NVMe is the big thing this year for NAND based storage solutions goig mainstream. Face it, SATA3 is stuck where it is with its performance where the M2 interface can reach 3 GB/sec already on a x4 PCIe interface. Now that performance really isn’t needed for the regular PC aficionado, however we for-see good perspective with more affordable 1 GB/sec models.
Phison is going to address that with the E8 series controllers. Pretty much the E8 series is a lower cost version of the current high-performance E7 series. Phison is to release two models, the PS5008-E8 with DRAM, and then another model to be released in the summer of 2017, the DRAM-less PS5008-E8T model. These are 4-channel controllers.
Both E8 controllers make use of the PCI Express 3.0 x2 (and not x4) interface and support both your regular and and vertically stacked NAND flash. You may expect TLC based NAND with a nice SLC written buffer on that x2 interface over the NVMe protocol. The limitation to a 2x interface will mean half the performance you see on a 960 EVO for example, thus your range then is 1 to 1.5 GB/sec (which lets be brutally honest here is still bitching fast).
Word is that E8 based products will start shipping in March, the effect will be much lower priced NVMe storage. Tomshardware stumbled into some live demos of the Phison E8 based products, the photos below are courtesy of them.
