Agylstor M.4 SSD Spotted with PCIe x8 Interface

Agylstor M.4 SSD Spotted with PCIe x8 Interface

Agylstor M.4 SSD Spotted with PCIe x8 Interface

M.2 SSDs are incredibly popular these days, having become commonplace in high-end desktops and notebooks thanks to their small form factor, and their ability to utilise the raw data transferring performance of your PC’s PCIe lanes.

At Computex 2019, Silicon Motion (SMI) demonstrated an Agylstor SSD which fits into what they call an M.4 form factor, utilising SMI’s enterprise-grade SM2270 controller to offer up to 16TB of SST storage over a PCIe 8x interface. The image above (courtesy of Anandtech) showcases the SSD in question, which utilises what appears to be two standard M.2 connections to create a dual-wide M.2, or in this case M.4, storage solution. 

So what’s the point of this? Surely a standard M.2 SSD on a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface could offer the same potential bandwidth as this PCIe 3.0 x8 solution could? Yes, but the point of this SSD isn’t just to bypass the limits of PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs. The larger PCB of this storage solution enables more NAND chips to be mounted to its surface, which in turn enables storage capacities of up to 16TB. Beyond that, this SSD’s enterprise credentials could enable it to offer incredible levels of sustained performance, whereas consumer SSDs focus on burst speeds over shorter use cases. 

At this time it is unknown if Agylstor will release their M.4 storage solutions into the wild, though it could be useful for a number of use cases. There are plenty of niche products that need large banks of fast storage, such as the world of high spec drones for the film industry. 
   

Agylstor M.4 SSD Spotted with PCIe x8 Interface  

While we don’t expect the M.4 form factor to catch on within the PC market, it is certain to prove useful somewhere. 

You can join the discussion on Agylstor’s M.4 SSD on the OC3D Forums.Â