The storage world takes a step forward with the arrival of the Phison PS5026-E26, the first commercial controller designed for PCIe 5.0. This component promises sequential read speeds of up to 14,000 MB/s, quadrupling the performance of the previous generation. Manufacturers are already preparing the first consumer SSDs with this chip, marking the beginning of a new era in data transfer.
A Look at the PS5026-E26 Architecture 🚀
The controller uses a 12 nm manufacturing process and features a dual-core ARM Cortex-R5 processor to manage operations. It integrates eight NAND channels with support for TLC and QLC, along with a fourth-generation LDPC error correction engine. The PCIe 5.0 x4 interface allows for a theoretical bandwidth of 16 GB/s, although current thermal and firmware limitations place real-world performance near 10,000 MB/s for writes. Power consumption spikes under load, requiring active heatsinks in some prototypes.
The Heatsink That Looks Like a Portable Cooler ❄️
With 14,000 MB/s read speeds, your SSD could read a 4K movie in less time than it takes to blink. The problem is that it also heats up as if it were playing that movie in an oven. The first prototypes need fans that look like they came from a 90s gaming PC. At least, if your drive overheats, you can use it as a desktop heater while waiting for the prices of these gadgets to drop.