USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
Silicon Motion's SM2320 native USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 controller for USB flash drives and portable SSDs has enjoyed great market success with a large number of design wins over the last few years. Silicon Motion proudly displayed a selection of products based on the SM2320 on the show floor at FMS 2024. The SM2320 went into mass production in Q3 2021. Since then, the NAND flash market has seen considerable change. QLC is becoming more and more reliable and common, leading to the launch of high-capacity cost-effective 4 TB and 8 TB SSDs. Newer NAND generations with flash operating at higher speeds have also made an appearance. The SM2320, fabricated in TSMC's 28nm node, supported four channels of NAND flash running at up to 800 MT/s...
Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD Review: 20 Gbps Performance in a Budget Offering
The portable SSD market has seen rapid growth over the last decade. Almost all of the tier-one NAND flash manufacturers have jumped in with multiple offerings, presenting consumers with...
19 by Ganesh T S on 11/10/2023Samsung T9 Portable SSD Review: A 20 Gbps PSSD for Prosumer Workloads
Samsung's portable SSD lineup has enjoyed significant market success since the launch of the T1 back in 2015. Despite the release of the Thunderbolt-capable X5 PSSD in 2018, the...
15 by Ganesh T S on 10/3/2023PNY Pro Elite V2 and Elite-X PRO Portable SSDs Review: Performance on a Budget
PNY Technologies is well known in the computing industry for its NVIDIA-based graphics cards, but the company also participates in the DRAM and flash-based storage products markets. In the...
5 by Ganesh T S on 6/30/2023WD_BLACK P40 Game Drive USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Portable SSD Review: Balanced Storage
Western Digital had announced new products in the WD_BLACK lineup back in May 2022 to augment their offerings in the gaming market. The WD_BLACK P40 Game Drive SSD was...
6 by Ganesh T S on 11/18/2022Akasa AK-ENU3M2-07 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SSD Enclosure Review: 20Gbps with Excellent Thermals
Storage bridges have become an ubiquitous part of today's computing ecosystems. The bridges may be external or internal, with the former ones enabling a range of direct-attached storage (DAS...
15 by Ganesh T S on 8/1/2022Kingston XS2000 Portable SSDs Review: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Goes Mainstream
Flash-based portable drives have become popular fast storage options for both content creators and backups-seeking consumers. The advent of high-speed interfaces such as USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps...
19 by Ganesh T S on 11/10/2021USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Portable SSDs Go Native: The Silicon Motion SM2320 UFD Controller Preview
The external storage market has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, particularly in the retail consumer segment. It has been fueled in part by advancements in bus-powered...
18 by Ganesh T S on 9/16/2021Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD Review: RGB-Infused USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Storage
The gaming market has experienced significant growth over the last decade. In addition to boosting PC sales, the peripherals market associated with the segment has also expanded. Installed sizes...
17 by Ganesh T S on 8/27/2021SanDisk Extreme PRO and Crucial X6 4TB Portable SSDs Review: Contrasting High-Capacity Storage Options
The portable SSD market has been steadily expanding thanks to the increasing digital footprint of consumers. Technological advancements such as 3D NAND with high layer counts and the emergence...
20 by Ganesh T S on 8/18/2021Silverstone MS12 and Yottamaster HC2-C3 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps Enclosures Reviewed
Late last year, we took stock of the the state of the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ecosystem. It was not a rosy outlook at that time. But since then...
21 by Ganesh T S on 8/12/2021Phison at CES 2021: New USB SSD Controllers, Adds E21T For Low-End NVMe
At CES 2021, Phison gave us the usual updates on their SSD controller roadmap. The most significant new products coming this year are a pair of USB flash drive...
13 by Billy Tallis on 1/14/2021CES 2021: ADATA SE900G External SSD, With RGB
With a varied selection of announcements for CES 2021's new virtual format, ADATA has unveiled a new external solid-state drive with integrated RGB LEDs. The ADATA SE900G looks to...
1 by Gavin Bonshor on 1/11/2021CES 2021: Western Digital's Portable SSDs Get Capacity Upgrades: 4TB of TLC for $680
Western Digital markets portable SSDs under different brands, catering to different market segments. The flagships in each brand make use of of very similar platforms - a M.2 NVMe...
3 by Ganesh T S on 1/11/2021USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 State of the Ecosystem Review: Where Does 20Gbps USB Stand in 2020?
USB has emerged as the mainstream interface of choice for data transfer from computing platforms to external storage devices. Thunderbolt has traditionally been thought of as a high-end alternative...
81 by Ganesh T S on 10/5/2020Western Digital Unveils USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD v2
The SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD released in 2019 has been one of the top performers in the external flash storage market segment. Putting a high-end WD Black SN750-class...
14 by Ganesh T S on 9/30/2020