INTRODUCTION

   It's no secret that the fastest M.2 NVMe solid state drives today are the latest PCIe Gen 4 models which can produce read & write performance numbers easily surpassing 4000-4500MB/s (and in some cases touching 5000MB/s). However, with full support only by motherboards based on the latest Intel Z490 and AMD X570 chipsets (partial support is also offered by other models) it's no surprise that they still haven't taken off like their PCIe Gen 3 cousins. Even PCIe Gen 3 models however are divided into categories, so we have the entry level ones which offer performance numbers at around 1500MB/s-2000MB/s, the mid-end ones which are set at around 2000-2500MB/s and the high-end ones which surpass 2500MB/s-3000MB/s and in some cases can climb all the way to 3500MB/s. The brand new Exceria M.2 NVMe model by KIOXIA is their latest entry-level offering and today I’ll be testing the 1TB variant.

   KIOXIA Europe GmbH (formerly known as Toshiba Memory Europe GmbH) is the European based subsidiary of KIOXIA Corporation, a worldwide leading supplier of Flash Memory and Solid State Drives (SSDs). Toshiba Memory is known as the Inventor of NAND flash memory in 1987 and was the first in the world to begin mass-producing it in 1991. Under its new name, KIOXIA remains a storage leader today with its BiCS FLASH 3D technology, focusing on innovation, quality and reliability. This technology is an important component in almost all electronic devices where data need to be stored. KIOXIA is leading a new era by providing advanced memory solutions to enrich people’s lives. By evolving "memory", KIOXIA creates uplifting experiences and changes the world.

  The Exceria M.2 NVMe SSD (currently available in 250GB/500GB/1TB) is largely based on the RC500 model i tested earlier this year (review here) so once again under the hood we find KIOXIAs very own quad-channel NAND flash controller (fully supports TRIM, Idle Time Garbage Collection, Error Correction and Device Sleep) which they paired with the latest version of their BiCS 96-layer 3D TLC (triple-level cell) NAND flash memory and an DDR4 SDRAM module (1GB for the 1TB model, 512MB for the 500GB model and 256MB for the 250GB model). Of course, a new (more accurately updated) firmware is used with the Exceria model and that along with the updated BiCS NAND (and the pseudo SLC cache) allow it to hit read and write numbers of up to 1700MB/s and 1600MB/s respectively. Once again, an MTTF of 1.5 million hours is being reported for all three models and as for endurance numbers we have 400TBW for the 1TB model, 200TBW for the 500GB model and 100TBW for the 250GB model (the entire line is being covered with a 5 year limited warranty).