LiteOn has a new M.2 SSD line called the EPX series. These drives use NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 host interface to provide fast transfer speeds beyond SATA capabilities. These drives also come in a longer M.2 22110 form factor and not M.2 2280. That is because these drives offer significant storage capacity with the EPX-KB 960 providing 960GB and the EPX-KB 1920 providing 1920GB. LiteOn uses Marvell’s 88SS1093 “Eldora” controller paired with Toshiba’s 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND flash.
LiteOn EPX Series Performance
The EPX-KB 960 has a sequential read speed of 1700 MB/s while having a sequential write speed of 670 MB/s. The EPX-KB 1920 in comparison has as a slightly faster sequential read speed of 1800 MB/s and has a sequential write speed of 800 MB/s. In terms of endurance, each drive has a DWPD of up to 1 Drive Write per Day for 3 years. Plus, has a data retention of one year powered off. Other features include:
- End to End Data Protection
- Reliable Consistency
- Ultra Low Latencies
- Power Loss Protection
- Low Power Consumption
- Customized Firmware
These drives are more for enterprise use, but a consumer version is likely coming and will be on display by CES 2018. Most likely as a successor to Plextor’s M8Pe or M8Se, ditching the power-loss protection capacitors.
