Silicon Motion Launches New PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1.4 Controllers Capable of Extreme Speeds

As PCIe 4.0 adoption continues to grow in the PC enthusiast community, we are beginning to see more and more NVMe SSDs hit the scene. Although most games do not fully benefit from their increased speeds, they can still provide other benefits for other applications. An integral part of the evolution of drive speeds is their controllers. New offerings from Silicon Motion are pushing the speed envelope even further.

Featuring 3D TLC and QLC NAND, they cover all the angles, from performance to value. At the top of the stack, we have the SM2264. This premium NVMe controller has blistering-fast 7,400/6,800 MB/s read/write speeds and 8-channel memory. IOPS are 1,000K/1,000K. Just below that is the SM2267, which halves the memory channels, lowering speeds to 3,900/3,500 MB/s. IOPS are equally halved at 500K/500K. Last is the value-oriented SM2267XT. This model opts out of DRAM while retaining the same speeds as the SM2267, but IOPS drop to 200K (no HMB)/500K.

With performance numbers like these, we’re sure to see them incorporated into a number of SSDs in the future. These models are, after all, aimed at everything from industrial automotive applications to mainstream use.

Specifications

Original Press Release

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NasdaqGS: SIMO) (“Silicon Motion”), a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices, today announced a new portfolio of PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1.4 controller solutions to address performance, mainstream and value SSD applications.  The portfolio consists of SM2264 for performance, SM2267 for mainstream and SM2267XT for value DRAM-less client SSDs.  

Silicon Motion’s latest controller family has been designed from the ground up with PCIe Gen4 technology and innovative hardware features especially optimized for true Gen4 performance at low power consumption, advanced error correction as well as data path and EMI protection. To date, ten of the leading global NAND makers and SSD OEMs have selected Silicon Motion’s Gen 4 controllers with 3D TLC and QLC NAND technologies.

Don Jeanette, Vice President of TrendFocus, commented, “Silicon Motion has long been known as a leader in SSD controller technology. The company’s new product introductions are well-timed as Gen 4 continues to gain traction and will become the standard over the next few years for PCs, game consoles, and other client devices.”

“PCIe Gen4 brings the next level of performance for SSDs to the market,” said Wallace Kou, President, and CEO of Silicon Motion. “With today’s announcement, Silicon Motion’s complete line-up of PCIe 4.0 SSD controller solutions meets the requirements of the world’s top PC OEM and SSD manufacturers into the future. Already, our new PCIe Gen4 controllers have been designed into SSDs from leading OEM customers and SM2267 has started volume production.”

For Performance and Automotive PCIe Gen 4 Solutions: SM2264 Gen4 x 4 Lanes, 8 NAND Channel SSD Controllers

Targeted at performance and automotive SSDs, SM2264 features a quad-core ARM R8 CPU with four lanes of 16Gb/s PCIe data flow and supports eight NAND channels with up to 1,600 MT/s per channel. Its advanced architecture, based on 12nm process technology, enables high throughput, lower power consumption, and rigorous data protection while delivering an ultra-high-speed of sequential read/write performance of up to 7,400/6,800 MBs and random read/write speeds of up to 1,000K IOPs. The quad-core ARM R8 CPU offers high multithreaded performance to handle mixed workload operations required by emerging storage applications. SM2264 is designed with Silicon Motion’s state-of-the-art 7th generation NANDXtendTM ECC technology with a performance-optimized 4KB LDPC engine and RAID to maximized error correction capability for the latest and next-generation 3D TLC and QLC NAND. SM2264 is also ideal for automotive storage, offering built-in SR-IOV capability that provides a direct, high-speed PCIe interface for supporting up to eight Virtual Machines. SM2264 is currently sampling to leading customers.

For Mainstream and Value PCIe Gen 4 SSD Solutions: SM2267 Gen 4×4 Lanes, 4 NAND Channel, and SM2267XT Gen4x4 Lanes, 4 NAND Channels, DRAM-less

Silicon Motion’s SM2267 and SM2267XT meet the requirements of mainstream and value client SSDs and feature four 16Gb/s lanes of PCIe and four NAND channels with up to 1,200 MT/s per channel, delivering an impressive 3,900/3,500 MB/s sequential read/write performance.  SM2267 includes a DRAM interface while the SM2267XT DRAM-less controller enables small form factor SSDs without compromising performance. Both also include NANDXtend^TM ECC technology and support the latest TLC and QLC NAND. SM2267 and SM2267XT have entered volume production.