In our recent technical preview article of the upcoming Phison PS5008-E8 NVMe controller, we said retail products featuring the new controller were not far behind. This week we received our first retail sample with the new controller.
MyDigitalSSD was able to sweep the entry-level NVMe market with the BPX using Phison's PS5007-E7 NVMe controller and Toshiba 15nm MLC flash even with strong competition from Intel's SSD 600p and Plextor's M8Pe. The company's NVMe SSD successor comes under the SBX name and uses the Phison PS5008-E8 controller. The smaller controller was designed to break new ground in pricing and power efficiency. This is Phison's first true entry-level NVMe part for retail. The PS5007-E7 is targeted to mainstream users upstream.
The new PCI Express 3.0 x2 (lane) controller uses four channels to the flash. MyDigitalSSD was able to place all of the surface mount components on one side of the printed circuit board to reach the single-sided specification while still staying inside the M.2 2280 form factor.
The drive comes to market in three capacity sizes: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Later in the year MyDigitalSSD will ship a 1TB (1,024GB) model. The delay comes from the extreme price of Toshiba's new BiCS FLASH (3D TLC) in high density packages.
The MyDigitalSSD SBX drives are available now exclusively at MyDigitalDiscount.com. The landing page still shows pre-order status but the individual product pages show updated availability. We expect to see the SBX listed at Amazon soon.
| Product | SBX 128GB | SBX 256GB | SBX 512GB | SBX 1TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing (MSRP) | $65 | $100 | $185 | Unknown |
| Product number | MDNVME80-SBX-0129 | MDNVME80-SBX-0256 | MDNVME80-SBX-0512 | MDNVME80-SBX-1024 |
| Controller | Phison PS5008-E8 | Phison PS5008-E8 | Phison PS5008-E8 | Phison PS5008-E8 |
| DRAM | Nanya DDR3 | Nanya DDR3 | Nanya DDR3 | Nanya DDR3 |
| NAND Flash | Toshiba BiCS FLASH TLC | Toshiba BiCS FLASH TLC | Toshiba BiCS FLASH TLC | Toshiba BiCS FLASH TLC |
| Capacity User / Raw | 128GB / 128GB | 256GB / 256GB | 512GB / 512GB | 1024GB / 1024GB |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 Single-Sided | M.2 2280 Single-Sided | M.2 2280 Single-Sided | M.2 2280 Single-Sided |
| Protocol | PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe | PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe | PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe | PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe |
| Sequential Read | 1,600 MB/s | 1,600 MB/s | 1,600 MB/s | 1,600 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 1,300 MB/s | 1,300 MB/s | 1,300 MB/s | 1,300 MB/s |
| Random Read | 240,000 IOPS | 240,000 IOPS | 240,000 IOPS | 240,000 IOPS |
| Random Write | 180,000 IOPS | 180,000 IOPS | 180,000 IOPS | 180,000 IOPS |
| Endurance | 120 TBW | 200 TBW | 375 TBW | 800 TBW |
| Warranty | 5-Years | 5-Years | 5-Years | 5-Years |
