Two references, one range: Micron launches PCI Express Gen 6 SSDs, and it's moving.
While SSD prices for the general public have doubled, sometimes tripled, in the space of a few weeks, innovation continues and models exploiting PCI Express Gen 6 are starting to appear. Oh, there's no question of a tidal wave yet, since in reality only one manufacturer is active in this niche. Nonetheless, the arrival of Micron opens the door to a new salvo of ever faster, ever more expensive SSDs, which, for the time being, are reserved for the corporate world. And let's not forget that Micron recently ceased its consumer operations, announcing the end of its dedicated Crucial brand.
The 9650 SSD range is available in Pro and Max versions © Micron
Called 9650, this new PCI Express Gen 6 SSD is designed in-house at Micron. To achieve this, the American brand is relying on its own solutions, including Micron G9 TLC NAND. We have no details of the controller used, but no doubt it too has been developed in-house: that's what's needed to make the most of the PCIe Gen 6 interface. Indeed, Micron claims barely believable performance, at least on the read side: 28,000 MB/s in sequential read, i.e. " 100% faster " than the best PCIe Gen 5 SSDs, according to Micron. There's also talk of random reading at 5.5 MIOPS versus 3.3 MIOPS in PCIe Gen 5, a nice " 67% more ".
The 9650 series takes advantage of PCIe Gen 6 to set new records © Micron
Things are less glorious when it comes to writing, with speeds of 14,000 MB/s in sequential writing, "only" 40% better than in PCIe Gen 5, and even more than 22% better in random writing at 900 KIOPS. However, Micron is not content with this raw performance, and points to greater efficiency, citing performance per watt that is far superior to that of previous generations: the 9650 range is said to deliver twice the performance for equivalent power consumption. Finally, the brand confirms that the 9650 is already available for its main customers. The 9650 Pro is available in 7.68TB, 15.36TB and 30.72TB (E1.S and E3.S formats), while the 9650 Max is available in 6.4TB, 12.8TB and 25.6TB (E3.S format only).
