Thursday, February 4th 2016

Sony Unveils the SLW-M Series Consumer SSDs

by
btarunr
 Discuss (16 Comments)
Sony is making its international debut in consumer SSDs, with the SLW-M series. The company was selling some of its first SSDs locally in Japan. Built in the 7 mm thick 2.5-inch form-factor, the drives feature SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and come in capacities of 240 GB (SLW-MG2) and 480 GB (SLW-MG4). There's no word on the controller or NAND flash make, but the company is advertising performance figures of up to 560 MB/s reads, with up to 530 MB/s writes. A 9.5 mm spacer, and a license to Acronis True image 2015 HD come included. Sony is also including its very own drive management software, the Sony SSD Toolbox.
Update: DIYPC HK posted a picture of the drive's PCB. It reveals a rebranded Phison S10 series controller, and Toshiba A19 TLC NAND flash.
Sources: Hermitage Akihabara, Many Thanks to TheLostSwede for the update.

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16 Comments on Sony Unveils the SLW-M Series Consumer SSDs

#1
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
Sure, why not. If the price and endurance is there it'll sell. Performance too obviously, but I can't imagine it not having performance.
Posted on Reply
#2
hojnikb
Let me guess.. SM2256 and A19 tlc flash.
Posted on Reply
#4
hojnikb
So Phison S10 and a19 tlc flash...

Nothing we haven't seen before...
Posted on Reply
#5
TheLostSwede
News Editor
hojnikbSo Phison S10 and a19 tlc flash...

Nothing we haven't seen before...
Well, what did you expect?
Posted on Reply
#6
hojnikb
TheLostSwedeWell, what did you expect?
A bit more differentiation to be honest.

Btw, its your 1000th post :)
Posted on Reply
#7
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
hojnikbBtw, its your 1000th post :)
Only 1000? ;)
Posted on Reply
#8
hyp36rmax
TheLostSwedeIt clearly gets nowhere near those figures www.chiphell.com/thread-1450858-1-1.html
Roughly $152 for the 480GB model.

Teardown here www.diypc.hk/archives/19941 The 240GB SKU seems to perform slightly better.

H1 10-X controller? Some are suggesting it's a rebranded PHISON PS3110
TLC tends to be a little slower with the advantage of higher capacities compared to MLC. Another thing to take into account is the benchmark being used. I wonder what the ATTO results would look like since ATTO is catered more towards compressible data transfers. The Phison controller is new which is also being used in many current SSD's
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#9
hojnikb
hyp36rmaxTLC tends to be a little slower with the advantage of higher capacities compared to MLC. Another thing to take into account is the benchmark being used. I wonder what the ATTO results would look like since ATTO is catered more towards compressible data transfers. The Phison controller is new which is also being used in many current SSD's
TLC is a lot slower at writes than MLC. For example, crucial bx200 240G can only pull ~70MB/s of sustained writes once slc buffer runs out. Thats worse than some usb3 flash drives.
Posted on Reply
#10
dorsetknob
"YOUR RMA REQUEST IS CON-REFUSED"
btarunrSony is making its international debut in consumer SSDs,
:) does it come with a pre installed Rootkit maybe in the firmware :rolleyes:

Sony Still Got a long way to go before they earn the Consumer's Trust
Posted on Reply
#11
RejZoR
Is anyone still (even) using SandForce controllers, the SF3000 series or have they been entirely withdrawn as OEM from the market since the original company got bought out? Despite criticisms, I really liked their concept and how they utilized real-time compression to extend life and enhance speed on compressible data. There were tons of SSD's using their controllers and now I can't think of any. They are either Samsung, Marvell or other less "famous" like Phison.
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#12
hojnikb
RejZoRIs anyone still (even) using SandForce controllers, the SF3000 series or have they been entirely withdrawn as OEM from the market since the original company got bought out? Despite criticisms, I really liked their concept and how they utilized real-time compression to extend life and enhance speed on compressible data. There were tons of SSD's using their controllers and now I can't think of any. They are either Samsung, Marvell or other less "famous" like Phison.
Kingston still uses them. But sf2000 is not relevant anymore, because it does not support TLC. And everyone is (sadly) moving to TLC.

While idea of compression is nice and all (and sandforce is not the only one using it), their execution is just plain garbage. They thought compressing _everything_ was a good idea. Also, for some reason their controllers handle trim very poorly (among other things) which results in very noticeable drop of write performance over time (i've gone from 140MBs to 90MBs on a 120G drive).
Posted on Reply
#13
RejZoR
But SF3500 series supports 10nm TLC as well and one would think they'd address other issues. But I can't remeber anyone actually using such it in their drives.
Posted on Reply
#14
hojnikb
RejZoRBut SF3500 series supports 10nm TLC as well and one would think they'd address other issues. But I can't remeber anyone actually using such it in their drives.
Because they don't exist yet. At least not in mass form. And probably never will, because last time i checked it's too slow and too hot. If it came out like 1.5 years ago, then it would make sense for the time being and right now we should be seeing its successor (pcie3.0, 3d support, better random performance).
Posted on Reply
#15
RejZoR
So, basically new generations of SandForce controllers will only serve Seagate later on when SSD's become their bigger part of the portfolio. Or maybe for hybrid drives though afaik they don't use SandForce on those either.
Posted on Reply
#16
hojnikb
RejZoRSo, basically new generations of SandForce controllers will only serve Seagate later on when SSD's become their bigger part of the portfolio. Or maybe for hybrid drives though afaik they don't use SandForce on those either.
Possibly. Although as far as hybrid drives are concerned, they need NAND controllers within HDD controller itself. This will drive the price down even further. It makes no sense to slap a controller like sf3500 for caching purposes.
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