Phison S10: Toshiba MLC And TLC Versus Micron L95B MLC

Features
By Chris Ramseyer
published

Phison offered to let us test its S10 controller with three flash types that will ship in 2015: Toshiba's A19 TLC, 15nm MLC and Micron L95B 16nm MLC.

Sequential Write

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We really want to pay close attention to write performance. These days, enthusiasts pay more for this specification since read performance is almost always at the limit of SATA 6Gb/s anyway. 

The two smaller drives with Toshiba A19 TLC get close enough to steady state during this portion of the test script that their numbers waver. We also see that a capacity advantage doesn't always translate to significantly higher write performance when it comes to TLC flash. The 960GB TLC drive delivers less sequential write performance than the smaller 480GB MLC versions. The same performance drop-off also occurs in the 480GB TLC drive compared to 240GB MLC drives.

Chris Ramseyer
Chris Ramseyer
Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews consumer storage.
4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Nuckles_56
    whoa, where did you guys get some 4800GB just for the battery life tests?
    Reply
  • James Mason
    whoa, where did you guys get some 4800GB just for the battery life tests?

    Yeah so many typos I almost thought they actually did get 5 terabyte SSDs somehow.
    Reply
  • Frozen Fractal
    I was arranging a chart while reading this article to see who actually wins. Seems like Toshiba 15nm MLC wins the test, with Micron 16nm MLC close on tail and TLCs wayyyy off :D.

    It is kinda disappointing to see TLCs being outperformed so brutally. I guess increased SLC buffer should mitigate the problem? Samsung already has like this in the EVO 2TB so what do you think Chris?

    Also, does lithography has anything to do with performance? I mean Micron's NANDs are close to Toshiba's MLCs and Micron's cells are just 1nm bigger than Toshiba's MLCs. Can this be co-related somehow?
    Reply
  • WyomingKnott
    It is so cool that they provided these for a head-to-head comparison. Finally, a comparison with all other variables really held even.
    Reply