Previewing Silicon Motion SM2260 NVMe Controller With 3D MLC NAND (512GB)

Final Words

This SM2260 engineering sample with Micron 3D MLC is not exactly representative of any retail product, but it does hint at what we can expect when we get the ADATA XPG SX8000 in for testing, and it shows what Micron was dealing with last summer when they canceled the Ballistix TX3 SSD. If we make the very reasonable assumption that the firmware on this sample is more mature than what Micron had last summer, then it is clear that Micron made the right choice in canceling the TX3. It was not going to be able to compete at the high end of the NVMe SSD market. At the time of the planned September launch Micron was still ramping up their 3D NAND production capacity and the NAND shortage was just beginning to hit, so Micron would not have been able to offer great pricing.

Today's market is quite different from the end of last summer. Samsung has put the performance crown well out of reach, but they're leaving plenty of room for competition among more affordable NVMe SSDs. The SM2260 has already made a good showing in that category with the Intel SSD 600p with 3D TLC NAND that is no more expensive than the best SATA SSDs, but the 600p suffers under particularly heavy workloads. This SM2260 sample with MLC NAND is much better equipped to handle our more intense tests, especially our relatively long-running synthetic benchmarks. It still has some performance issues that make for low benchmark scores, but for the most part they are not important for real-world use.

The SM2260 is not the only controller competing for entry-level NVMe SSDs. We recently tested Phison's PS5007-E7 controller in the Patriot Hellfire, which is a moderately faster drive overall than this SM2260 sample. The Plextor M8Pe is even faster and has been priced reasonably when it's been in stock. To compete in today's market, SM2260 solutions will need to match or beat Phison E7 drives on price. There is room for some performance improvement from retail SM2260 SSDs over this sample, especially for sustained write speeds where this sample suffered due to its unusually small spare area. ADATA's XPG SX8000 should have the normal usable capacity for a 512GB SSD and will probably be a reasonable purchase when priced to match the 480GB Phison solutions. The SX8000 also promises to have a wider range of capacities available than most of the Phison solutions and has a decent 5-year warranty, but we'll save the final verdict for when we have performance numbers from the real thing.

The SM2260 is a nice reminder of how much the SSD market has progressed, in spite of the current NAND flash shortage that is pushing some prices up. This entry-level NVMe controller that is similar to a drive currently selling for $220 was able to beat the Intel SSD 750 and the Samsung 950 PRO on several benchmarks. Those drives debuted at $389 and $350 respectively and are thoroughly outdated in the face of the wide range of NVMe options now on the market. Even though this SM2260 sample showed relatively poor power efficiency compared to its contemporary competitors (in part due to being manufactured on an outdated but cheap 40nm process), there's no question that it is far more efficient than the enterprise-grade controller in the Intel SSD 750 that idles at 4 W and precluded the use of the M.2 form factor.

Silicon Motion hasn't had any big hits recently like they had with their SM2246EN controller back when mainstream SATA SSDs were still all using planar MLC NAND and the Crucial BX100 offered a combination of good performance and great power efficiency and price. But Silicon Motion is still in competition and has reasonable offerings for value-oriented product segments. Going forward they'll have to improve significantly and move to 28nm fabrication in order to stay competitive, but for the time being SMI-based SSDs are still definitely worth paying attention to.