Lexar NM610 NVMe M.2. SSD review - Specifications & Features

Name: Lexar NM610 NVMe M.2. SSD review
Brand: Lexar NM610

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 05/12/2020 03:24 PM [

] 5 comment(s)

Specifications & Features

Lexar is now offering three versions of the more NM610 (250GB, 500GB, and 1TB). For endurance, our tested 1TB model has been rated at 500 TBW. The NM610 series will be fitted with TLC written 3D NAND flash memory (vertically stacked). This allows the company to offer the proper storage volumes.

Type	Solid State modules (SSM)
Form factor	M.2 2280
Interface	M.2/M-Key (PCIe 3.0 x4)
Read	2100MB/s
Write	1600MB/s
IOPS 4K read/Write	188k/156k
memory modules	3D-NAND TLC, Micron, 64 Layer (Generation 2)
TBW	500TB
Reliability prediction	1.5 Mio. hours (MTBF)
Controller	Silicon Motion SM2263XT, 4 channels
Protocol	NVMe 1.3
Data protection features	not available
Power consumption	not specified (maximum), not specified (operation), not specified (idle), not specified (Sleep mode)
Dimensions	80x22x2.25mm
Warranty	three years

So instead of using Planar NAND, 3D NAND is used. 3D TLC NAND is physical vertical NAND cell stacking not to be confused with chip stacking in a multi-chip package. In 3D NAND, NAND layers, not chips, are stacked in a single IC. The good news is continued cost reduction, smaller die sizes and more capacity per NAND chip. Also, installed NAND toolsets in the wafer fabs can, for the most part, be reused, thereby extending the useful life of fab equipment. The NAND ICs are driven by an Silicon motion 2263XT controller, there is No DRAM cache here to be found, but some provisioning, with the help of a smaller SLC written cache.

Controller with Host Memory Buffer

The NVMe SSD Series utilizes a cost-effective, high-performance PCIe-to NAND controller to manage a full PCIe Gen 3(8Gb/s) x 4 bandwidth with the host while managing multiple NAND flash memory devices on 4 channels. The controller is a Silicon Motion (SM2263XT). Any SSD with the new SM2263XT is a DRAM-less drive, and that helps to reduce the cost for SSDs in 2018. Combined with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 2018 and later you are compatible with Host Memory Buffer technology, your system memory substitutes the memory of the drive to cache the map table. Thus not using DRAM SSD cached equals a nice price reduction. A 480 GB SSD would utilize ~500 MB of your system memory and a 1 TB SSD would be available, you'd be looking at 1GB of Host Memory Buffer (which also is the maximum the controller can utilize).

Pricing

I just pulled some numbers from some online e-tailers like Newegg, the MSRP of the 1TB version is set at 149 USD. That is slightly on the high side at 15 cents per GB.

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