Phison has demonstrated its what it claims to be the fastest client solid-state drive released to date: the PS5026-E26 Max14um Gen5 SSD with an over 14 GB/s sequential read speed, which is higher than what the best SSDs offer today, at Flash Memory Summit 2023. The unit was cooled down using an innovative system from Frore.
Phison and its partners were first to offer SSDs based on the PS5026-E26 controller with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface. Those drives significantly outperformed all SSDs that existed at the time, even though they could not demonstrate their full potential due to scarce availability of 3D NAND with a 2,400 MT/s interface. By now, Micron has finally managed to ramp up production of its fastest 3D NAND devices and Phison can demonstrates its PS5026-E26 Max14um Gen5 SSD featuring a sequential write speed of over 14 GB/s.
As PCIe Gen5 SSDs based on controllers from Innogrit and Silicon Motion are getting closer, Phison wants to remind people that its platform can pack quite a punch, which is why it built an SSD based on its PC5026-E26 controller and Micron's B58R 3D TLC NAND memory chips that can hit a 14,175 MB/s sequential read speed and a 12,471 MB/s sequential write speed as well as 1.79 million random read IOPS and 1.74 million random write IOPS.
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Performance offered by the PS5026-E26 Max14um Gen5 SSD is a bit higher than sequential performance of enterprise-grade PCIe Gen5 drives and even higher than what Sabrent achieved with its E26-based drive a month ago. To hit such read/write speeds, Phison had to tweak firmware and cool down its drive properly. To do so, Phison used Frore Systems's AirJet Mini cooling system that uses tiny vibrating membrane to generate airflow.
For now, Phison does not disclose whether it plans to offer its partners reference designs of its PS5026-E26 Max14um Gen5 SSD, or just let them achieve similar performance levels themselves, though it is logical to expect SSD makers to offer another generation of E26-based SSDs in light of the fact that there are PCIe Gen5 drives featuring different controllers incoming.
