Introduction

This year, Intel’s decision to release an affordable mainstream SATA SSD has led them to use a Silicon Motion controller. But “affordable” by today’s standards means using 15/16nm TLC NAND flash, and Intel doesn’t make that either. They chose not to invest in the 16nm node at IMFT (their flash manufacturing partnership with Micron) so Intel has to buy their flash on the open market.

The result is the Intel 540s, using Silicon Motion’s new SM2258 controller and SK Hynix 16nm TLC NAND. The SM2258 controller is the successor to the SM2256, Silicon Motion’s first controller designed for use with TLC flash. SM2258 builds on that design by moving from 55nm fabrication to 40nm and incorporating several hardware tweaks including more flexible SLC caching and support for 3D NAND.
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Read full post here:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/10432/the-intel-ssd-540s-480gb-review