China's First Domestic PCIe 5.0 Enterprise SSD Controller Enters Mass Production

YR S900
YR S900 (Image credit: Yingren Technology)

EE Times China reports that Yingren Technology (better known as InnoGrit outside China) has announced that the enterprise-level YR S900 PCIe 5.0 SSD controller has entered mass production. Previously unheard of, the YR S900 represents a significant accomplishment as it's China's first domestic PCIe 5.0 SSD controller.

The YR S900 is a four-channel SSD controller based on the open-source RISC-V architecture. The design ensures that the YR S900 complies with U.S. export restrictions, so the company doesn't encounter obstacles when designing and manufacturing the SSD controller. However, Yingren Technology didn't reveal the process node to produce the YR S900.

The YR S900 embraces the speedy PCIe 5.0 interface and fully supports the NVMe 2.0 protocol. It has a somewhat flexible design, allowing for 16-channel or 18-channel configurations. More importantly, the YR S900 is compatible with mainstream NAND from all the big-name manufacturers. The PCIe 5.0 controller harmonizes especially well with NAND from Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC).

In a short demo, the YR S900 exhibited very competitive performance numbers. The PCIe 5.0 controller delivered sequential read and write speeds up to 14 GB/s and 12 GB/s, respectively. The random performance peaked at 3.5 million IOPS reads and 2.5 million IOPS writes. The YR S900's performance is comparable to Phison's PS5026-E26 SSD controller that powers the current wave of consumer PCIe 5.0 SSDs.

InnoGrit has equipped the YR S900 with the company's third-generation ECC engine to optimize 4K LDPC encoding and decoding. According to the company, it works alongside a new hybrid adaptive ECC solution that reportedly boosts the performance of TLC and QLC NAND. When paired with Kioxia's XL-Flash, InnoGrit recorded 4K random read latency as low as 10us. The implementation provides higher data throughput and other benefits, such as stability and longer service life. The YR S900's feature set includes FDP (Flexible Data Placement), SR-IOV hardware virtualization,  CMB (Controller Memory Buffer), and different data encryption algorithms.

While Yingren Technology confirmed that the YR S900 is already being mass-produced, the company didn't provide an estimated time frame for when we can expect to see the controller in future enterprise PCIe 5.0 SSDs. The YR S900 will likely be used predominantly for SSD solutions in China. Nonetheless, seeing if adoption transcends the Chinese market will be interesting.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • EyadSoftwareEngineer
    China seems already reached self suffieciency in micro chip industry, well done!
    Reply
  • williamcll
    RISC-V SSD? sounds like modding material.
    Reply
  • umeng2002_2
    EyadSoftwareEngineer said:
    China seems already reached self suffieciency in micro chip industry, well done!

    It's called industrial espionage.
    Reply
  • williamcll
    umeng2002_2 said:
    It's called industrial espionage.
    It's not stealing if it's open source.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    EyadSoftwareEngineer said:
    China seems already reached self suffieciency in micro chip industry, well done!

    Stopping someone from from stealing your lunch doesn't mean you want or expect them to starve.

    China has had some real innovative success but to do so they are having to work and invest.

    https://www.tomshardware.com/news/china-struggles-to-raise-dollar41-billion-to-boost-fab-tool-production
    Investing for innovation is tough.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Innogrit = bad news / bad support or BS
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    williamcll said:
    It's not stealing if it's open source.
    The use of "open source" to describe RISC-V, by this article (and many others, on Toms and elsewhere), can be sort of misleading. RISC-V is an open ISA/standard, such that anyone can make a RISC-V CPU without paying any licensing. But you still need an actual chip design, which are not inherently open-source (although some open-source designs do exist I believe).

    Plus, for an SSD controller you also need to design the PCIe and NAND interfaces, which are presumably not open source.

    Whether this product involved the illegal use of any non-open IP, I have no idea.
    Reply
  • gg83
    I would love it if Tomshardware.com would stop posting ccp propaganda. I have been visiting Tomshardware.com since 1999-2000. Only until recently has the focus leaned towards literally fake news pushed by the ccp.
    Reply
  • Yourhuckleberry
    EyadSoftwareEngineer said:
    China seems already reached self suffieciency in micro chip industry, well done!

    Co BIY said:
    Stopping someone from from stealing your lunch doesn't mean you want or expect them to starve.

    China has had some real innovative success but to do so they are having to work and invest.

    https://www.tomshardware.com/news/china-struggles-to-raise-dollar41-billion-to-boost-fab-tool-production
    Investing for innovation is tough.
    It's China though so.... yeah. No.
    Reply
  • williamcll
    gg83 said:
    I would love it if Tomshardware.com would stop posting ccp propaganda. I have been visiting Tomshardware.com since 1999-2000. Only until recently has the focus leaned towards literally fake news pushed by the ccp.
    Is it really propaganda if the taiwanese are also using it?
    Reply