MaxLinear, Inc. a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for broadband, connectivity, and infrastructure markets, and Silicon Motion, a global leader in NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which MaxLinear will acquire Silicon Motion in a cash and stock transaction that values the combined company at $8 billion in enterprise value. In the merger, each American Depositary Share (ADS) of Silicon Motion, which represents four ordinary shares of Silicon Motion, will receive $93.54 in cash and 0.388 shares of MaxLinear common stock, for total per ADS consideration of $114.34 (based on MaxLinear's May 4, 2022 closing price). The strategic business combination is anticipated to drive transformational scale, create a diversified technology portfolio, significantly expand the combined company's total addressable market, and create a highly profitable cash generating semiconductor leader.

Upon completion of the acquisition, the combined company will have a highly diversified technology platform with strong positions across the broadband, connectivity, infrastructure, and storage end markets. The combination of MaxLinear's RF, analog/mixed-signal, and processing capabilities with Silicon Motion's market leading NAND flash controller technology completes a total technology stack which fully captures end-to-end platform functionality and accelerates the company's expansion into enterprise, consumer, and many other adjacent growth markets. Combined revenues are expected to be more than $2 billion annually and are supported by the technology breadth to address a total market opportunity of roughly $15 billion.

Although we've already seen some companies both tease and announce PCIe 5.0 consumer SSDs, it seems like we shouldn't expect mainstream PCIe 5.0 SSDs until 2024, at least if Silicon Motion's earnings call is anything to go by. Wallace Kou, Silicon Motion's CEO was quoted as saying ""It is likely that PCIe Gen4 will last a few years since Intel, AMD both continue to bring new upgrade variant of CPU with PCIe Gen4 to the market," continuing "Similarly, we are preparing for the launch of our third-generation PCIe Gen4 controller next year before transitioning to PCIe Gen5 in the following year."

This obviously has something to do not only with development time, but also with recuperating the costs of developing the previous generation of PCIe 4.0 SSD controllers before introducing new products that would have limited market share due to at least initially high prices. Silicon Motion is said to be working on multiple PCIe 5.0 SSD controllers with the enthusiast grade SM2508 expected towards the end of this year and it's set to compete with Phison's PS5026-E26 and InnoGrit's IG5666 controllers, plus unannounced inhouse controllers from the likes of Samsung and WD. Silicon Motion's mainstream PCIe 5.0 controller is said to be the SM2507, which is also said to be more suitable for mobile applications, most likely due to lower power consumption. However, the first PCIe 5.0 controller from Silicon Motion should be the SM8366 enterprise grade controller that was announced last year and which should be shipping in the second half of this year. For most users, PCIe 5.0 SSDs are unlikely to make a huge difference, unless we see some major improvements when it comes to random read and write performance, as this is currently the real bottleneck with SSDs.

Kingston NV1 is an entry-level M.2 NVMe SSD that comes at extremely tempting pricing of just $85 for the 1 TB version. Read all about it in our detailed performance review of the 1 TB variant. After our testing, when we peeled the label for component photography, we discovered that our drive combined a Silicon Motion SM2263XT DRAM-less controller, with 96-layer QLC NAND flash by Micron Technology. This went against every other review of the NV1 we read so far, which points to a combination of a Phison E13T series controller, with either TLC or QLC NAND flash, depending on the drive capacity. This makes our review probably the first instance of an SMI+QLC combination.

We did some digging, and are drawn to the origins of the NV1. Launched in March 2021, the drive adopts a strategy by Kingston to only advertise the performance and endurance numbers that are possible with any drive hardware combination. An AnandTech article from the time references how the drive, much like the A400 SATA SSD, comes in a number of controller+flash combinations. These include the SMI SM2263XT, or Phison E13T; and NAND that's either TLC or QLC. This uncertainty in hardware specs means that when you to go shop for an NV1, you can only expect the worst (i.e. QLC flash).

Update Dec 30th: As one of our readers pointed out, you can identify the Phison and SMI versions of the NV1 without breaking the package. This is illustrated in the second picture below, just look for the shiny controller (SM2263XT) or the capacitor arrangement (Phison E13T). Pictures on shop websites will probably not reflect this as most will either use a stock image provided by Kingston, or shoot the photo once and never update it.

XPG, a fast-growing provider of systems, components, and peripherals for Gamers, Esports Pros, and Tech Enthusiasts, today announces it will be on location in Las Vegas during the 2022 CES show (Jan. 5-8). Under the theme of 'Dawn of a New Xtreme,' it will be showing off the latest products from XPG and ADATA including gaming systems, peripherals, accessories, and components, such as the newest DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0 solid state drives (SSD) and the latest state-of-the-art Platinum PSU.

XPG's and ADATA are gearing up to bring next-generation performance to gamers and other users with its latest PCIe Gen5x 4 SSDs and DDR5 DRAM. At the booth, visitors will get a first look at the XPG LANCER RGB DDR5 and CASTER RGB DDR5 that deliver next-level performance of up to 6000 MT/s and 7000 MT/s, respectively. ADATA's industrial-grade DDR5-4800 U/SO/R-DIMM memory with on-die ECC & PMIC will also be on display.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices, today launched its new SM2320 single-chip high performance, lower power and cost effective solution for external portable SSDs. The new SM2320 controller solution is designed with integrated hardware and firmware as well as high-level security features which meet the needs of game console users requiring high performance and the low power requirements of laptop users. The external portable SSD market is growing due to the performance, low power consumption, reliability and portability of such devices enabled by NAND memory. Customers include Kingston Technology, which has designed SM2320 into its new XS2000 external portable SSD, as well as other module and NAND flash providers.

"Kingston is thrilled to collaborate with SMI for the launch of our new pocket-sized XS2000 portable SSD," said Keith Schimmenti, SSD Business Manager, Kingston. "Our Kingston engineers continue to focus on improving the performance of our products and with the new SM2320 controller, we are able to get XS2000 in the hands of our customers and meet the high performance and high capacity demands they need to keep up with the ever-evolving digital world."

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. For the first quarter, net sales (GAAP) increased sequentially to $182.4 million from $143.9 million in fourth quarter 2020. Net income (GAAP) increased to $34.4 million or $0.98 per diluted ADS (GAAP) from net income (GAAP) of $1.4 million or $0.04 per diluted ADS (GAAP) in fourth quarter 2020. For the first quarter, net income (non-GAAP) increased to $38.7 million or $1.11 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP) from a net income (non-GAAP) of $29.9 million or $0.86 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP) in fourth quarter 2020.

"As we had previously communicated, we are seeing very strong demand for our SSD and eMMC+UFS controllers," said Wallace Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion. "Customer demand was well in excess of our ability to supply as both our foundry supply and inventory on hand are limited."

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices, today announced that its flagship SM2708 SD Express controller solution now supports the latest SD 8.0 specification and backward compatibility to SD 7.1 specification. With PCIe Gen 3 x2 interface and NVMe 1.3, the SM2708 SD Express controller solution is targeted at the advancement of applications with demanding performance levels across a variety of industries enabled by Ultra-High Performance SD Express cards. The SM2708 turnkey solution supports the latest 3D NAND and features Silicon Motion's proprietary NANDXtend ECC technology, internal data path protection, and programmable firmware to maximize reliability and endurance.

"Many of the latest high-end cameras & mobile phones are capable of recording video in 8K and require a faster transfer rate," said Nelson Duann, Silicon Motion's Senior Vice President of Marketing and R&D. "With the SM2708 controller now supporting the SD 8.0 specification which nearly triples throughput, applications such as 8K video capture, RAW photography, multi-channel IOT devices, multi-processing automotive storage and other applications requiring ultra-high data speeds are possible."

Intel today rolled out the SSD 670p series, a new line of M.2 NVMe SSDs that are targeted at the mainstream segment. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host-interface, the drive implements Intel's latest 144-layer 3D QLC NAND flash memory, mated with a re-badged Silicon Motion SM2265G 8-channel controller that uses a fixed 256 MB DDR3L DRAM cache across all capacity variants. It comes in capacities of 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB.

The 1 TB and 2 TB variants offer sequential read speeds of up to 3500 MB/s, while the 512 GB variant reads at up to 3000 MB/s. Sequential write speeds vary, with the 512 GB variant writing at up to 1600 MB/s, the 1 TB variant at up to 2500 MB/s, and the 2 TB variant at up to 2700 MB/s. The drives offer significantly higher endurance than past generations of QLC-based drives, with the 512 GB variant capable of up to 185 TBW, the 1 TB variant up to 370 TBW, and the 2 TB variant up to 740 TBW. Intel is backing the drives with 5-year warranties. The 512 GB variant is priced at $89, the 1 TB variant at $154, and the 2 TB variant at $329.

ADATA has recently been in a spot of controversy when it comes to their XPG SX8200 Pro solid-state drive (SSD). The company has reportedly shipped many different configurations of the SSD with different drive controller clock speeds and different NAND flash. According to the original report, ADATA has first shipped the SX8200 Pro SSD with Silicon Motion SM2262ENG SSD controller, running at 650 MHz with IMFT 64-layer TLC NAND Flash. However, it was later reported that the SSD was updated to use the Silicon Motion SM2262G SSD controller, clocked at 575 MHz. With this report, many users have gotten concerned and started to question the company's practices. However, ADATA later ensured everyone that performance is within the specifications and there is no need to worry.

Today, we have another report about the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro SSD. According to a Redditor, ADATA has once again updated its SSD with a different kind of NAND Flash, however, this time the report indicated that performance was impacted. Tom's Hardware has made a table of changes showing as many as five revisions of the SSD, all with different configurations of SSD controllers and NAND Flash memory. We have contacted ADATA to clarify the issues that have emerged, and this is the official response that the company gave us.

With the debut of PCIe 4.0 standard, SSD manufacturers have started launching a new generation of storage devices, with unseen speeds before. Today's PCIe 4.0 SSDs can reach up to 8.0 GB/s reads and writes, all thanks to the bandwidth-heavy PCIe protocol. However, enterprise workloads are always requiring more and more bandwidth to satisfy their needs. Data is being moved in immense quantities and faster hardware is always welcome. The previous PCIe 4.0 standard is about to kneel to its successor - PCIe 5.0 protocol. Having double the amount of bandwidth, the new standard is set to bring unseen speeds.

The PCIe 5.0 protocol offers 32 GT/s per lane, making up to 64 GB/s in the full x16 implementation. However, when it comes to SSDs, as they use x4 lanes, it will increase the maximum speed to 16 GB/s, doubling the previous bandwidth. Silicon Motion, the maker of NAND flash controllers, has announced that the company is going to debut a PCIe 5.0 controller next year. "We are excited about enterprise-grade PCIe Gen5 controller, which we will have taped out early next year and sample in the second half of 2022", said Wallace Kuo, chief executive of Silicon Motion, during a conference call. Launching just in time to pair with Intel's Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors that support the PCIe 5.0 protocol, Silicon Motion is probably expecting to grab its market share there.

In the upstream semiconductor industry, the major foundries such as TSMC and UMC are reporting fully loaded capacities, while in the downstream, the available production capacity for OSAT is also lacking, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Given this situation, suppliers of NAND Flash controller ICs such as Phison and Silicon Motion are now unable to meet upside demand from their clients. Not only have many controller IC suppliers temporarily stopped offering quotes for new orders, but they are also even considering raising prices soon because the negotiations between NAND Flash suppliers and module houses over 1Q21 contracts are now at the critical juncture. The potential increases in prices of controller ICs from outsourced suppliers (IC design houses) are currently estimated to be the range of 15-20%.

With regards to the demand side, demand has risen significantly for eMMC solutions with medium- and low-density specifications (i.e., 64 GB and lower), for which NAND Flash suppliers have mostly stopped updating the NAND Flash process technology, while maintaining support with the legacy 2D NAND or the 64L 3D NAND process. This is on account of strong sales for Chromebook devices and TVs. As older processes gradually account for a lowering portion of bit output proportions from NAND Flash suppliers, these companies are exhibiting a lowered willingness to directly supply such eMMC products to clients. As a result, clients now need to turn to memory module houses, which are able to source NAND Flash components and controllers, to procure eMMC products in substantial quantities.

ASRock's enterprise motherboard subsidiary, ASRock Rack, unveiled what is possibly the strangest graphics card, called simply "M.2_VGA." This card uses a Silicon Motion SM750 chip with an embedded memory, and is built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, with an interface that supports both the B-key and M-key slot types. The chip uses a PCI-Express 3.0 x1 host interface, and 16 MB of DDR1 embedded memory. A tiny header on the card puts out analog D-Sub through an expansion bracket, while another takes in 2-pin 12 V power from a Molex connector. While its performance is slightly short for maxed-out "Control" at native 4K with raytracing, you get just enough for a 1080p basic desktop display—which explains why ASRock is selling it through its enterprise subsidiary. The card is meant for servers.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices, today announced the SM8266, a complete enterprise-grade 16-channel PCIe 4.0 NVMe hardware plus firmware turnkey SSD controller solution. Customers can rapidly develop and bring to market enterprise SSDs for data centers by using our complete development platform that includes a turnkey NVMe firmware stack and hardware reference design kit.

"Our solution is the only complete PCIe Gen4 turnkey solution available today from an established merchant controller supplier," said Nelson Duann, Silicon Motion's Senior Vice President of Marketing and R&D. "Since the introduction of our PCIe Gen3 turnkey solution, we have established a longer track record of supplying turnkey solutions in terms of customer adoption and sale volume than any other company. Our Shannon Systems team is already custom designing enterprise-grade NVMe, Open-Channel and Key-Value SSDs using SM8266 for hyperscale customers' data centers with production expected in 2021."

Silicon Motion has recently launched three new PCIe 4.0 NVMe controllers for performance, mainstream, and value SSD applications. The new portfolio of controllers includes the SM2264 for performance, SM2267 for mainstream, and SM2267XT for value DRAM-less SSDs. The high-end SM2264 performance-optimized controller offers speeds of up to 7,400 MB/s sequential reads and 6,800 MB/s sequential writes which will compete with the Phison E18 controller and proprietary controllers from Samsung and Western Digital. The controller will be produced on TSMC's 12 nm node and supports 8 NAND channels along with LPDDR4/DDR4 DRAM.

The more value-focused SM2267 and SM2267XT controllers will offer strong performance rivaling high-end PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs. The two controllers both offer sequential read speeds of 3,900 MB/s and sequential write speeds of 3,500 MB/s with support for 4 NAND channels. They will both be manufactured on a 28 nm node for cost reductions and have entered mass production with the main difference between the two controllers being the exclusion of DRAM support on the SM2267XT. Consumer products featuring the new controllers should be available in the coming months.

Plextor late last week unveiled the M8V Plus line of mainstream SATA SSDs in the 2.5-inch and M.2-2280 form-factors. The M8V Plus is an incremental update of the original M8V series from 2018. What's new is the implementation of KIOXIA-sourced 96-layer TLC NAND flash replacing 64-layer chips from Toshiba. The M8V Plus series comes in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB variants, while the original M8V came in 128-thru-512 GB variants.

The Silicon Motion SM2258 controller under the hood of the M8V Plus, has been updated to its latest revision, and supports Plextor-innovated Plex Compress technology. This feature uses the controller's idle time to compress files that haven't been accessed for over 30 days. The Plex Turbo feature, which is essentially variable-size SLC cache, has also been improved to be larger in size. On-paper performance hasn't changed, with the company claiming up to 560 MB/s sequential reads, up to 520 MB/s sequential writes, up to 90,000 IOPS 4K random access for the 256 GB and 512 GB variants; and up to 88,000 IOPS random access for the 1 TB variant. The company rates write endurance for the 256 GB variant at 140 TBW, 512 GB variant at 280 TBW, and 560 TBW for the 1 TB variant. All three variants are backed by 3-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ADATA XPG, a provider of systems, components, and peripherals for gamers, esports pros, and tech enthusiasts, today announces the XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite PCIe Gen 4x4 M.2 2280 solid state drive (SSD). With the advent of 5G networks and the ever-growing volume of data being processed, the PCIe Gen4 interface is a critical upgrade that will bring storage devices to the next level. The S50 Lite expands the GAMMIX S50 series with a new option for mainstream users wanting to harness the capabilities of PCIe 4.0.

"With the launch of the S50 Lite, we have now extended our PCIe 4.0 SSD offering to meet not only the demands of early adopters but also mainstream users, whether for work or play," said Ibsen Chen, Director of Product Marketing at ADATA. "With support from our strategic partners at Silicon Motion, we have invested in developing a next-generation SSD that is accessible and offers exceptional performance."

KLEVV today introduced the CRAS C710 line of mainstream M.2 NVMe SSDs, in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB capacities. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, the drives combine a Silicon Motion SM2263XT DRAMless controller with 3D TLC NAND flash memory, offering intelligent SLC caching. Performance figures put out by the company read as up to 2,100 MB/s sequential reads, up to 1,650 MB/s sequential writes for the 1 TB variant. The 512 GB variant offers up to 2,050 MB/s reads, with up to 1,650 MB/s writes. The 256 GB model does up to 1,950 MB/s reads, with up to 1,250 MB/s writes. The company didn't reveal pricing information.

It's been a while since we've had a post on a Goodram product at TechPowerUp, with the company's releases mainly falling off the radar. However, the company's new PX500 series of NVMe SSDs are being positioned as value options in the segment, whilst being quoted with some respectable transfer speeds - provided you don't acquire the lowest capacity version. Available in 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB capacities, the Goodram PX500 are DRAM-less SSDs driven by Silicon Motion's SMI 2263XT controller.

Quoted numbers for the 256 GB version stand at 1,850 MB/s sequential read, 950 MB/s sequential write, 102,000 IOPS 4K random read and 230,000 IOPS 4K random write. The 512 GB version posts 2,000 MB/s, 1,600 MB/s, 173,000 IOPS and 140,000 IOPS in the same performance metrics, while the 1 TB version maxes out at 2,050 MB/s, 1650 MB/s, 240,000 IOPS and 280,000 IOPS, respectively. The Goodram PX500 series of NVMe SSDs are backed by a three-year warranty, and prices have not yet been announced.

Mushkin has announced availability of their updated PILOT-E NVMe M.2 SSDs, which build upon their previously released PILOT family of SSDs. The PILOT-E are offered in the M.2 2280 form-factor, and make use of the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface to achieve speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s sequential reads and 3,100 MB/s sequential writes. The PILOT-E SSDs make use of Silicon Motion's SM2262EN" controller, which supports up to 8 NAND channels for increased throughput which connects to the PILOT-E's 3D TLC NAND.

The PILOT-E family of NVMe SSDs will be available in capacities ranging from 500 GB up to 2 TB, which seems about right for current market trends. The 500 GB model will feature the lowest performance figures at 3,500 MB/s sequential reads,2,300 MB/s sequential writes, random reads at 344,400 IOPS, random writes at 343,000 IOPS, and a write endurance rated at 350 TBW. The PILOT-e counts with SLC cache for improved performance, as well as LDPC ECC, end-to-end protection, global wear leveling, static data refresh, HMB, and AES 256-bit encryption. MTBF is set at 1.5 million hours, and typical warranty is set at three years. I'm seeing pricing starting at $74,99 for the 500 GB version and $249.99 for the 2 TB one.

Mushkin at CES 2020 showcased their latest products, both in the storage or random access memory space. Starting with the NVMe products, the EON NVMe SSD will be available in capacities starting at 500 GB through 4 TB, and make use of 3D TLC NAND paired with Silicon Motion's SM2267 controller. It's a PCIe 4.0 x4 affair in the M.2 2280 form-factor, with built-in LDPC ECC technology. The company is quoting speeds up to 4 GB/s read and up to 3 GB/s writes, with up to 400K IOPS on either case. The EON Pro upgrades both storage capacity (available in up to a whopping 16 TB density) and speeds, leveraging Silicon Motion's SM 2264 controller. Sequential reads and writes are quoted at 6.4 GB/s and 3.9 GB/s, respectively, with 700K IOPS on both scenarios.

The Source Q, on the other hand, is a 2.5" SATA SSD, and keeps the Silicon Motion trend going with the company's SM2259XT controller. It offers up to 560 MB/s reads and 515 MB/s writes, with up to 95K read IOPS and 86K write IOPS. It will only be available in 500 GB through 2 TB capacities, which goes to show how Mushkin is prioritizing demand for their NVMe drives.

Phison was first to market with a client-segment PCI-Express gen 4.0 NVMe SSD controller, and as a result, the first wave of gen 4.0 M.2 SSDs have been dominated by the E16-series controller. At CES 2020, we got to see some of the first drives based on PCIe gen 4.0 controllers from other manufacturers such as Silicon Motion and InnoGrit, thanks to ADATA. With begin with the company's latest-generation XPG SAGE M.2 NVMe SSDs with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 interface, which come in capacities of up to 4 TB, and which are powered by InnoGrit "Rainier" IG5236 controller, belting out sequential transfer speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s reads, with up to 6,100 MB/s writes, and up to 1 million IOPS 4K random access. The drive supports the latest NVMe 1.4 protocol.

Next up is the XPG Indigo, another M.2 NVMe PCI-Express 4.0 x4 drive positioned a notch below the XPG Sage. This one uses Silicon Motion's fastest PCIe gen 4.0 client-segment controller, the SM2264. With capacities of up to 4 TB, the drive offers up to 7,000 MB/s sequential reads, up to 6,000 MB/s sequential writes, and up to 700,000 IOPS 4K random-access performance. Lastly there's the XPG Pearl, a high cost-performance model powered by the mid-range SM2267 controller which has a PCIe gen 4.0 x4 interface and DRAM cache, comes in capacities of up to 4 TB, but offers a slightly tamed performance that's comparable to E16-powered drives: up to 4,000 MB/s sequential reads, up to 3,000 MB/s sequential writes, and up to 400,000 IOPS 4K random access. The new-gen XPG Sage, XPG Indigo, and XPG Pearl will release later this year.

Intel late Monday released its SSD 665p "Neptune Harbor Refresh" line of client-segment M.2 NVMe SSDs. The series was announced in September at the company's Storage Day event in South Korea. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drives feature PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface. They combine a Silicon Motion SMI2263 series controller with Intel's new 96-layer 3D QLC NAND flash memory. The previous-generation SSD 660p series use 64-layer chips. The SMI2263 controller is cushioned by an LPDDR3 DRAM cache.

Intel is debuting the SSD 665p series with just two models, 1 TB and 2 TB, skipping sub-terabyte capacities such as 500 GB. The 2 TB variant offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 2000 MB/s reads and up to 2000 MB/s writes; and random access speeds of up to 250,000 IOPS on both reads and writes. The 1 TB variant offers up to 2000 MB/s sequential reads, up to 1925 MB/s sequential writes, up to 160,000 IOPS random reads, and up to 200,000 IOPS random writes. The company didn't reveal endurance ratings for the drives. The 1 TB variant is priced at USD $125, while the 2 TB variant hasn't yet been priced. Both drives are backed by 5-year warranties.

BIOSTAR today rolled out the M700 line of SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, taking advantage of the NVMe 1.3 protocol. The drive combines a Silicon Motion SM2263XT DRAM-less controller with 3D NAND flash, and comes in 256 GB and 512 GB capacities. The 256 GB model offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 1,850 MB/s reads with up to 950 MB/s writes, while the 512 GB model offers up to 2,000 MB/s reads, with up to 1,600 MB/s writes. The controller features native AES 256-bit encryption. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Amidst falling prices of NAND flash and increased desirability from users' part, companies have been expanding their portfolio of SSD offerings for the consumer side of the fence as well as the enterprise one. ADATA's XPG SX8200 Pro SSD was initially only offered in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB configurations, but in the case of SSD storage, "moar" is usually better. We'll see when do 256 GB offerings get discontinued, but I'd give it another pair of years at the most.

The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro features Silicon Motion's SM2262EN controller packing eight NAND channels, four ARM Cortex-R5 cores, support for NVMe 1.3, LDPC ECC, RAID engine et all (eh), paired with Micron's 3D TLC NAND - no QLC here, folks. The SSD offers up to 3.5 GB/s sequential read speed and up to 3 GB/s sequential write speed, and up to 360K random read/write 4K IOPS. The ADATA SSD features a TBW rating of 1280 TB over a 5-year warranty period - and a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) rate of 2,000,000 hours (something like 83.333, 33 (3) days of continuous usage. Now that's north of two hundred years of continuous operation, which makes me sad just thinking about it and what I'd do with that time. In another conscience state, perhaps. ADATA's 2 TB XPG SX8200 Pro is $289.99, in select European countries (from eBay) at about €308, and in Japan for ¥36,680.

KLEVV at its Computex 2019 booth unveiled a new line of high-performance USB flash drives. It also brought along its latest variants of CRAS series M.2 NVMe SSDs and DDR4 memory, which come with a dazzling/blinding (take your pick) amount of RGB LED embellishment. We begin with the Portable Ghost, branded as a "portable SSD" and not a flash-drive. This is because the USB 3.1 gen 2 type-C connection pulls a PCIe/NVMe internal SSD. When plugged into a PC or a USB charger, the drive can also work as a wireless drive to your other devices over Bluetooth 4.2. The drive comes in two variants based on capacity, which significantly differ in hardware. The 240 GB variant is pulled by a JMicron JM5583 controller, while the 480 GB variant has a Silicon Motion SM2263EN. Both models use 72-layer 3D TLC NAND flash, and have the same on-paper performance figures, with up to 1,250 MB/s reads/writes. The drive isn't without two RGB LED diffusers.

The Blu RC30 is another fascinating, albeit slower drive, that's properly marketed as a flash drive. Built in the conventional 2-piece capped form-factor, the drive features a USB 3.1 gen 1 (5 Gbps) type-A connection. An internal battery which soaks up power when plugged in, lets the drive function wireless over Bluetooth 4.2, and also be used as a wireless presentation tool (a clicker), with capacitive touch surface and a couple of buttons, which imitate a mouse. Built in capacities of 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB, the Blu RC30 offers sequential transfer-rates of up to 250 MB/s reads on all three models, and write-speeds rated at 40 MB/s for the 32 GB model, 50 MB/s for 64 GB, and 90 MB/s for the 128 GB model. Transfer rates are severely throttled in wireless mode. We then moved on to its SSD and memory products.