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By now, SSD platform companies have already introduced high-end solutions for drives with a PCIe 5.0 interface, so now it is time to bring this technology to mainstream solid-state drives.
At the upcoming Computex 2025 trade show in Taipei, Silicon Motion plans to demonstrate drives based on its SM2504XT controller with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface that promise to wed leading-edge performance with mainstream price points.
The Silicon Motion SM2504XT is an NVM 2.0-compliant controller based on a triple-core Arm Cortex-R8 complex that features four 3D NAND channels supporting data transfer rates of up to 3600 MT/s, which is theoretically enough to saturate its PCIe 5.0 x4 interface.
In practice, given all protocol and NAND overheads, SMI expects drives based on the SM2504XT controller to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 11.5 GB/s and 11.0 GB/s, respectively, and random IOPS reaching 1.7M read and 2.0M write. That is in line with 1st Generation high-end PCIe 5.0 drives, which are still among the best SSDs available. The chip is made by TSMC using its N6 fabrication process.
The SM2504XT supports NANDXtend ECC technology relying low-density parity-check (LDPC) error correction codes with a codeword size of 4 kilobytes (4096 bytes) to ensure compatibility with the latest and upcoming types of 3D TLC and 3D QLC NAND memory.
In addition, the chip supports separate command architecture (SCA) that separates the command and address transmission paths within the NAND interface, enabling the controller to process commands and addresses in parallel rather than sequentially to cut real-world latency and increase bandwidth. Since the SM2504XT is aimed at mainstream SSDs, it also supports Host Memory Buffer (HMB) for DRAM-less configurations.
In terms of power, the controller excels with active power consumption under 4.7 W and idle power as low as 1.2 mW, offering up to 24% higher power efficiency than an unnamed competitor and a 12% power improvement compared to the high-end SM2508 platform.
As for security, the SM2504XT supports everything that its higher-end brethren do, including AES-128/256 encryption, TCG Opal 2.0 compliance, secure boot, and hardware SHA/TRNG.
Silicon Motion's SM2504XT comes in a compact 252-ball FCCSP-C (11.6 mm x 6.8 mm) package and is suitable for both full-size M.2-2280/22110 drives as well as miniature M.2-2230 SSDs.
Silicon Motion plans to demonstrate drives based on the SM2504XT controller at Computex 2025. For now, it is hard to say when actual drives powered by the new processor are set to be available commercially, but we will surely ask SMI about it at the upcoming trade show.
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