Storage manufacturer Phison has demonstrated a new SSD controller over PCIe 5.0 interface, with read speeds of up to 12.5 GB/s on AMD's new motherboard chipset.
Phison’s new SSD card is the PS5025-E26, a first token of the E26 platform on PCIe 5.0 (x4) interface. On paper, the total bandwidth of that interface is 15.8 GB/s which is double that of PCIe 4.0 (x4).
For now, Phison achieves a read speed of 12,457 MB/s and a write speed of 10,023 MB/s, using an early sample SSD. The SSD in question uses an on-board Phison E26 controller and 3D TLC NAND flash storage from Micron.
Phison’s demonstration shows the controller paired with Asus’ X670 Crosshair Hero motherboard, featuring AMD’s new X670 chipset. The motherboard will most likely run on an early sample of a Ryzen 7000 CPU. AMD had previously indicated that it already wants to use PCIe 5.0 storage with the first Zen 4 CPUs and motherboards.
It’s still unclear when Phison’s new PCIe 5.0 products should hit the market, let alone when alternatives will be rolled out to consumers — or at what prices. The company had previously indicated that it plans PCIe 5.0 products for “the second half of 2022”, although “end of 2022” now seems plausible.
The demonstration on an X670 platform is especially relevant, now that AMD is publicly betting on Zen 4 as the first chip generation to embrace the new storage generation, with a generous 24 lanes on PCIe 5.0. According to AMD, the first PCIe 5.0 SSDs should launch simultaneously with Zen 4, later this year.