DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that the oversupply in the NAND Flash market has resulted in price decline of Client SSD, which in turn drives the demand. DRAMeXchange expects that the SSD adoption rate in the notebook market will exceed 50% this year. In particular, PCIe SSDs will gradually replace SATA III SSDs, the current mainstream product, at a faster pace. The penetration rate of PCIe in the client-SSD market will also have a chance to reach over 50% this year.

On the demand side, DRAMeXchange points out that PCIe SSD has a significant edge over SATA SSD when it comes to read/write performance. In the highly competitive PC market, specification upgrade will certainly be a selling point. As the price difference between PCIe SSD and SATA III SSD has a chance to narrow considerably during this year, major PC OEMs and modules makers are expected to actively increase the PCIe SSD adoption rate in their products.

On the supply side, the oversupply in the NAND Flash market has put most SSD suppliers under the pressure of capacity consumption. Together with most SSD suppliers’ promotion of their new 64- and 72-layer 3D SSDs at lower prices, contract prices of mainstream Client-SSDs for PC-OEMs are on a slide during 2Q18. By interface, the average contract price of SATA Client-SSDs falls by 6-11% QoQ, while that of the PCIe counterparts drops by 3-10% QoQ. For both SATA-SSD and PCIe-SSD, contract prices have been falling for two consecutive quarters.

The average contract price of PCIe products is still about 10% higher compared with that of the SATA III products during 2Q18. Nevertheless, the price difference has a chance to narrow considerably during this year. This is attributed to the decreasing prices of Client SSD in general, as well as the release of entry- and mid-level controller chips for PCIe SSDs, which narrows down the price difference gradually.

New entrants to the SSD controller chip market will first secure a place in SATA sector, while actively deploying in PCIe sector at the same time

DRAMeXchange notes that, in addition to existing suppliers like Marvell, SMI and Phison, some promising new players like ASolid, Maxiotek, Realtek, SAGE, etc. have also entered the market of SSD controller chip. Marvell, SMI, and Phison have complete product lines, ranging from entry-level SATA to high-end PCIe, with the most extensive customer base.

On the other hand, new entrants currently focus on SATA DRAMless controller chip solutions. They aim to first secure a place in the SATA sector, before expanding their research and development to more challenging PCIe products. For example, ASolid’s new AS2258 SSD SATA 6Gbps Controller is designed for new-generation 3D NAND Flash with high performance-price ratio and dual-channel architecture. It integrates SDRAM, supports LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check Code) and RAID for better performance and data protection. These new entrants are also actively deploying in PCIe controller chip product lines. Realtek’s existing PCIe products have entered mass production, while ASolid, SAGE, and Maxiotek all plan to send their PCIe products to clients for test in the second half of this year, adding new growth momentum to PCIe SSD market.

Global market research company TrendForce will host 「Compuforum 2018: Edge Computing – The Future of Memory and Cloud」at Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) on June 6, 2018.

Find more at: http://seminar.trendforce.com/Compuforum/2018/US/index/

一年一度的台北電腦展即將在6月5日拉開序幕，屆時將吸引國內外知名企業參展。全球閃存控制芯片供貨商點序科技以「點序十年，記憶相隨」(ASolid – A Solid Solution for Your Memory) 為活動主題，將攜SSD、eMMC、SD、USB等全系列產品線亮相，其中備受矚目的AS2258 SSD控制芯片將會是最大亮點。

全球閃存控制芯片供貨商點序科技深耕NAND Flash控制芯片市場十年有成，多年來穩坐全球SD卡控制芯片市占龍頭寶座。點序以深厚研發實力與技術支持為後盾，為客戶提供優越的品質與整合服務，並且積極布局全系列NAND Flash控制芯片解決方案，以SD、UFD、eMMC、SSD四大產品線跨足消費級、工業級和企業級閃存應用市場，通過一站式的全系列產品與服務來加速市場滲透率，滿足客戶對於新世代閃存應用的多元化、大容量、高性能、高性價比需求。

SATA SSD-AS2258是亮點，2018年Q4將迎來全新PCIe SSD

隨著超極本、二合一筆記本等產品的增加，PC向輕薄型趨勢發展，以及消費者對PC更高性能的需求，使得具有更高傳輸速度的SSD在市場上需求大增，再加上3D NAND擴大應用的推波助瀾之下，SSD市場競爭進入白熱化階段，並不斷吞噬HDD市場份額，預計2018 年SSD在消費類PC市場的滲透率將超過50%。

點序的SSD SATA 6Gbps AS2258控制芯片解決方案，具備LDPC硬解碼和軟解碼及RAID功能保護技術，並采用新一代SLC快取演算法以及「內建 SDRAM」的殺手級技術，能大幅提升3D TLC SSD持續效能，使SSD連續讀寫逼近SATA6Gbps臨界值的高效能表現，並讓隨機讀寫速度達到高階SSD才能展示的效能，為使用者帶來更完美的效能體驗。除了SATA-SSD技術支持之外，點序預計在2018年Q4推出PCIe Gen3x4 SSD控制芯片，為客戶帶來兼具極致效能與成本競爭力的解決方案。

eMMC5.1 獲得市場青睞，廣泛應用在高階市場

在智能型手機普及應用的推動下，以及物聯網、人工智能等概念的興起，更多的智能電子產品層出不窮，同時對嵌入式產品UFS、eMMC、eMCP需求增加。近年來，各家NAND Flash大廠陸續推出高性能且高容量的UFS、eMMC等嵌入式存儲產品滿足市場需求，同時也是其他廠商必爭之地。

點序的eMMC AS2726控制芯片解決方案，可支持eMMC5.1且向下兼容舊版規格，並全面支持各家NAND Flash廠商的TLC與最新3D NAND。點序AS2726搭配自家研發的Proprietary ECC錯誤修正技術，能有效提高錯誤修正能力與效能，使eMMC使用壽命大幅延長達50%以上。AS2726控制芯片的強大技術支持能力可充分發揮eMMC的嵌入設計優勢，使廠商無需額外支出因NAND Flash世代相容性問題而衍生的設計變更費用，有助於節省研發成本、縮短新產品上市周期。因此，AS2726控制芯片在推出後即受到市場正面回響，並陸續通過客戶驗證，廣泛應用於智能型手機、平板等高階消費性電子中。

全新的AS2705LT SD卡控制芯片即將面世

點序以SD卡控制芯片起家，多年來創下領先全球的SD卡控制芯片銷售量紀錄。點序的AS2703EN SD卡控制芯片能支持錄制高畫質影片所需的影片速度等級 (V10/V30)，並且支持A1等級1500/500 IOPS隨機讀寫效能，讓智能型手機可順暢地在SD卡上運行應用程序。在2018下半年，點序預計將推出全新的AS2705LT SD卡控制芯片，不但可支持下一世代的3D NAND TLC/QLC，更可達到A2 Class等級4000/2000 IOPS隨機讀寫效能，將傳承點序在SD卡存儲應用領域累積領先業界的雄厚技術實力，為客戶提供高效能、高可靠性及長壽命的SD卡控制芯片解決方案。

IS918M USB控制芯片與One Pass Sorting技術

點序 IS918M USB 3.1控制芯片是集高效能與成本優勢於一身的單通道解決方案。IS 918M采用55nm制程技術並配備USB3.1高速連接功能，搭配最佳化韌體與USB介面技術，能有效滿足客戶對於USB的高速、高容量需求。此外，IS918M導入點序特有的NAND Flash分檢工具 (One Pass Sorting Tool)，能協助客戶依據NAND Flash的體質，只需單次即可分出適合SSD、USB3.1或USB2.0各類應用的閃存類別，藉此提高NAND Flash使用率，確保OEM廠商產品的高兼容性與閃存的高度使用彈性。

點序未來將持續追求最新產業標準，專注研發高效能且高支持度的完整 NAND Flash 控制芯片解決方案，以涵蓋各階層應用市場的布局策略，透過深圳的服務中心技術團隊，提供點序客戶至上的服務品質，共同創造最高產品價值。

ASolid will be participating in the Computex Taipei 2018. During the event, we will showcase our NAND flash controllers (SSD, eMMC, SD, UFD) and One Pass Sorting Technology.

We use “SSD CONTROLLER, BEYOND EXCEPTIONAL” as the theme for this exhibition.

Furthermore, ASolid is celebrating its 10th Anniversary, and we are thankful for your continuous support. We will provide drinks and desserts to celebrate with you.

It would be a great pleasure to meet you at the exhibition.

The exhibition information is as below:
Place : Hyatt @ Room 1147
Address : 2, SongShou Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Date : June 5th – June 8th, 2018
Time : 09:00 – 18:00

Computex Taipei 2018 Link: www.computextaipei.com.tw