Introduction

ADATA is Taiwan's largest manufacturer of flash storage and DRAM memory for computers. They have been at the forefront of SSD development for many years, bringing us famous SSDs like the SX8200, SX900, and S510.



Today, we have for review the ADATA Falcon SSD in the 1 TB variant. It comes in the M.2 form factor, using a fast PCI-Express x4 3.0 NVMe connection to interface with the rest of the system. Under the hood, ADATA is using a Realtek RTS5762DL controller, which we've seen on other SSDs before. It's a low-cost version of the RTS5762 controller with just four flash channels instead of eight, while keeping the full PCIe x4 interface bandwidth and support for AES encryption. The flash chips are 3D TLC, made by Micron. For cost reasons, a DRAM cache module is not installed.

The ADATA Falcon is available in capacities of 256 GB ($55), 512 GB ($70), 1 TB ($130), and 2 TB ($240). Endurance for these models is set at 150 TBW, 300 TBW, 600 TBW, and 1200 TBW respectively. ADATA includes a five-year warranty.

Packaging

The Drive

The drive uses the M.2 2280 form factor, which makes it 22 mm wide and 80 mm long.


Like most M.2 NVMe SSDs, the ADATA Falcon connects to the host system over a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface.


On the PCB, you'll find the controller and four flash chips; DRAM cache is not available.

Chip Component Analysis

The flash controller is made by Realtek, with support for 3D TLC, QLC, and PCI-Express 3.0 x4. In its -DL variant, the RTS5762 uses four channels, whereas the RTS5762 (without DL) has eight flash channels.


The four flash chips are 96-layer 3D TLC NAND, made by Micron, and rebranded by ADATA. Each chip has a capacity of 256 GB.