Realtek is typically associated with audio, multimedia, and networking controllers for budget PCs, but for several years, the company has been trying to enter the SSD controller market, challenging established players. At this year's Computex, Realtek announced that samples of its RTS5781DL controller with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface are now shipping to interested parties, so expect actual drives within the next year.
The Realtek RTS5781 is an NVMe 2.0-compliant DRAM-less SSD controller with a PCIe 5.0 x4 host interface designed for mainstream drives. The chip features four NAND channels supporting data transfer rates of 3600 MT/s and supports 4K LDPC error correction to ensure compatibility with contemporary 3D TLC and 3D QLC NAND memory devices. The controller can deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 10,000 MB/s, with random read and write performance rated at 1.4 million IOPS each. The controller fully supports TCG OPAL 2.0, Pyrite, and AES256 encryption to enable makers of actual drives to address applications with high-security concerns.
