SK Hynix Releases 2TB Version of Gold P31 NVMe SSD

Coming off of the nice and cozy reception of their first household of retail NVMe SSDs, SK hynix this morning is including one other mannequin to the Gold P31 household: the long-awaited 2TB model. The larger capability drive, nonetheless utilizing SK hynix’s in-house controller and 128L NAND, is being launched with speedy availability right now, with retail pricing set at $280.

The 2TB model of the P31 Gold has been one thing of a very long time coming for SK hynix. The firm was displaying off the drive as early as CES 2020, when the P31 drive household was first introduced. At the time, the 2TB drive was set to be launched someplace down the road because the Platinum P31 – SK hynix even had the field artwork already ready – however the Platinum P31 remained lacking in motion after the opposite P31 drives had been launched final summer season. Now virtually a 12 months later, SK hynix is lastly releasing the 2TB drive, and in a change of plans they’re promoting it beneath the present and well-received Gold P31 banner, relatively than going with Platinum.

Moving on to the drive itself, aside from the rise in NAND capability, there’s no change in performance for the 2TB model of the Gold P31. Like the opposite P31 drives, SK hynix continues to be utilizing their in-house Cepheus controller, a really vitality environment friendly PCIe 3.Zero x4 controller. Similarly, the 2TB drive continues to be paired with the corporate’s 128L NAND. And as a result of the 1TB drive was already totally populated from a NAND standpoint, the efficiency rankings for the 2TB mannequin are in any other case equivalent to the 1TB mannequin, with peak write speeds of as much as 3.2 GB/sec (as long as you’re writing to the SLC buffer).

The further capability does imply that SK hynix has wanted to tweak the bodily structure of the drive. While we’re nonetheless ready on affirmation from the corporate’s PR division, on condition that the 1TB drive was single-sided, it’s a secure guess that SK hynix is lastly benefiting from the empty house on the again facet of the drive and loading it up with NAND packages Surprisingly, SK hynix tells us that the 2TB drive is single-sided, that means that the corporate has been ready so as to add extra NAND capability with out resorting to placing chips on the again facet of the PCB. We’ve requested for extra particulars, however the speedy implication is that SK hynix has 1024Gbit 128L TLC NAND out there. At the identical time, the 2TB drive can be getting a novel black PCB, as in comparison with the inexperienced PCB used for each the 500GB and 1TB fashions.

With the 2TB Gold P31 arriving so late, SK hynix is among the final distributors to introduce a 2TB mainstream drive. Competing 2TB drives utilizing the Phison E12 and Silicon Motion SM2262EN controllers have already been out there for fairly a while, and as we’ve already seen with 1TB drive pricing, are priced decrease than the 2TB Gold P31. So as they’ve been doing with  the remainder of the Gold P31 collection all through the final 12 months, SK hynix goes to be driving on the drive household’s nice energy effectivity – which continues to make for a top-tier laptop computer SSD – in addition to the product consistency afforded by constructing the drive totally…