Nextorage Corporation's President, Katsuyuki Honda, has announced that the company will start selling its PCIe Gen 5.0-compliant NVMe SSDs "X Series" this month. The PCIe 5.0-compliant X Series is equipped with a high-performance controller and advanced NAND flash for unparalleled high-speed performance, making it ideal for professional use cases that require high-load processing, such as 4K/8K content creators and data scientists, as well as for users pursuing high-end gaming environments. It is ideal for users who pursue high-end gaming environments.

The NN5PRO-2000 is ideal for professional use cases such as 4K/8K content creators and data scientists who require high-load processing, as well as for users pursuing high-end gaming environments. Maximum read speed of 12,400 MB/s, maximum write speed of 11,800 MB/s—this is the measured values of Nextorage's NN5PRO-2 TB model.

Nextorage Japan is preparing its NE5N range of PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs for launch in early June - listings have emerged on Newegg for 2 TB and 1 TB models - with a product page appearing recently on the company's (Japanese language) website. These units boast read and write speeds rated for operation up to 10 GB/s, and are based on Phison's E26 PCIe Gen 5 controller. Nextorage started off as a provider of PlayStation 5-oriented PCIe Gen 4 SSD products, due to company ties to Sony Corporation, but its upcoming NE5N range indicates that it intends to target buyers within the enthusiast PC market.

The initial batch of cutting edge SSDs are unlikely to end up in any PS5 consoles, thanks to a sizable dual formation heatsink - the Japanese company has filed a patent for the bulky two-level structure and heatpipe combination design. Gen 5 SSDs are said to be difficult to tame in terms of heat output, and manufacturers are going to great lengths (and sizes) to provide adequate cooling solutions in advance. Future versions of Nextorage Japan's NE5N NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 5 SSDs are being refined for compact PCs and laptops, so it will be interesting to find out about the intended thermal tempering for more cramped environments.

Nextorage Corporation will launch a PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 ("PCIe 4.0") M.2 2280 NVMe SSD "NEM-PA series" for the USA market from March. The products are initially sold on Amazon. Nextorage was established on October 1, 2019, as a company specializing in the memory storage solutions business led by engineers and staff who built on 20 years of history in memory storage at Sony.

The NEM-PA series is an M.2 2280 SSD equipped with a PCIe 4.0 / NVMe 1.4 controller and a 3D TLC NAND, and comes with a heatsink for heat dissipation. The drive achieves sequential read up to 7,300 MB/s, sequential write up to 6,900 MB/s, and random read/write up to 1,000 K IOPS (in a PC environment). The NEM-PA series delivers both high-speed loading and smooth gaming experience.

In response to the rising market demand for next-generation, customized high-end storage, Phison Electronics Corp. (Phison; 8299TT), a leader in NAND controllers and NAND storage solutions, acquired shares of its joint-venture company Nextorage Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Nextorage") from its joint-venture partner, Sony Storage Media Solutions Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "SSMS"; SSMS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation). The acquisition continues Phison's expansion into the customized high-end storage market, including high-resolution image processing systems, automotive electronics, e-sports and gaming systems, factory automation, electronic medical equipment, and industrial robots, etc. Through the resources of local R&D engineers in Japan, it serves nearby Japanese customers and continuously improves service quality.

Japan is a major industrial country. In addition to industrial robots that are widely used globally, automotive electronics, e-sports and game systems, high-resolution imaging systems, electronic medical equipment, and factory automation equipment all occupy important positions in the world. In addition to high-speed data access, storage products required by this type of high-end application market often require a certain degree of customization and system-optimization adjustments for terminal applications. In other words, the standard storage products on the market cannot be perfectly matched and integrated with the system side, and therefore there is a demand gap for customization. The acquisition of the joint-venture company Nextorage, from joint-venture partner SSMS, which is strong in the customized high-end storage market, is expected to help Phison strengthen its high-end customized storage products to meet the needs of the Japanese and global markets.