SK hynix is likely one of the few vertically built-in producers within the flash-based storage market (together with Samsung, Micron / Crucial, Western Digital, and Kioxia). The firm is well-established within the OEM market. A number of years again, additionally they began exploring direct end-user merchandise. Internal SSDs (beginning with the Gold S31 and Gold P31) have been the primary out of the door. Late final 12 months, the corporate launched the Beetle X31 moveable SSD, its first direct-attached storage product. In February, a complementary product was launched – the Tube T31 Stick SSD.
The Beetle X31 is a transportable SSD with a Type-C upstream port and a separate cable. The Tube T31 is a tackle the normal thumb drive with a male Type-A interface. The measurement of the Beetle X31 makes the usage of a bridge answer apparent. Our investigation into the Tube T31 additionally revealed the usage of the identical inside SSD, albeit with a distinct bridge. This evaluation takes an in depth have a look at the Tube T31, together with an evaluation of its internals and analysis of its efficiency consistency, energy consumption, and thermal profile.
Introduction and Product Impressions
USB flash drives have grown each in storage capability and speeds over the previous couple of years. Thanks to the arrival of 3D NAND and speedy iterations with efficiency enhancements within the USB specs, we are actually seeing ‘stick SSDs’ able to delivering 1GBps+ speeds. This market phase has slowly been gaining members because the introduction of the Kingston’s DataTraveler Max in late 2021. Some stick SSD distributors have tried to distinguish themselves by even providing 2TB SKUs.
The high-performance ‘stick SSD’ phase is comparatively new, and has been dominated by native UFD controllers (Silicon Motion’s SM2320 in merchandise such because the Kingston DataTraveler Max A and Transcend ESD310C, and the Phison U17 within the OWC Envoy Pro Mini for instance). This is in distinction to early high-performance UFDs such because the Corsair Voyager GTX and the Mushkin Ventura Ultra which employed a SATA SSD controller behind a USB 3.zero bridge. In high-performance eventualities, the bridge answer is often averted for UFDs as a consequence of thermal constraints. BOM price can also be one other essential side, as UFDs often have a tendency / must be priced decrease than moveable SSDs. Factors such because the absence of a separate cable assist with that, however a bridge answer within the PCB may probably offset the financial savings.
The Beetle X31 from SK hynix was a conventional moveable SSD that employed a SK hynix BC711 M.2 2242 NVMe SSD behind an ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.2 Gen 2 bridge chip. Unlike different PSSD households with a variety of capability choices, the Beetle X31 was launched with solely two capability choices – 512GB and 1TB. The cause ended up being the single-chip BC711 inside SSD – the bundle integrates the flash dies, SSD controller, and DRAM for the flash translation layer as effectively. The extremely built-in nature of the BC711 ended up limiting the variety of NAND dies, and therefore the restricted capability choices.
The Tube T31 being reviewed at this time additionally is available in the identical two capability factors – 512GB and 1TB, pointing to the probably use of the identical inside SSD. The integration of the flash dies and the controller in a single bundle alleviates a few of the BOM considerations, and a bridge-based answer primarily based on the BC711 finally ends up with the same PCB space to a local UFD controller-based answer.
The Tube T31 is comparatively cumbersome for a USB flash drive, and is sure to intervene with gadgets / cables related to neighboring USB ports. However, the size are unavoidable as a consequence of the usage of a M.2 2242 inside SSD and its related thermal answer. Since it is a UFD answer, the packaging is spartan – simply the consumer guide and the principle unit in an environment-friendly…
