Review Silicon Motion SM2508 SSD review: Finally, a true PCIe 5.0 contender

[Admin]

SMI’s high-end SM2508 PCIe 5.0 SSD controller is finally here. It offers top notch performance and does so with greatly improved efficiency, ushering in an era of better controllers and SSDs.

Silicon Motion SM2508 SSD review: Finally, a true PCIe 5.0 contender : Read more

 

[Athan]

You have

PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4

throughout the table. Presumably those should be "PCIe 5.0".

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

You have

PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4

throughout the table. Presumably those should be "PCIe 5.0".

Yup, fixed. (I only edited the text; the table was a separate file that I didn't see until this was put in the CMS and live.)

 

[thestryker]

While I'm still not interested in PCIe 5.0 drives for myself this sure seems to remove that large heat issue without sacrificing performance. There's some better consistency as well which is always a welcome sight for anything using NAND. Hopefully we'll see some good implementations of this controller on the market sooner than later.

 

[felipetga]

...and NVMe 2.0

 

[jackt]

does it require a car radiator ?

 

[Jame5]

does it require a car radiator ?

That was literally the whole premise of the article. It can perform with the best of the PCIe5.0 SSDs without requiring a heatsink.

 

[Jame5]

What this makes me wonder is when we will finally get an 8TB QLC drive just running in 2TB SLC mode permanently. No caching. Just pure speed all the time.

I would love to dream about an actual SLC drive, but I know that won't happen. TLC or QLC running in full-time SLC mode will probably be the best we will ever get.

 

[Notton]

There is finally an incentive for AMD to add PCIe 5.0 to their mobile chips.
Even LNL features a paltry 4 lanes of PCIe5.0

 

[pclaughton]

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can explain why drives use DDR4 and not LPDDR4 or 5?

 

[Amdlova]

AT 7w tdp need a little heat sink to keep temps in check at 9w will need something a little more.
Remember that slot will receive heat from other soucers

 

[Maxxify]

What this makes me wonder is when we will finally get an 8TB QLC drive just running in 2TB SLC mode permanently. No caching. Just pure speed all the time.

I would love to dream about an actual SLC drive, but I know that won't happen. TLC or QLC running in full-time SLC mode will probably be the best we will ever get.

Already exists. LX3030 is one example. I don't think that combo panned out much. There were also some Chia drives planned with that but didn't pan out, and some E18's for Plotripper with BiCS TLC. pSLC drives exist as industrial/commercial options, and in some cases you can manually convert (my one discord mod has done videos on this). "Real" SLC is gone as even the low latency specialist flash is basically 2-bit MLC at this point. There are ways to simulate the advantages of SLC (e.g. smaller, more plentiful planes) with X-NAND but haven't seen it used yet and certainly not consumer.

 

[Maxxify]

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can explain why drives use DDR4 and not LPDDR4 or 5?

They can and do use LPDDR4. I'm guessing as a cost/availability thing.

 

[Maxxify]

There is finally an incentive for AMD to add PCIe 5.0 to their mobile chips.
Even LNL features a paltry 4 lanes of PCIe5.0

I think controllers like the E31T, SM2504XT, and the MAP1802 would be better for mobile. Samsung also has 5nm tech for x2 Gen5 (not great results on the 990 EVO). Eight-channel with DRAM still draws too much, although SMI's implementation may in some ways be more power-hungry than you could get away with if you tried. But they do seem to have worked on power management, would be interesting to see how it works in mobile.

 

[jackt]

That was literally the whole premise of the article. It can perform with the best of the PCIe5.0 SSDs without requiring a heatsink.

oh sorry, thats interesting then!

 

[Albert.Thomas]

This looks like a promising improvement over existing products. I'm looking for something that doesn't use Phison’s E26 after killing two TeamGroup Z540 SSDs with stress tests.

 

[Stomx]

What this makes me wonder is when we will finally get an 8TB QLC drive just running in 2TB SLC mode permanently. No caching. Just pure speed all the time.

Do you think that it is possible to make good drive with 50-100 P/E cycles of endurance and devoting most of drive to fix dying like soap bubbles memory cells ? You think your OS will continue to boot and apps will be responsive on the drive consisting from dead holes like Swiss cheese?

QLC is planned obsolescence and nothing else.