Corsair has teased its fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD yet in an M.2 form factor. The company published some initial details about its upcoming product in a short video. However, the video has been taken private, indicating that the launch date may be at a later stage of the year. Thanks to Overclock3D, we saw its looks and got a slight peek at the product. Called the MP700, the SSD is supposedly boasting a fantastic 10 GB/s read capability. The write section is also impressive, with the NVMe SSD capable of reaching around 9 GB/s of what we suppose is a sustained write speed. It uses 3D TLC NAND Flash and supports Microsoft DirectStorage technology for faster load time. Below is a quote from Corsair about the MP700.

CorsairExperience the performance of PCIe Gen5 storage in your system, with up to 10,000MB/sec sequential read and 9,500MB/sec sequential write speeds for amazingly fast save, boot, and load times.
The high-bandwidth NVMe 2.0 interface and high-density 3D TLC NAND flash memory offer outstanding performance and longevity. Slot the MP700 directly into your motherboard thanks to its M.2 2280 form-factor, while a stylish aluminum heatsink helps manage temperatures and reduce throttling. Microsoft DirectStorage enables unprecedented load times when playing compatible games.

ZikeTech is a crowd-funded peripherals startup, which claims to have the "world's first and fastest USB4 SSD." The ZikeDrive is a portable SSD that features an extruded aluminium chassis that doubles up as a heatsink for the M.2 NVMe SSD underneath. The drive features a M.2-2280 slot with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 connection, and a bridge chip that converts this to a 40 Gbps USB4, giving it slightly more bandwidth than PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (32 Gbps). This allows a PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD to have sequential transfer speeds of up to 3.8 GB/s. The ZikeDrive starts at $99 for the bare enclosure, or with pre-installed 1 TB, 2 TB, or 4 TB drives that offer sequential speeds of up to 3763 MB/s reads, with up to 3146 MB/s writes; however, it is currently an Indiegogo project. Find more details on how to get one here.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solution innovator, today introduced the high-capacity TS-1655 tower 2.5 GbE NAS that can accommodate twelve 3.5-inch hard drives and four 2.5-inch solid-state drives. Designed with a hybrid storage architecture that balances performance and cost, the TS-1655 integrates 8-core computing power, 2.5 GbE high speed and PCIe expansion to improve business efficiency for cross-team file sharing, collaboration, backup and disaster recovery, and virtualization.

"The TS-1655 strikes a cost-performance balance with the HDD/SSD hybrid storage design, while also supporting RAID 50/60 that provides high-capacity NAS users with higher data protection and optimum storage space utilization," said Andy Chuang, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Moreover, its SSD-focused design includes built-in M.2 NVMe PCIe slots and dedicated 2.5-inch SSD bays to drive performance-demanding business applications while enabling tiered storage for maximized cost-efficiency."

Back in February 2022 SiFive announced its partnership with Intel Foundry Services (IFS), to bring its "Horse Creek" SoC to market and now SiFive has announced that it's getting ready to launch its first development board on said SoC. This summer, SiFive will launch the HiFive Pro P550 development board, which will kick things up a serious notch when it comes to embedded SoC development boards, regardless of the CPU core the SoC is built around. The HiFive Pro P550 will be one of few microATX based embedded SoC development boards out there and so far, to our knowledge, the only one with a RISC-V based SoC. The Horse Creek SoC sports quad core, 2.2 GHz, 13-stage, triple-issue, out-of-order pipeline RISC-V RV64GBC CPU built on the Intel 4 node. The SoC also has a DDR5 5600 MHz memory interface, support for eight lanes of PCIe 5.0 and comes in a 19 x 19 mm FBGA package.

The HiFive Pro P550 will offer 16 GB of DDR5 memory, but based on the render of the motherboard, this is soldered to the board, rather than relying on standard DDR5 DIMMs. Furthermore, the board has two x16 PCIe 3.0 expansion slots, although it's unclear how many PCIe each slot features, as well as a PCIe 3.0 M.2 2280 M-key slot for NVMe SSDs and a PCIe 3.0 M.2 E-key slot for a WiFi/Bluetooth module. The board also sports multiple USB/USB 3.0 ports and even a pair of USB-C ports. The press release also mentions both Gigabit and 10 Gbps Ethernet support, as well as support for onboard graphics and remote system management, without going into any further details. It'll be interesting to see if the Horse Creek SoC can deliver on its expected performance target, especially as SiFive has a lot to prove, especially as the company calls the RISC-V architecture inevitable.

For those that don't remember the early days of ASRock, the company started out making some rather unusual motherboards, often with some wild and wacky upgrade paths, such as both a slot and a socket for a CPU or both AGP and PCIe graphics card slots. Since then, ASRock has become a much more mainstream motherboard maker, but the company appears to have gone back to its roots with what the company calls the X670 Xpansion Kit. Right now, the expansion card appears to be working with the B650 LiveMixer motherboard and it's unknown if it's compatible with other models from ASRock. It seems to be limited to ASRock motherboards only, due to the fact that the add-in card requires not only a x4 PCIe slot with all lanes attached, on the motherboard, but also a custom cable that is most likely for "low-speed" I/O's such as I2C, SPI and so on.

As the name suggests, the X670 Xpansion Kit allows B650 motherboards to be turned into X670 motherboards, more or less. The card is home to a second chipset, which enables not only two additional M.2 slots for PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, but it also features two SATA ports, a 10 Gbps USB-C port, three USB-A ports and—maybe most interestingly—a 10 Gbps Ethernet interface. It's unclear if this will be a retail product, but the card provided to Level1Techs doesn't appear to be an engineer unit, but a full retail ready product. It's definitely an interesting upgrade path for those that have invested in a B650 motherboard and there's no real reason why this shouldn't work as well as having the second chipset on the motherboard, especially as ASRock appears to have fitted a signal re-driver on the add-in card to make sure the PCIe signals are handled properly.

Intel's Xeon processors feature a wide range of embedded functionalities that the company has developed over the years. One such is the Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC) that enabled the functionality of an NVMe RAID card on the CPU, simplifying the installation, cost, and maintenance of high-performance storage arrays. Debuting in 2017, it is present in some consumer-facing Core models and Xeon Scalable platforms where it sees the highest usage. However, on January 6, Intel posted a product change notice that notified the users that the VROC function would be discontinued, with the last orders being placed on January 23 and the last shipping with VROC being made on March 31. This caused confusion, especially in the enterprise sector, which utilizes Intel Xeon processors for their workloads and storage arrays.

Tom's Hardware has reached out to Intel for clarification and got the following statement:

Intel SpokespersonThe PCN [Product Change Notice] was prematurely posted while the decision was under evaluation. After discussing with the ecosystem and customers we realize there is significant demand for this product and intend to continue to support it.

Silicon Power releases the new UD85, the perfect entry-level, budget-friendly choice for those looking to make the switch to the latest generation of PCIe interface. The UD85 is the perfect introduction to the power of PCIe 4.0. With support for NVMe 1.4 and Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, you'll get uninterrupted productivity via higher performance and lower latency for seamless execution across applications.

The UD85 delivers a fast and smooth experience with read speeds up to 3,600 MB/s and write speeds up to 2,800 MB/s. It achieves improved sequential read/write and random read/write performance with support for SLC Caching. The UD85 is all about value: it's available in large storage capacities up to 2 TB with an affordable price tag. Get all the space you need for applications, documents, photos, and videos without breaking the bank.

Cooler Master at the 2023 International CES showed off the Cooling X, a patent-pending unique desktop PC architecture by the company where the liquid cooling of the CPU and GPU isn't confined to a couple of closed loop AIOs, but rather a giant liquid-cooling loop that even involves the side-panels of the case itself, that double up as additional heat-dissipation surfaces. Notice how some compact fanless cases use extruded-aluminium body panels that double up as heatsinks, to cool the hot components? The Cooling X re-imagines this, where instead of dissipating heat from a heatpipe, the extruded-aluminium body panels have coolant channels, so some of the heat from the liquid-cooling loop is dissipated. These panels supplement a conventional liquid-cooling radiator that's located along the rear panel, which has active ventilation. The liquid-cooling loop cools the processor and GPU.

For its compact dimensions of just 266 mm x 149 mm x 371 mm (LxWxH), the Cooling X prebuilt packs some mighty high-end hardware—an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core processor, and a Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory, two 2 TB M.2 NVMe SSDs, and a homebrew 850 W 80 Plus Gold SFX power supply. For now Cooling X is just a codename, and Cooler Master intends to take this concept forward with high-performance gaming/creator prebuilt desktops sold under its own marquee.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solution innovator, today launched new high-performance TVS-h874 QuTS hero NAS models that incorporate 12th Gen Intel Core i9 sixteen-core, i7 twelve-core multi-thread processors with Intel Core Hybrid Technology for optimal computing performance and smooth multiple virtual machine (VM) operation. Integrating the reliable ZFS-based operating system, PCIe Gen 4 expandability, M.2 NVMe SSD caching, and 2.5GbE/10GbE connectivity, the TVS-h874 assists businesses in building high-performance storage environments for hosting multiple VM, application servers, and running business data backup/restore applications.

"The new TVS-h874 models adopt Intel Core Hybrid Technology, combining Performance-cores and Efficient-cores," said Andy Chuang, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "The Performance Hybrid Architecture intelligently allocates CPU cores to different tasks, thus increasing the performance of the new TVS-h874 models by 3.55 times compared with previous models."

Samsung Electronics today announced production readiness of a high-performance PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, the PM9C1a. Integrated with a new controller based on Samsung's cutting-edge 5-nanometer (nm) process and the company's seventh-generation V-NAND technology, the PM9C1a will provide elevated computing and gaming performance in PCs and laptops.

"Our new PM9C1a SSD will deliver a robust combination of superior performance, greater power efficiency and increased security, which are the qualities that matter most to PC users," said Yong Ho Song, Executive Vice President of Memory Solution Product & Development at Samsung Electronics. "We are committed to creating storage that satisfies the diverse and changing market requirements as we continue to advance innovation in the PC SSD space."

Taiwan-based memory products OEM Datotek has been in business selling flash memory and DRAM products since 2004, with one of its most notable clients being HP. At the 2023 International CES, the company showcased its latest-generation memory products spanning not just HP-branded flash drives, but also flash drives under its own marquee, besides M.2 NVMe and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs; and PC memory spanning DDR5 and DDR4 generations. The company sells various vanilla (JEDEC spec) DDR5 and DDR4 memory modules in both standard U-DIMM and SO-DIMM form-factors. For gamers and enthusiasts, the company has the Ares line of premium DDR5 and DDR4 memory products, which come in overclocked speeds such as DDR5-6000 or DDR4-4000, including with RGB LED illumination.

Among its SSD products are a new PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD under the Ares brand, Gen 4 NVMe drives under the Ares Dark Sword brand, and various Gen 3 NVMe SSDs under the main Datotek brand. We also spotted several USB 3.2 portable SSDs, as well as 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gbps ones under the main brand. The idea here is to attract more brands for OEM partnerships the way rival Biwin makes SSD and DRAM products for various top brands (such as HP and Acer).

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions today announced the evolutionary AORUS Gen4 7300 SSD, which is the upgraded PCIe 4.0 SSD with read speed up to 7300 MB/s. Enhanced by the select PCIe 4.0 controller with advanced 3D-TLC NAND Flash, it provides superior performance than the previous generation PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. AORUS Gen4 7300 SSD with M.2 2280 interface comes in two capacity variants of 2 TB and 1 TB, along with a unique packaging design of separated SSD and heatsink packing to offer more flexible thermal solutions. Meanwhile, the GIGABYTE exclusive GCC software management platform provides the instant overview and adjustment of SSD status for a cool storage operation with high performance.

AORUS Gen4 7300 SSD equips the select Phison E18 8-channel controller, which provides users with ultimate random access rate, as well as the high-speed 3D-TLC NAND Flash and SLC cache design that brings the PCIe 4.0 into full play. Under the real test, AORUS Gen4 7300 SSD can reach a read speed up to 7300 MB/s and a write speed up to 6850 MB/s, which is faster than the previous gen. PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, two times faster than PCIe 3.0 SSD, and up to 13 times faster than SATA SSD. Enhanced by the multi-core architecture of the E18 controller, AORUS Gen4 7300 SSD not only improves AI multitasking to lessen the bottleneck of system performance, but powers up content creators, gamers, and users eager for extreme performance.

Giga Computing is an industry leader in high-performance servers and workstations, today announced the next-generation of GIGABYTE servers and server motherboards for the new 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor to achieve efficient performance gains with built-in accelerators. The new processors have the most built-in accelerators of any processor on the market to help maximize performance efficiency for emerging workloads; and do so while boosting virtualization and AI performance. Generational improvements make this platform ideal for AI, cloud computing, advanced analytics, HPC, networking, and storage applications. For these markets, Giga Computing has announced fourteen new series that constitute seventy-eight configurations for customers to choose from. And all these new GIGABYTE products support the full portfolio of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, including those with high bandwidth memory (HBM) in the Intel Xeon Max Series.

At the 2023 International CES, we caught a hold of Phison, makes or arguably the most popular SSD controllers, which sprung to prominence on being the first to market with PCIe Gen 4 NVMe controllers, and now hopes to repeat it with PCIe Gen 5. We'd been shown a reference-design Phison E26-powered M.2 SSD, along with some hardware specs of the controller itself. The drive itself isn't much to look at—a standard looking M.2-2280 drive with a PCI-Express 5.0 x4 host interface, and the Phison E26 controller with its shiny IHS being prominently located next to a DDR4 memory chip, and two new-generation Micron Technology 3D NAND flash memory chips.

The Phison E26 controller, bearing the long-form model number PS5026-E26, is an NVMe 2.0 spec client-segment SSD controller. It has been built on the TSMC 12 nm FinFET silicon-fabrication node. The controller features an integrated DRAM controller with support for DDR4 and LPDDR4 memory types for use as DRAM cache. Its main flash interface is 8-channel with 32 NAND chip-enable (CE) lines, support for TLC and QLC NAND flash, a dual-CPU architecture, and hardware-acceleration for AES-256, TCG-Opal, and Pyrite. The controller features Phison's 5th generation LPDC ECC and internal RAID engines. For its reference-design 2 TB TLC-based drive, Phison claims sequential transfer rates of up to 13.5 GB/s reads, with up to 12 GB/s writes. The 4K random-access performance is rated at up to 1.5 million IOPS reads, with up to 2 million IOPS writes.

Montage Technology, a leading data processing and interconnect IC design company, announced today that its PCIe 5.0/CXL 2.0 Retimer has successfully achieved mass production. This chip is a key upgrade based on Montage's PCIe 4.0 Retimer, providing a stable and reliable PCIe 5.0 and CXL 2.0 interconnect solution with high bandwidth and low latency for the cloud and high-performance computing market.

Montage's PCIe 5.0/CXL 2.0 Retimer employs advanced signal conditioning technologies to improve signal integrity and increase the effective transmission distance of high-speed signals. Compliant with relevant PCI-SIG and CXL specifications, the chip meets mainstream package requirements, supports transfer rate up to 32 GT/s, and takes the lead in supporting ultra-low transmission latency of less than 5 ns. The chip supports various complex system topologies such as SRIS and Retimer cascading, offering an ideal solution to address the PCIe/CXL signal integrity challenges in next-generation servers, enterprise storage, and AI acceleration systems. The PCIe 5.0/CXL 2.0 Retimer has passed extensive interoperability testing with a variety of compute, storage and networking products, such as CPU, PCIe switches, SSDs, GPUs and NICs, thus laying a solid foundation for the large-scale deployment of cloud computing and data centers.

Micron Technology, today announced the Micron 9400 NVMe SSD is in volume production and immediately available from channel partners and to global OEM customers for use in servers requiring the highest levels of storage performance. The Micron 9400 is designed to manage the most demanding data center workloads, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) training, machine learning (ML) and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. The drive delivers an industry-leading 30.72 terabytes (TB) of storage capacity, superior workload performance versus the competition, and 77% improved input/output operations per second (IOPS). The Micron 9400 is the world's fastest PCIe Gen4 data center U.3 drive shipping and delivers consistently low latency at all capacity points.

"High performance, capacity and low latency are critical features for enterprises seeking to maximize their investments in AI/ML and supercomputing systems," said Alvaro Toledo, vice president and general manager of data center storage at Micron. "Thanks to its industry-leading 30 TB capacity and stunning performance with over 1 million IOPS in mixed workloads, the Micron 9400 SSD packs larger datasets into each server and accelerates machine learning training, which equips users to squeeze more out of their GPUs."

Mushkin at the 2023 International CES showed off its Vortex Redline and Vortex LX M.2 NVMe SSDs. The Vortex Redline is the company's top PCIe Gen 4 drive, combining an Innogrit IG5236 NVMe 1.4 controller with 3D TLC NAND flash, to offer transfer speeds of up to 7415 MB/s. The Vortex Redline comes in capacities of 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. The Vortex LX is a more value-oriented product, based on an unnamed Innogrit-sourced DRAMless controller. This drive features a PCIe Gen 4 interface, but offers slightly lower performance that the company didn't disclose.

The star attraction at the Mushkin booth was its Epsilon SSD that features a PCI-Express 5.0 x4 + NVMe 2.0 interface, a Phison E26-series controller, and next generation 3D NAND flash memory (possibly 232-layer). The drive features active cooling from a fan-heatsink, and while the company didn't talk about performance, drives based on this controller are known to offer up to 12 GB/s of sequential transfers. Lastly, the company showed off its lineup of 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gbps SSDs in capacities ranging all the way up to 16 TB, which are meant to be HDD replacements, and "warm" storage devices.

The online datasheets of some of the first AMD Ryzen 7040 series "Phoenix Point" mobile processors went live, detailing the processor's I/O feature-set. We learn that AMD has decided to give PCI-Express Gen 5 a skip with this silicon, at least in its mobile avatar. The Ryzen 7040 SoC puts out a total of 20 PCI-Express Gen 4 lanes, all of which are "usable" (i.e. don't count 4 lanes toward chipset-bus). This would mean that the silicon has a full PCI-Express 4.0 x16 interface for discrete graphics, and a PCI-Express 4.0 x4 link for a CPU-attached M.2 NVMe slot; unlike the "Raphael" desktop MCM and the "Dragon Range" mobile MCM, whose client I/O dies put out a total of 28 Gen 5 lanes (24 usable, with x16 PEG + two x4 toward CPU-attached M.2 slots).

Another interesting aspect about "Phoenix Point" is its memory controllers. The SoC features a dual-channel (four sub-channel) DDR5 memory interface, besides support for LPDDR5 and LPDDR5x. DDR5-5600 and LPDDR5-7600 are the native speeds supported. What's really interesting is the maximum amount of memory supported, which stands at 256 GB—double that of "Raphael" and "Dragon Range," which top out at 128 GB. This bodes well for the eventual Socket AM5 APUs AMD will design based on the "Phoenix Point" silicon. Older Ryzen 5000G "Cezanne" desktop APUs are known for superior memory overclocking capabilities to 5000X "Vermeer," with the monolithic nature of the silicon favoring latencies. Something similar could be expected from "Phoenix Point."

German boutique gaming notebook and mobile workstation builder Schenker XMG unveiled its latest line of mobile powerhouses that combine 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake-HX" mobile processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40-series "Ada Lovelace" Laptop GPUs. The 2023 XMG Neo 17 packs an 8P+16E Core i9-13900HX processor, two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with 175 W power limit, and a 17-inch 16:10 2560 x 1600 pixels display that supports G-SYNC. The machine supports NVIDIA Advanced Optimus power management. Its centered keyboard features Cherry MX ULP Tactile mechanical keyswitches. The XMG Neo 17 is designed to provide a power-packed mobile workstation and gaming experience on the move. There is a slightly smaller version of the same notebook, the XMG Neo 15, but with a 15.6-inch display, but the same hardware.

While the XMG Neo 17 is positioned more like a mobile workstation, the 2023 XMG Ultra 17 is thoroughly wooing competitive gamers and PC enthusiasts, with its RGB LED-illuminated keyboard, a meatier heatsink designed for extended gameplay sessions, and an overall racy product design. Under the hood is similar hardware to the Neo, with an i9-13900HX 8P+16E processor, two DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM slots, an M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD, two Thunderbolt 4 interfaces, and that sweet GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with 175 W PL. the XMG Neo has an interesting air+liquid hybrid cooling solution that is detachable.

MSI in its 2023 International CES booth showed us their upcoming M.2 PCIe Gen 5 + NVMe 2.0 SSDs, the Spatium M570 PRO and the Spatium M570. The M570 PRO unsurprisingly is the faster of the two, and rocks a sophisticated new cooling solution by MSI. A vapor-chamber plate makes direct contact with the controller and other hot components on the drive, conveying heat to a heatsink with a very fine aluminium fin-stack, whcih is capped off by a die-cast aluminium top-plate. This design, MSI claims, optimizes convectional airflow without interference from nearby airflow sources (such as CPU coolers).

The Spatium M570 PRO offers sequential transfer rates of up to 12 GB/s reads, with up to 10 GB/s writes, and is available in capacities of 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB. The MSI Spatium M570 (non-PRO) rocks a simpler ridge aluminium monoblock heatsink, and comes in the same capacity options, but with lower maximum read performance. You get up to 10 GB/s sequential reads, with up to 10 GB/s sequential writes with this one.

KIOXIA is betting big on enterprise flash storage, and demoed several of its new and already-launched NVMe products based on the company's 162-layer 3D NAND flash memory, aka 6th Generation BiCS flash. Starting off, we see several single-chip solutions, namely the BiCS5 eTLC, the BiCS Industial TLC, and the BiCS5-QLC. These are complete NVMe SSDs on a single package, targeting embedded systems, industrial PCs, and the likes. They can even be directly embedded on server motherboards to serve as boot drives, freeing up precious chassis space for the main storage devices.

The EM6 is an enterprise network-attached SSD in a 2.5-inch form-factor. This is a NAS-on-a-stick that can be deployed at large scale, and accessible as a network resource, or as an NVMe-over-Fiber device. The CM7 is a high-capacity 2.5-inch (EDSFF E3.S) SSD that comes in sizes of up to 30 TB, and has PCI-Express 5.0 x4 interface with NVMe 2.0 protocol, with endurance of up to 3 DWPD and offering FIPS 140-33 security. We also see the XD6 line of EDSFF E1.S form-factor NVMe SSDs with PCIe 4.0 interfaces, up to 3.84 TB capacity, and 1 DWPD endurance.

It's a laptop, but it can be anything—the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i has the conventional shape of a clamshell notebook, except that there's a second touchscreen where you'd expect the keyboard an trackpad to be. You get a folio-type silicone keyboard with physical keys that provide tactile feedback, or you can pull up an on-screen keyboard on either screen and type with haptic feedback. As a Yoga product, the hinge turns 360°, and at 180° it can become a dual-screen setup. The possibilities are endless.

Under the hood is an Intel Core i7 U-series "Raptor Lake-U" 15 W 2P+8E SoC with 16 GB LPDDR5X memory; NVMe Gen 4 SSD, integrated Iris Xe graphics, and an 80 WHr battery. Each of the two 13.3-inch touchscreens has a 16:10 aspect-ratio and 1920 x 1200 resolution. Comms include Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2 (a 5G modem would be incredible).

Acer at the 2023 International CES showed off its latest lineup of memory and storage products targeting the DIY PC enthusiast market segment under its high-end Predator brand. Leading the booth is the Vesta II line of DDR5 memory modules featuring a high-end product design, and RGB LED lighting. The one shown to us featured a rather modest DDR5-5200 speed and 2x 16 GB density, but the company assured it is spreading the lineup to higher frequencies. The Pallas II line of performance-segment memory targeting creators, for example, does DDR5-6000.

A star attraction in the booth was the Predator GM7 M.2 NVMe SSD. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive features a PCI-Express 4.0 x4 + NVMe 2.0 host interface, and combines a Maxiotech MAP1602 controller with YMTC 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash based on the Xtacking 3.0 architecture. The drive offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 7400 MB/s reads, with up to 6300 MB/s writes, and comes in sizes of 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB, priced at USD $49.90, $89.90, and $159.99, respectively. Acer is backing these drives with a 5-year warranty.

Last year it felt like DDR5-6000 to DDR5-6400 was the top of the PC memory food-chain, and in a year, this has been pushed up to DDR5-8000. Platforms such as the 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" can already handle such high memory speeds, and ADATA has designed such a memory module that includes an Intel XMP 3.0 profile that enables the advertised DDR5-8000 speed at the click of a button. The new ADATA XPG Caster RGB DDR5-8000 features a chunky aluminium heatspreader that's crowned by a silicone addressable RGB LED diffuser. It's been tested for compatibility with both Intel and AMD platforms, however only an XMP 3.0 profile is included.

Elsewhere across the ADATA booth, we also came across the company's latest SD 8.0 memory card that uses PCI-Express 3.0 x2 physical layer and NVMe 1.3 protocol layer, to offer sequential speeds of up to 1600 MB/s reads, with up to 1300 MB/s writes, including LDPC ECC. The card comes in 256 GB and 512 GB capacities, and is backwards-compatible with UHS-I devices. Back at the memory section, we found an XPG + ASUS ROG co-branded Lancer ROG DDR5 memory that comes at speeds of up to DDR5-6600. Lastly, there's the ACE-6400, a mid-range DDR5-6400 memory module targeting creators, that runs at DDR5-5600 native (JEDEC), and its advertised DDR5-6400 using an XMP 3.0 profile.

This week at CES 2023, KIOXIA America, Inc., the inventors of NAND flash, will highlight new technologies, products, and form factors designed to meet upcoming IT requirements and standards - including PCIe 5.0 and UFS 4.0.

In an ever-changing technology landscape, where evolving standards push performance levels higher and higher, KIOXIA stands ready for what comes next - thanks to its broad, diverse lineup of flash storage solutions. "Whether it's the next connected vehicle, the next personal mobility device or the next smart city - we keep advancing flash memory to make the next thing possible," said Alex Mei, vice president of corporate marketing for KIOXIA America, Inc. "Countless consumer devices and applications require flash memory and SSDs, and we are committed to continued innovation."