Phison E26 SSD Preview: PCIe 5.0 SSDs Are Finally Here

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The fastest drives are just around the corner

 

The Phison PS5026-E26 SSD controller will bring PCIe 5.0 performance to the masses in Q1 of this year. Our reference design sample pairs it with Micron’s new 232-layer TLC, which improves upon the excellent 176-layer NAND flash utilized in a wide range of products. The result is unprecedented sequential speeds and immense potential IOPS, although these do not come without some caveats. High-end PCIe 5.0 drives will require proper cooling and the right platform to reach and maintain the best levels of performance.

Our Phison E18 controller preview from mid-2021 demonstrated that Phison was serious about bringing top-tier performance to consumers earlier than other controller manufacturers. The E26 reflects this mindset and manufacturers will begin to advertise SSDs based on the controller sooner rather than later. PCIe 5.0 drives can offer very high levels of sequential performance, but the newer controllers can also raise the IOPS bar for heavier workloads, blowing away all the PCIe 4.0 contenders on our current list of the best SSDs. This is not too surprising as the E26 is based on an enterprise controller design, and in fact it has optional enterprise features.

These drives will also be among the first with cutting-edge flash which will improve latency and power efficiency. We did not see direct benefits with the E26 in these two areas, but the technology will be optimized and the future DirectStorage API should also benefit from the additional all-around speed improvements.

For now it does feel a bit like overkill, but pushing the limits is necessary to make use of increasing PCIe bandwidth. This drive shows that it can leave PCIe 4.0 solutions in its dust.The Phison E26 ES (engineering sample) SSD is rated for up to 14,000/11,800MBps for sequential read and write and 1,500/2,000K IOPs for random read and write, both respectively. This is a PCIe 5.0 SSD and is capable of almost double the sequential read performance of previous-generation, PCIe 4.0 SSDs that use the Phison E18 controller. Maximum IOPS has also increased significantly. Actual performance is dependent on the flash type and amount of flash, as well as the platform. In fact, performance variance may be more significant with PCIe 5.0 SSDs, and even come down to which M.2 or PCIe slot is utilized for the drive.

The Phison E26 controller is based on the enterprise E20 controller used in Phison’s X1 SSD solution and it therefore has optional features not commonly available in client products. This includes encryption but also SR-IOV, ZNS, and up to 64 namespaces support. This is coupled with Phison’s I/O+ Technology which is designed for DirectStorage gaming, first implemented in the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G. Our sample SSD is using Release Candidate 2 (RC2) firmware and is not a retail sample. Performance for this controller may also improve with faster flash.

Software and Accessories

Software support will depend on the individual manufacturers which choose to use the Phison E26 controllers in their SSD products. Free software for benchmarking, health monitoring, and imaging are widely available, but many manufacturers prefer to offer their own SSD toolboxes to provide firmware updates. Heatsinks may be considered accessories if they are self-applicable, but PCIe 5.0 drives are bound to run hot so will typically arrive with a heatsink pre-installed.
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