Plextor Announces M9Pe SSD: 3.1 GB/s, Marvell Controller, 64-Layer 3D TLC, RGB LEDs
by Anton Shilov on June 2, 2017 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- SSDs
- Marvell
- Plextor
- 3D NAND
- BiCS
- Computex 2017
- Plextor M9Pe
Plextor has announced its next-generation high-end SSD, the M9Pe. The new drive will use Toshiba’s 64-layer 3D TLC NAND memory and a Marvell controller, and will be available in configurations of up to 1 TB. Plextor says that it is planning to bring the drive to market by the end of this year.
When it comes to high-end SSDs Plextor has returned to its yearly update cycle, and at this Computex the company announced the successor of the M8Pe drive it launched 12 months ago: the M9Pe. Lite-On, the company behind Plextor SSDs, continued to work with Marvell and Toshiba, who supplied controllers and NAND for the previous-generation drives. For Plextor it is logical to keep the old relationship, especially given the shortage of flash memory on the market.
For the Plextor M9Pe, the manufacturer has chosen the Marvell 88SS1093 BTB2 controller as well as Toshiba’s 512 Gb BiCS 3D TLC NAND memory. The 88SS1093 BTB2 controller is equipped with three cores and features 8 NAND channels with 4 CE per channel (32 targets in total). The IC supports a Marvell’s third-generation ECC technology based on the LDPC algorithm and uses PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. Essentially the chip is an updated version of the 88SS1093 with higher frequencies and performance, which makes a lot of sense for higher-end SSDs. It is still an NVMe 1.1 IC, so do not expect any features of the latest NVMe 1.3 spec. Meanwhile, Plextor promises stable performance in sustained use cases, and this is what matters most.
Plextor will offer its M9Pe drives in 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB configurations. As for performance, we are looking at up to 3100 MB/s sequential read speed and around 2300 MB/s sequential write speed for the higher-end models, but as the numbers are preliminary; commercial devices might perform differently than the engineering samples the company is testing now. As for form-factors, Plextor plans to offer both an M.2 form-factor card with a radiator, as well as add-in-cards with a larger cooling system featuring RGB LEDs.
Plextor intends to bring its M9Pe drives to market by the end of the year. Pricing is something that is hard to tell today because it will depend on multiple factors, including competitive environment, and of course, where NAND prices are later this year.
Source: Plextor
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CheapSushi - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
Are you complaining about all the tempered glass too? Some people actually enjoy their hardware and don't want a crusty box tucked away without thought.close - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
Wow, RGB LEDs on a PCIe SSD. What will they think of next.ddriver - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
RGB LEDs with RBG LEDs on them. Produce better color coverage and accuracy.hyno111 - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
SATA SSD with RGB LED. (But it already exist..)StrangerGuy - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
Watercooled PSUs (what a great idea!) has been done, so SATA and power cables with RGB leds.BedfordTim - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
An OLED information panel?Water cooling?
BurntMyBacon - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
Motherboards with full OLED coverage that can double as a 100% sRGB color space monitor. Make sure you other components have the same coverage or they'll obscure the display. Also, purchase this nifty new tool for calibrating components to each other ... also with full coverage OLEDs.CheapSushi - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
Tempered glass on an SSD.jjj - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
Given the previous gen, looking forward to this one.Any M8Se review in the pipeline?
MrCommunistGen - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
Looking forward to this. Hope the performance lives up to specs and that the price is reasonable.We need a good Samsung alternative in the same performance segment.
I almost picked up a 1TB M8PeG (M.2 w/heatspreader) when they went on sale right before going out of stock *everywhere*. Had I known that was going to be it I'd have definitely pulled the trigger. I'm still somewhat tempted to pick up the HH.HL AIC model, but I can see that being far less practical (compared to M.2) if I want to transfer it to a new build.