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M.2 2280 prototypes can achieve up to 14 GBps reads, 12 GBps writes.

Adata has released a detailed teaser outlining what to expect from its CES 2022 presentation. The most noteworthy new products come in the form of two PCIe 5.0 SSD designs — the Adata Project Nighthawk PCIe 5.0 and Adata Project Blackbird PCIe 5.0. Adata claims these drives will deliver up to a blistering 14 GBps of sequential throughput, twice the speed of existing PCIe 4.0 SSDs. However, the company hasn't shared any information about random IOPS performance yet. 

The firm is priming the public for a wide range of new performance PC DIY components, peripherals and laptops that it will release at CES 2022 under the gaming-centric XPG sub-brand in its Dawn of a New Xtreme presentation on Wednesday, January 5.

Adata's Nighthawk and Blackbird projects

The Adata Project Nighthawk and Blackbird PCIe 5.0 SSDs are admittedly prototypes and are thus framed by Adata's PR department as making "a special appearance" at its booth at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. Thankfully, Adata isn't being too cloak and dagger about the star guests and has provided us with some key specs and performance metrics for the next-gen PCIe interface and controller packing M.2. SSD sticks.

Adata's Project Nighthawk PCIe 5.0 is designed using a Silicon Motion SM2508 controller. At this time, we don't know what NAND will be used. However, according to Adata's internal testing, the Nighthawk "is capable of delivering sequential read/write performance of up to 14 / 12 GBps."

The Adata Project Blackbird PCIe 5.0 is differentiated from the Nighthawk by its use of an InnoGrit IG5666 controller. This PCIe 5.0 SSD appears to be balanced differently, less adept at fast sequential writes, and Adata says that it "is capable of delivering read/write performance of 14 / 10 GBps." As mentioned previously, we don't know if the NAND used in these prototypes is a variable affecting performance or not. 

In September, Tom's Hardware reported on Kioxia's PCIe 5.0 SSD prototype hitting 14 GBps sequential read transfers, so Adata's figures appear to be in line with expectations. However, Kioxia's test product only achieved 7 GBps writes. At the time, indications were that IOPS figures would be uplifted by 50 to 80% with the move from PCIe 4.0 to 5.0 SSDs.

Both Nighthawk and Blackbird PCIe 5.0 SSD models will be made in capacities up to 8TB, says Adata. We look forward to CES 2022 to pick through more details.
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