SSD controller: Phison E28 pushes the limits of PCIe 5.0 in 6 nm 18 comments
Image: Phison
Phison follows. The leading provider of SSD controllers for fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs launches another high-end chip with the E28. This should enable SSDs with 14.5 GB/s and 3 million IOPS and should work more efficiently than the E26 thanks to the 6nm process.
E28 and upgrade from E26
As with the PCIe 4.0 generation, which started with the E16 controller and later received the more efficient E18, Phison is now upping the ante with PCIe 5.0 controllers. While E26 ushered in a new era and still dominates the market, E28 follows with even more power and efficiency.
Reference SSD with Phison E28 (Image: Techpowerup!) Image 1 of 2
This is made possible mainly by the switch to a finer manufacturing process, because instead of 12 nm as on the predecessor, it is now 6 nm. The contract manufacturer remains TSMC. Again, 8 NAND channels and a dedicated DRAM cache are supported. In combination with fast memory chips, which are now expected to operate at up to 4,200 MT/s, Phison cites a maximum throughput of 14.5 GB/s for sequential read and sequential write. The increase in performance, especially in writing, is probably due to the new memory chips. The E26 was also able to further increase its performance over time thanks to faster NAND flash.
PS5027-E27T PS5031-E31T PS5025-E25 PS5026-E26 PS5028-E28 Structure PCIe 4.0 x4 PCIe 5.0 x4 PCIe 4.0 x4 PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe 2.0 protocol? Fertigung 12 nm (TSMC) 7 nm (TSMC) 12 nm (TSMC) 6 nm (TSMC) Package HSFCCSP 228 balls,
8 × 12.5 mm 361 balls HSFCCSP,
12.5 × 12.5 mm 576 balls FCCSP,
16 × 16mm? 1 × ARM Cortex R5 CPU Processor
2 × CoX processor 2 × ARM Cortex R5
2 × CoX processor 2 × ARM Cortex R5
3 × CoX processor? NAND channel (CE) 4 (16) 8 (32) SSD capacity (max.) 8 TB 4 TB 32 TB Throughput/channel 3600 MT/s 2400 MT/s 2400 MT/s 4200 MT/s DRAM none (HMB) DDR4 /LPDDR4 (2666 MT/s) DDR4/LPDDR4 (3200 MT/s)? ECC 5th generation LDPC 7th generation LDPC 5th generation LDPC ? Security Pyrite
AES256
SHA512
RSA4096
Opal Pyrite TCG 2.01
AES256
SHA 384
SHA512
RSA4096
TCG Opal 2.01 Pyrite
AES256
SHA512
RSA4096
Opal TCG 2.02 AES 256
SHA512
RSA4096
JCC Opal 2.0? Seq. Read 7,400 MB/s 10,800 MB/s 7,200 MB/s 14,000 MB/s 14,500 MB/s Seq. Write* 6,700 MB/s 10,800 MB/s 7,000 MB/s 12,000 MB/s 14,500 MB/s 4K Random Read 1,200,000 IOPS 1,500,000 IOPS 1,200,000 IOPS 1,500,000 IOPS 3,000 000 IOPS 4K Random write* 1,200,000 IOPS 1,500,000 IOPS 1,200,000 IOPS 2,000,000 IOPS 3,000,000 IOPS *in SLC cache
all information according to Phison (from January 2025)
The jump to 3 million IOPS for random read and write is again very significant. The question remains how to classify the average power consumption of 8.5 watts. Considering the power consumption of an entire SSD with Phison E28, this would be an improvement over the 10+ watts of E26 SSDs. However, Silicon Motion has demonstrated with the SM2508 that equally high throughput is possible with only around 7 watts. Western Digital is planning a PCIe 5.0 SSD with its own controller, which achieved 15 GB/s and 2 million IOPS with just 6.5 watts in initial demos.
At CES 2025, Phison will present a reference design with the E28, but will not demonstrate performance. This could indicate that it will be some time before the market launch.
E31T now also with Micron NAND
The E31T model goes even further, as there are already a few SSDs on the market, such as the Corsair MP700 Elite (test). With a maximum throughput of around 10 GB/s, these SSDs do not require 6 watts. However, you have to do without a DRAM cache here, which is always evident from the suffix “T” in the Phison range.
Crucial P510 in the benchmark (Image: Techpowerup!)
The news at CES is that after Kioxia’s BiCS8 NAND, Micron’s G9 NAND has now also been approved for the E31T. The first SSD with this combination is the Crucial P510, which, according to Phison’s benchmarks, manages 11 GB/s reading and almost 8.7 GB/s writing. Techastuce will report separately on the P510.
Topics: CES 2025 NVMe PCIe 5.0 Flash Storage Phison SSD SSD Controller Storage Source: Phison, TechPowerUp!
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