INTRODUCTION

    2nd generation of PCIe Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs begun making their appearance in the global market earlier this year and have already won over consumers and professionals alike. Again, much like in the past not all PCIe Gen5 SSD models are aimed towards the same audience, depending on the NAND flash controller used some are aimed towards users on a budget whereas others are aimed towards users who just want the best there is. KIOXIA recently released their very first PCIe Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSD called the EXCERIA PLUS G4 and today I'll be testing the 2TB capacity model.

    KIOXIA is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. KIOXIA is committed to uplifting the world with "memory" by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. KIOXIA's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH™, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems.

    The EXCERIA PLUS G4 is currently available in two capacities (1/2TB) and is based on the DRAM-less PS5031-E31 (E31T) NAND flash controller by Phison which KIOXIA has paired with their very own BiCS8 218-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. The PS5031-E31 (E31T) is a single core, quad-channel PCIe Gen5x4 NVMe 2.0 NAND controller (16 CEs) based on TSMC’s 7nm process technology and packs several features including Phison's 7th generation LDPC ECC & RAID ECC engine with end-to-end data path protection, thermal monitoring, L1.2 low power state and host memory buffer (HMB) architecture support (uses a fraction of your PC's system memory to cache mapping tables). It also fully supports the ASPM/APST low-power consumption mechanisms, real time AES 256-bit encryption, hardware SHA384512 and RSA4096, TCG OPAL 2.01, Pyrite 2.01, Toggle 5.1 and ONFi 5.1. As for warranty KIOXIA covers both EXCERIA PLUS G4 models with a 5-year limited warranty and for endurance they report an MTTF of 1.5 million hours and a TBW of 600 for the 1TB capacity and 1200 for the 2TB capacity.