INTRODUCTION

   When we first started testing NVMe M.2 Solid State Drives roughly two years ago we knew that this type would dominate the market in terms of read and write performance and as many of you are certainly aware we couldn't be more right (at least until something new comes along). Of course just like with SATA models not all NVMe M.2 SSDs are created equal and so there are many performance categories currently available for all pockets ranging from 1000MB/s and going all the way up to around 4000MB/s. Considering however that even 2.5" and SATA M.2 SSDs with read and write numbers at around 500-550MB/s are more than enough for the majority of the consumer base even entry-level NVMe M.2 models are in a whole different performance category/league. Kingston released their second consumer oriented NVMe M.2 SSD a few months back called the A1000 and today we'll be testing the 480GB capacity model.

       Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston designs, manufactures and distributes memory products for desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memory products for PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. Through its global network of subsidiaries and affiliates, Kingston has manufacturing facilities in California, Taiwan, China and sales representatives in the United States, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Australia, India, Taiwan, China, and Latin America.

   For their entry-level A1000 NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3x2 SSD (M.2280 form factor currently available in 240/480/960GB capacities) SSD Kingston has paired the Phison PS5008-E8 quad-channel NAND flash controller with Toshiba's 64-layer 256Gb BiCS 3D TLC NAND flash memory and LPDDR3 RAM modules (either by Nanya or Micron). The PS5008-E8 NVMe v1.2 NAND flash controller supports several technologies including end-to-end data protection, SmartFlush (minimizes In-Flight data loss due to unexpected power loss), SmartECC (Strong ECC and RAID ECC), Smart Refresh, thermal-protection and self-encryption (supports AES, TCG-OPAL and TCG-Pyrite). In terms of performance Kingston states sequential read numbers of up to 1500MB/s for all models while write numbers vary according to capacity (800MB/s for the 240GB model, 900MB/s for the 480GB model and up to 1000MB/s for the 960GB model). As for durability/endurance Kingston reports 150TB for the 240GB model, 300TB for the 480GB model and 600TB for the 960GB model (all models are covered by a 5 year limited warranty).