Some manufacturers limit PCIe 5.0 SSD speed to 10GBps
In the past period of time, several SSD manufacturers have released PCIe 5.0 SSDs, including Gigabyte, CORSAIR, and Goodram, all use Phison’s E26 series main control chip, but only Gigabyte’s products have a data transfer rate of 12.4 GBps, and other two manufacturers are limited to 10 GBps. There is currently no 3D NAND chip fast enough to fully feed the controller’s capabilities, and there is a reason why manufacturers limit the speed of PCIe 5.0 SSDs.
TomsHardware said that Phison’s PS5026-E26 controller has 8 NAND channels, which can support different data transfer rates, but to achieve a fully saturated state, the I/O transfer rate of 3D NAND chips is required to reach 2400 MTps. Micron, SK Hynix and YMTC have successively released 2400 MTps 3D NAND chips from July to August this year. All of Phison’s E26 demonstrations were with SSDs featuring Micron’s latest 3D NAND chips, and this is when those drives hit ~12 GBps sequential read speeds.
This is because Micron’s 232-layer 3D NAND chips are ahead of other manufacturers in both yield and maturity. However, the problem now is that the yield rate of 3D NAND chips with an I/O transfer rate of 2400 MTps is too low, but if the rate is reduced to 1600 MTps, the situation will be much better. Gigabyte should have purchased Micron’s 2400 MTps memory chips, whereas Corsair and Goodram rated their drives at 10 GBps since they will have to use 3D NAND memory with a 1600 MTps interface.
This is because Micron’s 232-layer 3D NAND chips are ahead of other manufacturers in both yield and maturity. However, the problem now is that the yield rate of 3D NAND chips with an I/O transfer rate of 2400 MTps is too low, but if the rate is reduced to 1600 MTps, the situation will be much better. Gigabyte should have purchased Micron’s 2400 MTps memory chips, whereas Corsair and Goodram rated their drives at 10 GBps since they will have to use 3D NAND memory with a 1600 MTps interface.
The reason for this may be related to the sales strategy adopted by the manufacturer. In order to ensure a more stable supply of CORSAIR and Goodram, this choice is more practical, and Gigabyte needs to ensure that it has purchased a sufficient number of 2400 MTps 3D NAND chips. It is believed that other SSD manufacturers will purchase Micron’s 232-layer 3D NAND chips in the future, and they also need to make similar choices.
