Plextor
Plextor teased us with its M7e - a PCIe SSD we've seen on display several times since 2014's Flash Memory Summit - yet again. In its current form, the M7e looks identical to the M6e except for a lit PCB that adds some etched Plextor branding to the top side. We're not sure if Plextor plans to use Marvell's Eldora or Eldora Lite controller, but we suspect the four-channel Eldora Lite will be called to the plate for this product.
Tagging along in the M7 product series is the M7V, a Toshiba A19 TLC-based drive with a Marvell controller. Parent company Lite-On displayed a similar SSD in Marvell's display area with Lite-On branding. The M7V looked production-ready with all of the features working, including the advanced software. Both the M7e and M7V should launch in August at Flash Memory Summit.
Row 0 - Cell 0 | PlexTurbo | PlexTurbo 2 | PlexTurbo 3 |
Write Through Plus | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Reduced Memory Usage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Life Extend Mechanism | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PlexTurbo Viewer | Row 4 - Cell 1 | Yes | Yes |
Maximum Cache Size | 1GB | 4GB | 16GB |
Cache Size Adjustment | Row 6 - Cell 1 | Row 6 - Cell 2 | Yes |
Cache Release Adjustment | Row 7 - Cell 1 | Row 7 - Cell 2 | Yes |
Read Through Cache | Row 8 - Cell 1 | Row 8 - Cell 2 | Yes |
Multi-Disk Support | Row 9 - Cell 1 | Row 9 - Cell 2 | Yes |
Preload Function | Row 10 - Cell 1 | Row 10 - Cell 2 | Yes |
Reset Cache Log | Row 11 - Cell 1 | Row 11 - Cell 2 | Yes |
Plextor continues to advance PlexTurbo with new features. PlexTurbo 3 raises the bar by allowing users to adjust the amount of DRAM dedicated to the storage buffer. If your workload requires more DRAM for system applications, the software will automatically release RAM back to the system and reclaim it when available for cache purposes again.
PlexCompressor is the most innovative software feature to come out of Plextor since its bit-for-bit optical disc cloning technology, which was introduced more than a decade ago in PlexTools. The software will automatically compress the files on your computer if the data hasn't been accessed in 30 days. This can lead to a massive reduction in file size. In the past, I've shown that SSD performance drops with more data on the flash. PlexCompressor will reduce the amount of used space to keep performance higher. When the data is needed, it is decompressed in real time. If the technology works as well as Plextor claims, it could be the next leap in SSD software.