Western Digital’s FMS 2024 demonstration included a preview of their upcoming PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs for mobile workstations and desktops. The Gen 5 consumer SSD market has been dominated by solutions based on the Phison E26 controller. The first-generation products launched with slower NAND flash, while newer ones have broken the 14GBps barrier using Micron’s 2400MT/s 232L 3D TLC. Western Digital has been conservative over the past year or so, focusing more on the mainstream/mid-range market in terms of new product launches (like the WD Blue SN5000, WD_BLACK SN770M, and WD Blue SN580). Their SSD lineup is set to be updated, as Gen 5 drives have been sorely missed. The SSDs being shown at FMS 2024 will ultimately do just that.
Western Digital’s tech demos in this segment featured two different M.2 2280 SSDs—one for the performance segment and one for the mainstream market. Both use internal controllers—while the performance segment drive uses an 8-channel controller with DRAM for the flash translation layer, the mainstream drive uses a 4-channel controller without DRAM. Both drives tested live were equipped with 218-layer 3D TLC BiCS8.
Western Digital touts the power efficiency of its platform as a key differentiator, promising south of 7W (performance drive) and 5W (main DRAM-less drive) for the entire SSD under traffic loads. This makes it suitable for use in mobile workstations, but it’s also a good fit for desktops.
Demonstrated performance numbers indicate nearly 15 GBps sequential read and 2M+ random read IOPS for the performance drive and 10.7 GBps sequential read for the mainstream version. Western Digital may have missed the Gen 5 bus because it started slowly. However, technology demonstrations with an internal controller and NAND indicate that WD caught up just before the Gen 5 market launch.
