It just so happens that those SSD makers who still haven't got their own controller development teams, but don't want to lose sight of the enthusiast SSD market, don't have much of a choice today. A suitable option for them, which allows organizing the assembly of truly productive NVMe drives, is offered by only one company - Silicon Motion, which is ready to supply complete solutions from its controller and ready-made firmware to everyone. Other companies also have publicly available basic chips for assembling NVMe drives, for example, Phison or Realtek, but it was Silicon Motion that took the lead in this area, offering partners not only more functional, but also significantly faster solutions.
At the same time, among the huge variety of NVMe drives built on the basis of Silicon Motion controllers, not all models may be of interest to enthusiasts. This company produces a wide range of chips with fundamentally different levels of performance, but only selected platforms can provide performance worthy of SSD for advanced or maximum configurations. In particular, last year we spoke very warmly about the SM2262 controller: by the standards of 2018, it really looked very attractive, allowing drives based on it to compete on equal terms with the best consumer NVMe SSDs from first-tier manufacturers, including Samsung, Western Digital and Intel.
But this year the situation has changed somewhat, as leading manufacturers have updated their high-end mass models. In response to this, Silicon Motion began to offer partners an improved version of last year's controller, SM2262EN, which also promises an increase in performance parameters - primarily in write speed. It turns out that it is drives based on this chip that should be of interest to buyers today who expect to get a modern and fast NVMe drive at their disposal, but at the same time do not want to overpay for owning an A-brand product.
Until recently, not many manufacturers have used the new SM2262EN controller in their products. In fact, the choice was reduced to two options: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro and HP EX950. But now a third drive based on this chip has appeared - its production has been mastered by Transcend. With this new product, called Transcend MTE220S, we are going to get acquainted in this review.
The input to this acquaintance is as follows. HP EX950 is not supplied to Russia, but in our recent testing, it did not show any special trump cards, offering performance at the level of drives on the previous SM2262 controller. And this means that, despite the appearance of a new version of the Silicon Image controller, there are no NVMe SSDs that could compete with the fresh one. we haven't seen yet. Whether the Transcend MTE220S turns out to be more interesting than the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro is what we're going to find out in this review. But it should immediately be emphasized that even if this SSD does not shine with speed parameters, it can still be quite interesting. After all, Transcend was going to sell it at a surprisingly low price - at least low for a full-fledged drive with a PCI Express 3.0 x4 interface, DRAM buffer and XNUMXD TLC memory.
Technical specifications
We already talked about what the SM2262EN controller is in detail when we got acquainted with the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro. On the technical side, this chip is built on two ARM Cortex cores, uses an eight-channel interface for managing flash memory, has a DDR3/DDR4 buffer interface, and supports the PCI Express 3.0 x4 bus with the NVM Express 1.3 protocol. In other words, this is a modern and fully functional solution for NVMe drives, which also has very good theoretical performance and supports advanced error correction methods.
Initially, the SM2262EN controller was introduced back in August 2017, at the same time as the "simple" SM2262, but was presented as its "advanced" version, the supply of which was supposed to begin later. Apparently, Silicon Motion was going to hold it off until 96-layer TLC 3D NAND hit the market, to then offer accelerated end-to-end solutions along with denser flash memory. However, such a plan fell through due to changing market trends: NAND chips began to rapidly become cheaper, and memory manufacturers decided to delay the introduction of new technologies. As a result, Silicon Motion got tired of waiting and released the SM2262EN as an update to the SM2262 as part of a 64-layer TLC 3D NAND platform.
At the same time, if you believe the formal specifications, the version of the platform with the SM2262EN controller still promises an improvement in performance: up to 9% for sequential reading, up to 58% for sequential writing, up to 14% for random reading and up to 40% for random writing. But if you believe in these numbers, then with great caution. The developers speak directly - SM2262EN does not imply any alterations in the hardware structure, it uses exactly the same architecture as the regular SM2262. All the advantage relies on changes in the software part: platforms with a new controller use more sophisticated recording and SLC caching algorithms. In other words, we are talking about some attempt to cut corners, and not about the fact that the engineers managed to make some kind of breakthrough in the mechanisms of work.
We already saw what this means in practice when we tested the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro based on the SM2262EN controller. This drive was only faster than its predecessor based on the SM2262 chip in benchmarks, but did not offer any noticeable improvements in real performance. However, with the Transcend MTE220S, the story is somewhat different. This drive has no close relatives in the lineup, and for Transcend it is a completely new model. Against the background of the fact that earlier in the model range this manufacturer had only entry-level NVMe SSDs, the passport characteristics of the MTE220S look very impressive.
| Manufacturer | Transcend | ||
| Серия | MTE220S | ||
| Model number | TS256GMTE220S | TS512GMTE220S | TS1TMTE220S |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | ||
| Interface | PCI Express 3.0 x4 - NVMe 1.3 | ||
| Capacity, GB | 256 | 512 | 1024 |
| Configuration | |||
| Memory chips: type, interface, manufacturing process, manufacturer | Micron 64-layer 256-Gbps TLC 3D NAND | ||
| Controller | SMI SM2262EN | ||
| Buffer: type, volume | DDR3-1866 256 MB |
DDR3-1866 512 MB |
DDR3-1866 1024 MB |
| Performance | |||
| Max. sustained sequential read speed, MB/s | 3500 | 3500 | 3500 |
| Max. sustained sequential write speed, MB/s | 1100 | 2100 | 2800 |
| Max. random read speed (blocks of 4 KB), IOPS | 210 000 | 210 000 | 360 000 |
| Max. random write speed (blocks of 4 KB), IOPS | 290 000 | 310 000 | 425 000 |
| physical characteristics | |||
| Power consumption: idle / read-write, W | N/A | ||
| MTBF (mean time between failures), million h | 1,5 | ||
| Recording resource, TB | 260 | 400 | 800 |
| Overall dimensions: LxHxD, mm | 80 × 22 × 3,5 | ||
| Mass, g | 8 | ||
| Warranty period, years | 5 | ||
Interestingly, the declared performance of the Transcend MTE220S is somewhat lower than the speeds that ADATA promised for its similar drive based on the SM2262EN controller. Apparently this is due to the fact that, although the MTE220S uses the same hardware and software platform, its design differs from the reference one. For its drive, Transcend designed its own circuit board, where, in order to reduce costs, it abandoned the use of a 32-bit DRAM buffer interface in favor of a more economical, 16-bit connection. As a result, the random read and write speed limits are reduced, and this is especially noticeable in the 512 GB version of the drive.
However, SLC caching on the Transcend MTE220S works exactly the same as on other drives with the SM2262EN controller. The cache uses a dynamic scheme when a part of the TLC memory from the main array is transferred to the accelerated one-bit mode. The cache size is selected so that about half of the free flash memory works in SLC mode. Thus, at high speed on the MTE220S, you can write an amount of data that is about a sixth of the space available on the SSD, then the speed will decrease significantly.
This can be illustrated by the following graph, which shows how the performance of continuous sequential write changes on an empty Transcend MTE220S with a capacity of 512 GB.
In accelerated mode, when recording occurs in SLC mode, the 512 GB version of the MTE220S provides performance at the level of 1,9 GB / s. In TLC mode, the flash memory array is significantly slower, and after the free space in the SLC cache is exhausted, the speed drops to 460 MB / s. The graph also shows the third speed option - 275 MB / s. The performance during sequential writes decreases to this value when there is no more free flash memory left, and in order to put some additional data into it, the controller first needs to transfer the cells used for the SLC cache to regular TLC -mode. As a result, it turns out that the average speed of continuous recording on the Transcend MTE220S 512 GB "from beginning to end" is about 410 MB / s, and it takes at least 21 minutes to completely fill this drive with data. This is not a very optimistic figure: for example, the same Samsung 970 EVO Plus can be fully loaded to the eyeballs in just 10 minutes.
At the same time, the Transcend MTE220S SLC cache has the same unique feature that we found back in the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro. Data from it is not transferred to conventional memory immediately, but only when it is filled by more than three-quarters. This allows you to achieve higher read speeds when accessing files that have just been written. This feature makes little sense when using an SSD in real life, but it helps the drive a lot in synthetic benchmarks, which just practice “write-read” scenarios.
How it looks in practice can be estimated from the following random read speed graph when a file is accessed both immediately after it was created and when some more information was written to the SSD after this file.
Here you can clearly see the moment when the controller moves the test file from the SLC cache to the main flash memory, since the speed of small-block reading at this moment drops by about 10%. It is with this reduced speed that users will deal in the vast majority of cases, since there are no algorithms for moving data back from TLC memory to SLC cache in the Transcend MTE220S firmware, and files can linger in the SLC cache only if if the drive remains more than 90 percent free during operation.
In other words, in terms of working with the SLC cache, the Transcend MTE220S differs little from other drives based on the SM2262EN controller. But this does not mean at all that it is similar to the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro in everything. Transcend's offer has a weighty advantage of a different order - higher rewriting volumes allowed by the warranty conditions. Without losing it, the drive can be completely overwritten with data 800 times, and the 256 GB version more than 1000 times. Such indicators of the declared resource allow us to hope that the manufacturer buys flash memory of the highest quality grade for the MTE220S, and this means that the real reliability of the drive can suit even those users who still treat TLC 3D NAND with great distrust.
Appearance and internal arrangement
For a detailed acquaintance, according to tradition, the model Transcend MTE220S with a capacity of 512 GB was chosen. She did not present any surprises with her appearance, this is an ordinary drive in the M.2 2280 form factor, which works through the PCI Express 3.0 x4 bus and supports the NVM Express version 1.3 protocol. However, the type of packaging and delivery of the MTE220S evoke stable associations with cheap consumer goods. The company even sold the budget bufferless SSD MTE110S in a full-fledged box, and the novelty in question, which is positioned as a higher-level solution, was packed in a blister, in which, in addition to the actual M.2 drive card, there is nothing at all. All this is very similar to the form in which microSD cards are supplied to the market, and, obviously, serves the purpose of reducing overhead costs. However, hardly anyone still chooses an SSD by packaging.
The SSD itself does not differ in expressive appearance. Its design does not provide for any heatsinks, and the sticker does not have a layer of heat-conducting foil. And in general, the Transcend MTE220S looks more like an OEM product than an enthusiast solution. This impression is emphasized by the textolite of the printed circuit board of a forgotten already green color and a purely utilitarian label that does not have any signs of design and contains only service information.
The layout of the MTE220S board cannot be called typical - apparently, Transcend engineers modified it for some own needs. At least, the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro drive we reviewed earlier, despite using a similar hardware platform, looked completely different. However, Transcend's novelty has retained the double-sided arrangement of components, so the MTE2S may not be suitable for the "low-profile" M.220 slots that are found in thin laptops.
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The flash memory array housed on the 220GB MTE512S is packed with four Transcend-branded chips. It is known that inside each of these microcircuits there are four 256-gigabit crystals of 64-layer Micron TLC 3D NAND memory of the second generation. Transcend purchases such memory from Micron in single wafer form, but cuts, tests, and packs the silicon dies into chips, allowing for additional manufacturing savings.
You should also pay attention to the DDR4-1866 SDRAM chip located next to the SM2262EN base controller chip. It acts as a buffer for storing a copy of the address translation table, but the important thing here is that the drive in question has only one such chip, manufactured by Samsung, with a capacity of 512 MB. We specifically draw attention to this, since other SSDs with the SM2262EN controller have a fast DRAM buffer usually consisting of a pair of chips half the size. As a result, the Transcend MTE220S works with the DRAM buffer via a 16-bit rather than a 32-bit bus, which, in theory, can somewhat harm performance during small-block operations. However, the influence of this factor should not be overestimated: a 32-bit RAM bus is a unique feature of the SM2262/SM2262EN platform, while other SSD controllers use a DRAM buffer with a 16-bit bus and do not suffer from it at all.
Software
To service its own drives, Transcend releases a special SSD Scope utility. Its capabilities are almost typical for software products of this class, however, some of the usual functions are not supported for some reason.
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SSD Scope allows you to monitor the overall health of your drive and assess its health by accessing SMART telemetry. The utility provides simple performance tests, as well as checking the firmware version and updating it.
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The utility also has a built-in tool for cloning the contents of disks, which allows you to quickly and painlessly transfer the operating system and installed applications to a freshly purchased SSD. Plus, SSD Scope can manage the transmission of the TRIM command to the drive.
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For SATA drives, SSD Scope can also offer to check the flash array for errors or perform a "secure erase" procedure on the flash memory called Secure Erase. But with the Transcend MTE220S, both of these features don't work for some reason.
Source: 3dnews.ru