For several years, the market of high-performance SSDs with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface for client PCs has been dominated by solid-state drives based on the Phison PS5026-E26 controller, which has affected their pricing. Yet, this monopoly is about to end as over a dozen SSD makers demonstrated their Silicon Motion SM2508-based drives at Computex, products that are either already on the market or about to enter it.
As Silicon Motion primarily focuses on large OEMs, Micron was the first company to release a high-end SSD with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface back in February. Called the Micron 4600 and one of the best SSDs around, it's based on the SM2508 controller and Micron's own B68S 3D TLC NAND with a 3600 MT/s interface. This was an important milestone that officially placed SMI on the map with a high-end PCIe Gen5 controller and challenged the E26 dominance. But that was only one maker, albeit a very significant one. However, as of Computex 2025, Silicon Motion has made significant inroads into the high-end consumer SSD market with over a dozen partners.
