Phison Electronics is preparing PS5026-E26 Max14um, new high-end PCIe 5.0 controller

Last year, Phison Electronics released its flagship PCIe 5.0 controller chip, the PS5026-E26, primarily targeting enterprise-level and high-end desktop gaming SSDs. Nowadays, the market has seen an emergence of numerous PCIe 5.0 SSDs, most of which are crafted using Phison’s controller chip in conjunction with Micron’s 3D NAND flash memory. As CES 2024 in early January draws near, Phison is also preparing an array of new controller solutions.

Recently, Phison Electronics unveiled four innovative products to be showcased at CES 2024, including:

• Phison PS5031-E31T: Low-Power PCIe 5.0 controller with a 4-channel DRAMless design offering up to 10.8GB/s performance and 8TB maximum capacity
• Phison PS5026-E26 Max14um: For increased capacity and accelerated performance, the PCIe 5.0 E26 controller with I/O+ Technology is the most powerful device in its class, with 14.7GB/s sustained sequential read performance and over 1000MB/s in all PCMark 10 and 3DMark Storage Tests – A World’s First!
• Phison PS5027-E27T: The next generation in low-power, high-performance PCIe Gen4 SSD in a 2230 form factor optimized to reduce game load times in portable gaming devices like Steam Deck, Ally, and Legion Go
• Phison PS2251-21 (U21): The world’s first USB4 single-chip solution suited for small portable devices in conventional and unconventional form factors with up to 4GB/s performance in the palm of your hand

Among these, the PS5026-E26 Max14um will be Phison’s new high-end PCIe 5.0 controller chip, replacing the existing PS5026-E26.

Last month, Silicon Motion introduced its latest flagship PCIe 5.0 controller chip, the SM2508, manufactured using TSMC’s 6nm process, supporting the NVMe 2.0 protocol. It features eight flash memory channels with speeds up to 3600 MT/s, with maximum sequential read and write speeds of 14.5 GB/s and 14 GB/s, respectively. Its random read and write performance can reach up to 2.5M IOPS, supporting 3D TLC/QLC NAND flash memory.

Silicon Motion’s SM2508 appears quite impressive, posing a significant threat to Phison Electronics and compelling the latter to introduce new products to meet this challenge. The current market reputation of the PS5026-E26 is somewhat underwhelming, with reports of several PCIe 5.0 SSDs using this controller experiencing overheating, leading to crashes or shutdowns.