Plextor has shown a number of new products at the CeBIT conference. Among these introductions are 2.5-inch SSDs with TLC memory chips and NGFF solid-state drive modules. The 2.5-inch SSDs have a SATA 6 Gbit/s interface, come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB and are powered by Marvell's 88SS9189 controller. A 4K random read performance of 80,000 IOPS is claimed, while writing of these files can purportedly be done at 72,000 IOPS. Plextor is currently working on optimizing the firmware to improve the performance and reliability to the level of MLC SSDs.
Aside from these 2.5-inch drives, Plextor showed us Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF) modules. These SSDs are a lot more compact and therefore exceptionally suited for use in laptops and tablets. Intel aims to use its 530 series in future Haswell Ultrabooks. Plextor stated that its NGFF modules are also ready for the launch of Haswell.
| Plextor | 2,5-inch TLC SSD | NGFF |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | SATA 6 Gbit/s | PCI-Express x2 |
| Controller | Marvell 88SS9189 | Marvell 88SS9183 |
| Capacity (GB) | 128 / 256 / 512 | 128 / 256 |
| DDR3 DRAM cache (MB) | 256 / 512 / 768 | 256 / 512 |
| Sequential reading (MByte/s) | Max. 530 / 530 / 540 | Max. 700 |
| Sequential writing (MByte/s) | Max. 360 / 450 / 465 | Max. 550 |
| 4K random read (IOPS) | Max. 80.000 | Max. 100.000 |
| 4K random write (IOPS) | Max. 72.000 | Max. 90.000 |
Plextor SSD with TLC memory chips
Plextor NGFF solid state drive
Update March 21st 2013: this story has been updated to correct the type of the controller in the NGFF drive, which is a Marvell 88SS9183 rather than the controller stated initially. The error was caused by incorrect formatting, at the time of writing the controller of the NGFF drive was unknown, but incorrectly displayed as identical to the one in the TLC drive.