QLC is the next big step in flash memory, with another bump in density increases and, crucially for consumers, revised, lower pricing for flash-based products that employ the new technology. We've already had a sneak peek at what QLC-based products can deliver - Intel's leaked SSD 660P employs QLC memory and is expected to deliver 1,800 MB/s in sequential read and up to 1,200 MB/s in sequential write speeds with 150,000 IOPS. Expect base drive capacities to increase - QLC being higher density would mean fewer NAND chips, but manufacturers want to keep the added performance of chip parallelism.

However, flash needs controllers to deliver its true potential, and Marvell has one up its sleeve. The new controller will eventually replace the NVMe 1.1 Eldora (88SS1093) used in some popular SSDs that are already shipping, such as Plextor's M9Pe, and the folks at Tom's hardware took a peek at it - running the current TLC memory, that is. The controller delivered over 670,000 IOPS and 3,500 MB/s in the demo, though there's no information on the density of the drive. But for those performance levels, it must've had a good amount of silicon. While not representative of final QLC memory performance of the controller, it's good to know that at least this part of the ecosystem is good to go. Now if only QLC was quick and hot off the presses, we could see a $100 512 GB SSD.

Autobuy, a popular online shopping site in Taiwan, recently listed Intel's upcoming 760p and 660p M.2 NVMe SSDs on their store. The SSD 760p will be manufactured under Intel's 64-layer 3D NAND technology and feature TLC (triple-level-cell) NAND. It's obviously the faster of the two with a sequential read speed up to 3,200 MB/s and a write speed up to 1,600 MB/s. The drive offers random access reads up to 350,000 IOPS and writes up to 280,000 IOPS. Intel will offer this model in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. TigerDirect listed the pricing for them at $96, $120, $240, $448, and $893, respectively.

The SSD 660p is Intel's budget-friendly this time around. Therefore, it will use QLC (quad-level-cell) NAND despite being manufactured with the same technology as its older brother. This SSD can reach up to 1,800 MB/s in sequential read and up to 1,200 MB/s in sequential write speeds with random access read and write performance in the range of 150,000 IOPS. Surprisingly, Intel won't be offering this model in the 128 GB and 256 GB capacities. Instead, the lowest capacity model will start from 512 GB and make its way up to 2 TB. Unfortunately, pricing wasn't available at the time of this article.

Silverstone at CES 2018 also showcased some number of cases and storage solutions that the company hopes to carve its way through the market with. There's an interesting 4x M.2 Drive bay, for instance, which occupies a traditional 3.5" bay but gives users the option to mount up to 4x M.2 SSD drives; there's a 2.5" SSD expansion bay (EXB01) that allows for hot-swapping of SSDs mounted on the rack; an M.2 to PCIe adapter with embedded heatsink and LEDs, as well as a PCIe Gen3 x16 to an NVMe drive adapter.

Mushkin showed off its Helix-L cost-effective M.2 NVMe SSD. The company also showed off the slightly faster Pilot M.2 NVMe drive. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the Helix-L combines a Silicon Motion SM2263XT controller with 3D TLC NAND flash memory, and comes in capacities ranging between 120 GB and 1 TB. The drive's rated performance matches the controller's maximum rated performance numbers, which stand at up to 2400 MB/s sequential reads, up to 1700 MB/s sequential writes, up to 280,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 250,000 IOPS maximum writes.

The Pilot, on the other hand, combines the faster Silicon Motion SM2262 controller, with 3D TLC NAND flash over 8 channels, and is cushioned by a DRAM cache, which together push its performance to up to 3200 MB/s sequential reads, with up to 1900 MB/s sequential writes; and 4K random access performance figures of 370,000/300,000 IOPS (reads/writes). It comes in capacities ranging between 240 GB and 2 TB. Both drives support the latest NVMe 1.3 specification, and are backed by 3-year warranties.

ASRock introduced the Ultra Quad M.2 Card, an add-on card that lets you easily set up an M.2 NVMe RAID array with up to four drives with 32 Gbps bandwidth for each drive. In principle, this product does exactly what ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Riser card does, but better. The first benefit is shorter traces- while the ASUS card has M.2 slots arranged horizontally along the plane of the card, with the topmost slot being farthest away from the PCI-Express interface, the ASRock card has them arranged diagonally, in a way that ensures each slot is close to the PCIe bus. ASRock also claims better thermals with a larger 50 mm fan (vs. 40 mm of the ASUS card) and longer thermal pads (110 mm vs 80 mm), power stability with a 6-pin PCIe power input, and software control over the fan. The card supports NVMe RAID on both Intel X299 and AMD X399 platforms. The card is expected to be priced around USD $69.99.ASRock presentation slides follow.

Thermal throttling is a big problem for M.2 NVMe SSDs, with drives losing up to 30 percent in sequential transfer rates when overheated. ADATA, with an M.2 SSD product spanning nearly all price-points, is taking the issue of throttling heat-on with its XPG Storm RGB M.2 SSD heatsink. The cooler consists of a chunky aluminium heatsink with coverage area for M.2-2280 drives, a tiny lateral-blower fan, and a cooler shroud with RGB LED lighting. ADATA claims the heatsink reduces temperatures by up to 25 percent.

Its RGB LED lighting supports standard headers, and can be controlled using standardized software such as ASUS Aura Sync RGB, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light RGB, etc. Unfortunately, the heatsink appears to add Z-height that makes it unfit for M.2 slots located between PCI-Express add-on card slots. At best they're suited for boards with M.2 slots above the topmost heatsink, or just south of the PCH heatsink. The heatsink relies on adhesive thermal-pads and its installation is tool-free

Kingston Digital Europe Co LLP, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, is set to share its latest and upcoming products at CES. Kingston will have demonstrations highlighting the capabilities of their family of solid-state drives and encrypted USB Flash drives, as well as additions in the consumer lifestyle space with mobile and embedded solutions.

"We are excited to share what's to come from Kingston in 2018. CES week provides a great opportunity to showcase the many quality technology solutions that make up the Kingston family," said Robert Allen, Director Marketing and Technical Services -EMEA, Kingston. "From enterprise SSDs, encrypted USBs, consumer mobile products to embedded solutions, we continue to offer customers rock-solid reliability, ultimate security and maximum performance. When guests visit our suite, they will fully understand Kingston's commitment to offering the most complete family of performance solutions."

Plugable's new 480GB external NVME SSD drive hits performance levels not possible before Thunderbolt 3. Connect the drive to a Thunderbolt 3 port to gain 480GB of extra storage with amazing speeds of up to 2400+ MB/sec read and 1200+ MB/sec write, all without the need for an external power connection. These speeds make this external drive a no-compromise performance solution for video editing, backup, and any tasks which demand maximum disk performance. "Thunderbolt 3 is a revolutionary technology," said Bernie Thompson, CEO of Plugable Technologies. "We've created our line of high-end docks, adapters, and drives to show it off."

Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, will be highlighting the use of its industry-leading BiCS FLASH 3D memory in several applications - including its new lineup of NVMe SSDs, the RC100 Series.

At CES, TMA is collaborating with its customers and technology partners to take on the future - together. Toshiba was the first company in the world[1] to announce 3D flash memory technology, which effectively addresses the processing, storage and management of the growing volume of data generated worldwide. Recent announcements see the company continuing to lead the industry forward, including the introduction of a 96-layer 512Gb die; the debut of the industry's first[2] flash memory device with quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology; and the addition of Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology. Already enabling the enterprise, data center, PC and mobile applications of today, TMA's BiCS FLASH has paved the way for the applications of tomorrow. In everything from artificial intelligence and virtual reality to a growing number of automotive applications (such as infotainment), high performance computing and the ever-expanding "internet of things," storage density needs will climb higher and higher - and BiCS FLASH was designed with this in mind.

Cost effectiveness is a key factor that drove many successes in a well established company. With ICY DOCK's ToughArmor series removable 2.5" SSD / HDD enclosures, we are introducing a different kind of cost effectiveness or we called it "space efficiency" by creating flexible configurations for data drives in a standard drive bay as seen in many HP and DELL workstations or servers. Whether you need to add 8 x 4TB 2.5" SATA SSD in a single 5.25" bay of your HP workstation, or replace the slim optical disk drive with hot-swappable 2.5" HDD/SSD bay, the ToughArmor got you covered!

• Key features of ICY DOCK ToughArmor series:
• Ruggedized Full Metal Construction
• Heavy Duty Removable Drive Caddy
• High Storage Density Design for Space Saving
• Approved and Used by First Tier Company such as HP and GE
• Complimentary Technical Support with 3-Year Warranty

PLEXTOR, a leading manufacturer of award-winning solid-state drives (SSDs) and other high-performance digital storage devices for consumers, today announced the launch of its newest NVMe PCIe SSD the M9Pe Series. The new M9Pe SSD Series has adopted advanced 64-layer 3D NAND and flagship controller along with exclusive PlexNitro, smart cache technology, delivering unprecedented sequential read/write up to 3,200/2,100 MB/s and random read/write up to 400,000/300,000 IOPS. The M9Pe puts improved performance and durability in its crosshairs.

Aimed at high-level PC gaming such as eSports, the M9Pe boasts of its superior components to deliver less lags and 20% faster boot up times compared to a typical SATA drive. The new M9Pe (HHHL/AIC version only) also sports a new eye-catching design with its programmable 3-mode RGB LED lights for the perfect visual appeal on any desktop gaming setup. Similar to its predecessors, the new M9Pe features a high-performing thermal heatsink (M9PeY and M9PeG only) to help regulate SSD temperatures during prolonged gaming sessions resulting to stabilized performance.

Silicon Motion announced their ultra-high speed SM226x PCIe NVMe SSD controllers back in August. The family consists of four controllers (SM2262EN, SM2262, SM2263, and SM2263XT) that are aimed at different segments. Taipower's new Mirage NP900 NVMe SSD is the first consumer product to utilize one of Silicon Motion's latest controllers. We don't expect the SSD to be available in large numbers outside the Asian continent. Nevertheless, the Mirage NP900 grants us a glimpse of the SM2262 controller's performance. The drive registers sequential read speeds of 2685 MB/s and write speeds of 1695 MB/s in the AS SSD benchmark. With CES 2018 almost upon us, we are positive that Silicon Motion partners like Adata, Intel, Micron/Crucial, and SanDisk/Western Digital are surely going to present their new Silicon Motion powered NVMe SSDs soon.

Plextor's M9Pe is likely the company's worst-guarded secret by this point; the company has always hinted at a performance-part release that would supersede their M8Pe's offering performance and take the battle back to Samsung's reigning 960 Evo and 960 pro NVME SSDs, albeit at an expected lower price-point and a better $/GB ratio. The company is apparently so proud of what it sees as the future for its M9Pe SSDs, however, that they couldn't help themselves to contain their excitement, and shared a small teaser image for the M9Pe's performance.

The performance figures come courtesy of Plextor's USA Facebook page, and are represented in a CrystalDiskMark run. Performance numbers for this NVME drive are impressive, to say the least, with the results of this 1 TB drive besting Samsung's 960 EVO, and coming very close to Samsung's 960 PRO NVME SSD. Of course, pricing should still be one of the determinant factors in consumers' choice, but it seems that the NVME high-performance storage space is seeing some companies fighting to overturn Samsung's dominance - and fiercer competition is usually better for consumers. Of course, users should be aware that for most use cases, a good SATA III SSD will still deliver performance in spades and the best $/performance ratio on the high-speed SSD market, but for those that want uncompromising performance, having another player in the Samsung space is definitely good news.

SilverStone rolled out the TP02-M2, a heatsink for 80 mm-long M.2 SSDs (M.2-2280). This chunky aluminium heatsink is 1 cm tall, and weighs a little over 16 g. In addition to a 3 g-ish adhesive thermal pad, it would have added close to 20 g of weight onto the various soldered components of your drive; but SilverStone is clever enough to include two silicone bands that strap the heatsink onto the drive, offloading some of that weight. The heatsink was tested by its designers to significantly lower temperatures of NAND flash chips and controllers, which pose performance penalties on faster NVMe SSDs. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Corsair rolled out the range-topping 1,600 GB variant of the Neutron NX500 PCI-Express SSD series, which made its debut in August 2017 (variant SKU: CSSD-N1600GBNX500). The drive is priced at 1,770€ (including taxes). The half-height, single-slot add-on card features PCI-Express 3.0 x4 bus interface, and takes advantage of the NVMe 1.2 protocol. The drives combine Phison PS5007-E7 controllers with Toshiba-made 15 nm MLC NAND flash memory.

It has a rated sequential performance of up to 3,000 MB/s reads, with up to 2,300 MB/s writes when tested with ATTO; up to 2,800 MB/s reads with up to 1,600 MB/s writes when tested with CrystalDiskMark; and random-access performance of up to 300,000 IOPS 4K reads, with up to 270,000 IOPS 4K writes, when tested with IOMeter. Its endurance is rated at 2,793 TBW, and is backed by a 5-year warranty.

Kingston Digital Europe Co LLP, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it has shipped over 18 million SSDs worldwide utilizing Phison controllers symbolizing the strength of a longstanding relationship. Kingston and Phison Electronics Corp have been close collaborators for over a decade, first starting in USB Flash drives and then moving onto SSDs.

In 2010, both companies jointly invested in a new company to create embedded solutions to ease the design-in effort for handheld device makers expediting the overall product development cycle and bringing products to market faster. Both Phison and Kingston share and combine their expertise in engineering, production, sales and procurement. The company, Kingston Solutions, Inc., has grown exponentially from smart phones and tablets to a diverse portfolio including wearables, slot machines and consumer appliances such as smart beds and thermostats.

Apacer knows it best when it comes to speed and uncompromised gaming performance. Z280, the latest answer to advanced SSDs, supports PCIe Gen 3 x4 and is compliant with NVMe 1.2 in a M.2 form factor. The blazing speed will boost the game status without getting too costly. With sustained read/write performance at 2750MB/s and 1500MB/s, the compact M.2-2280 keeps everything efficient at a massive capacity of 480GB. Want to be one step ahead of others? Look no further than Z280, the high-performing SSD that is compatible with mini PCs and laptops.

Rapidity & Jumbo Storage
Built with upscale SSD technologies that Apacer is synonymous for and excellent quality MLC, the cutting-edge Z280 is compliant with NVMe 1.2 standard and features the latest PCIe Gen 3 x4 interface to provide up to 4 times of bandwidth. The expert team at Apacer raised the bar of the industry by creating a blistering transmission at 2750/MB & 1500MB per second. Offering a massive memory capacity of 480GB, Z280 has a random write of 175,000 IOPs to ensure all actions in each gaming scene is smoothly processed, fluid and sharp, efficiently boosting a gamer's status.

Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, has enhanced its line-up of client SSDs with the launch of premium models in its XG5-P series. The new NVM Express (NVMe) client SSDs improve on the performance of the current XG5 series models and double the maximum capacity to 2 TB. Sample shipments to OEM customers start today in limited quantities, and Toshiba Memory Corporation will gradually increase shipments from the first calendar quarter of 2018.

The XG5-P series also utilizes a PCI Express (PCIe) Gen3 x4 lane and NVM Express Revision 1.2.1 interface, and delivers performance of up to 3000 MB/s sequential read and 2200 MB/s sequential write, and up to 320,000 IOPS random read and 265,000 IOPS random write. Its random read/write performance in full access range is approximately 55% better than that of standard XG5 series products. At the same time, low power consumption is maintained at less than 60 mW during operation.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing new passive heatsinks for M.2 NVMe Next Generation Form Factor SSDs in multiple color options! The popularity of the existing Black and Nickel plated M.2 NVMe heatsinks clearly indicated the need for more color options, so here they are! It is not a secret that M.2 NVMe SSDs can overheat very easily and be affected by thermal throttling, thus losing performance. The EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink can lower the SSDs operating temperature by 7 to 30°C.

The design of the heatsink ensures that it is easy to install, it is low profile, easily reusable and aesthetically non-intrusive. Simple clips ensure that the heatsink is very easy to install and to re-use if the SSD is upgraded. The ribbed surface of the heatsink acts as a very effective passive cooler, as well as aesthetic cover. Its simple design ensures a sleek, non-intrusive look that can be easily combined with any aesthetical requirement of the user. The compact design makes it highly compatible so that it does not interfere with other components. EK Water Blocks are offering the new EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink in red, blue, green and purple variants. The gold variant will be available within two weeks of time.

LiteOn today introduced the MUX line of "entry-level" M.2 PCI-Express SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. Available in 128 GB and 256 GB capacities, the drives feature PCI-Express 3.0 x2 host interface, and take advantage of the NVMe protocol. They combine Phison PS5008-E8 controllers with Toshiba BiCS3 3D-TLC NAND flash memory.

The 128 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 1500 MB/s reads, with up to 450 MB/s writes; up to 91,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 110,000 IOPS 4K random writes; while the 256 GB variant is slightly faster, offering up to 1600 MB/s sequential reads, up to 850 MB/s sequential writes, up to 145,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 140,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Both variants are backed by 3-year warranties.

LiteOn today introduced the EPX series enterprise-grade, high-performance SSDs in the M.2-22110 (110 mm long) form-factor, featuring PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, and taking advantage of the NVMe 1.2 protocol. The drive comes in 960 GB and 1920 GB capacities, and features an active power-loss protection mechanism. A bank of capacitors on the drive holds just enough charge for the drive to "park" by completing outstanding write operations, and turning off the drive, to mitigate data-loss.

The 960 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 1700 MB/s reads, with up to 670 MB/s writes; and random access throughput of up to 300,000 IOPS reads, with up to 30,000 IOPS writes. The 1920 GB variant, on the other hand, puts out sequential transfers of up to 1800 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes, up to 330,000 IOPS random reads, and up to 30,000 IOPS random writes. Both drives are rated for 2 million hours MTBF, and 1 DWPD for 3 years. The drives are backed by 3-year warranties.

MyDigitalSSD today announces the SBX-series, the consumer grade MyDigitalSSD Super Boot eXpress (SBX) PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe SSDs featuring the Phison E8 (PS5008-E8) controller. The follow-up to MyDigitalSSD's award-winning enterprise BPX series, SBX NVMe SSDs offer a cost-competitive upgrade option to SATA SSDs with max sequential speeds of 1.60 GB/s read and 1.30 GB/s write.

Designed with best-in-class price, performance, and endurance in mind, SBX pairs Toshiba TLC 3D NAND with NVMe technology to maximize bandwidth while lowering latency for guaranteed peak performance under heavy workloads for near-instant responsiveness when used as either a boot or storage device in Z97 / X99 / X199 / X299 / Z170 based motherboards and more.

The first product based on Intel's ambitious "Kaby Lake-G" multi-chip module, which combines a quad-core "Kaby Lake-H" die with a graphics die based on AMD "Vega" architecture, will be a NUC (next unit of computing), and likely the spiritual successor to Intel's "Skull Canyon" NUC. The first picture of the motherboard of this NUC was leaked to the web, revealing a board that's only slightly smaller than the mini-ITX form-factor.

The board draws power from an external power brick, and appears to feature two distinct VRM areas for the CPU and GPU components of the "Kaby Lake-G" MCM SoC. The board feature two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots which are populated with dual-channel memory, and an M.2 NVMe slot, holding an SSD. There are two additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports, besides a plethora of other connectivity options.

LiteOn rolled out the CA3 line of NVMe SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. Available in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB capacities, the drives combine a Marvell 88SS1092 controller with Toshiba-made TLC NAND flash memory. The drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and the NVMe protocol, to put of sequential read speeds of up to 2100 MB/s for the 256 GB variant, and 2900 MB/s for the 512 GB and 1 TB variants; and sequential write speeds of up to 600 MB/s, 1200 MB/s, and 1700 MB/s for the three variants, respectively.

Random access speeds of the LiteOn CA3 series drives are up to 150K/150K IOPS (read/write) for the 256 GB variant; up to 260K/260K IOPS for the 512 GB variant, and up to 380K/260K IOPS for the 1 TB variant. The controller supports 3rd generation LPDC error correction, NVMe deallocate, TCG-OPAL 2.0 native encryption, and 256-bit AES native encryption. The company didn't put out endurance numbers, but stated that its MTBF is rated at 1.5 million hours. The drives are backed by 3-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched theXPG SX6000 SSD. The product represents a bold move to provide PCI Express storage performance for nearly the same price to end users as that of traditional 2.5" SATA SSD. The SX6000 uses the compact M.2 form factor and reaches 1000MB/s read and 800MB/s write, easily doubling SATA SSD throughput without a relative increase in price. This is part of an ADATA focus on high speed, compact M.2 drives aimed at gamers, overclockers, and PC DIY enthusiasts. The SX6000 meets NVMe 1.2 specs and offers up to 1TB capacity, all at an approachable entry-level alongside its more premium stablemates the SX7000, SX8000, and SX9000.

The leading advantage of the SX6000 is embodied in its superb cost-performance ratio. Using 3D TLC NAND, a Realtek controller, NVMe 1.2 technology, and a PCIe Gen3x2 interface, it reaches 1000MB/s read and 800MB/s write. Compared to a typical 500MB/s by 400MB/s on SATA III SSDs, this means doubled performance for less than 10% more spend in same-capacity comparisons. Increasingly, motherboards ship with two and four M.2 slots, up from a single slot on select boards just two years ago. Therefore, PCIe M.2 SSDs are expected to become more normative and the SX6000 encourages this trend as an affordable high speed alternative that works great as an OS drive and mass storage.