A breakthrough is coming in the SSD market. All thanks to the Koreans
There is a chance that the first PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD will be available soon, which will not require a large radiator and a small, noisy fan.
Although during the conference GTC 2024 the eyes of most of the industry were focused on NVIDIA, which presented the family Blackwell, there are also solutions from other leading manufacturers. One of the most interesting proposals is certainly a semiconductor medium from South Korea SK hynix.
The Koreans will offer performance up to 13.5 GB/s
SK hynix Platinum P51 is SSD in format M.2 2280which uses the interface PCI Express 5.0 x4. There would be nothing interesting about it – there are already a lot of such drives on the market – if it weren't for the fact that the Koreans decided to use it proprietary controller and NAND memory. This is to ensure better performance and temperatures.
So far, there are no details about the named controller Alistarbut we know that the dice used are a 238-layer solution 3D TLC NAND. The whole thing is to offer to 13.5 GB/s for reading and up to 11.5 GB/s for sequential writing. Values for random operations are a secret – SK hynix is refining the firmware.
Competitor's flagship Crucial T705, on the Phison E26 chip and Micron chips, it is slightly more efficient (up to 14.5 and 12.7 GB/s), but is characterized by high temperatures. Therefore, slightly slower SK hynix may be the first PCIe 5.0 SSD that won't require a huge cooling system.
The Korean manufacturer is preparing three different capacities – 500 GB and 1 and 2 TB. Unfortunately, the exact release date, suggested prices and even warranty conditions remain unknown. The debut is expected to take place this year.
