviews have shown the WD SN850 is the fastest drive. Go check out Tweaktown. The Rocket Plus won't be a meaningful upgrade.
i'm well aware that sequentials aren't the be all end all of storage.

Endurance will also matter and waiting to see what that will be on the SN850.
Posted on Reply
#15
Searing
Makavelii'm well aware that sequentials aren't the be all end all of storage.

Endurance will also matter and waiting to see what that will be on the SN850.
Well that's fine if you are aware, so you know you can't say "that controller is slower".
Posted on Reply
#16
EarthDog
MakaveliEndurance will also matter and waiting to see what that will be on the SN850.
Meh... drive endurance hasn't been an issue for 99% of users for several generations. Unless you plan on firing off 10s of GB / day at the drive...
Posted on Reply
#17
Makaveli
SearingWell that's fine if you are aware, so you know you can't say "that controller is slower".
There will be reviews of all the drives so that will be answered in due time.
EarthDogMeh... drive endurance hasn't been an issue for 99% of users for several generations. Unless you plan on firing off 10s of GB / day at the drive...
And yes it will depend on workload.
Posted on Reply
#18
DeathtoGnomes
SearingSeriously? You are quoting max sequential? Max sequential is not the most important thing. Reviews have shown the WD SN850 is the fastest drive. Go check out Tweaktown. The Rocket Plus won't be a meaningful upgrade.
You cannot trust Tweaktown.
Posted on Reply
#19
EarthDog
MakaveliAnd yes it will depend on workload.
For the 1%, to be clear. Endurance hasn't been an issue for an overwhelming majority of users in several years, really.
Posted on Reply
#20
Makaveli
EarthDogFor the 1%, to be clear. Endurance hasn't been an issue for an overwhelming majority of users in several years, really.
I'm in that 1%
Posted on Reply
#22
Makaveli
EarthDog
Not needed as i'm not posting looking for anyone's approval.

But thanks for the input.
Posted on Reply
#23
EarthDog
MakaveliNot needed as i'm not posting looking for anyone's approval.

But thanks for the input.
I insist. I mean, you asserted yourself as the one off. You deserve a cookie. :) :toast: :pimp:
Posted on Reply
#24
Makaveli
EarthDogI insist. I mean, you asserted yourself as the one off. You deserve a cookie. :) :toast: :pimp:
Just confirming its important to me because my work flow can write heavily to the SSD.

Why you feel the need to post images and the extra commentary is all you. Not that it matters to me.
Posted on Reply
#25
Searing
DeathtoGnomesYou cannot trust Tweaktown.
hahaha, ok man, do what you want
Posted on Reply
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