CES 2020: Patriot Demonstrates PXD External SSD w/ USB-C
by Anton Shilov on January 9, 2020 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- Patriot
- Trade Shows
- Phison
- 3D NAND
- PS5013-E13T
- CES 2020
Among the many storage vendors at this year's CES was Patriot, who was showcasing its upcoming PXD external SSD. The device features a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C interface and is designed for users seeking for a high-performance ultra-portable storage solution.
The Patriot PXD drives are based on the Phison PS5013-E13T DRAM-less controller and 3D NAND memory, making it closer to a full-fledged SSD rather than a simple USB flash drive. Because of this, the external drive is well positioned to exceed standard USB flash drives in almost every metric, not the least of which is much high performance, of course, but also higher reliability as well as endurance. Meanwhile, since the PXD is still a mobile storage solution that is intended to be used like a USB flash drive, it will come in a metal enclosure.
Patriot plans to offer its PXD SSDs in 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB configurations. The company rates the drives for up to 1000 MB/s sequential read and write speeds, which is generally a limit for a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface.
Patriot is expected to start shipments of its PXD external SSDs sometimes later this year. Pricing has not been announced, as ultimately that will be highly dependent on where NAND prices are once the drive finally ships.
Related Reading:
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- Crucial Introduces X8 Portable SSD
- Lexar SL100 Pro Portable USB 3.1 Gen 2 External SSDs: Fast and Up to 1 TB
- Plextor Launches EX1 USB-C External SSD: Up to 550 MBps, 512 GB and LDPC
Source: Patriot
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vailr - Thursday, January 9, 2020 - link
Re: "The Patriot PXD drives are based on the Phison PS5013-E13T DRAM-less controller". Is that in reference to the SSD drive itself? Because most other external NVMe SSD enclosures use a JMicron USB to NVMe translator chip. The NVMe SSD would have it's own updatable firmware, and the enclosure's JMicron controller would also have it's own separate updatable firmware. However, the NVMe SSD firmware cannot be updated while installed in the external enclosure. The NVMe SSD must be removed from the enclosure and plugged directly into a motherboard's NVMe slot, for the firmware update to function.Billy Tallis - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
There are at least three USB to NVMe bridge chips out now, from JMicron, ASMedia and Realtek. Patriot's using the ASMedia bridge.Tomatotech - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
A couple of months ago, this wasn't possible - you can now make your own quickly and cheaply.Several NVME m.2 enclosures are now newly available on Amazon / fleabay for around £$20. They take any customer NVME m.2 drive. I brought one last week and put a cheap 1TB NVME drive in, and it works perfectly fine. Runs at the max USB3 speed of around 540 MB/s, but is no bigger than a cheap flash drive which maxes out at around 30MB/s. Came with both USB-C and USB-A cables. Very happy with it.
Paazel - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
I did the same, but the cables that came with my enclosure were not awesome. Been using the USB-A to USB-C cable from my GoPro, and a simple Aukey USB-C to USB-C that both work flawlessly.Paazel - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
I picked up a NVME enclosure and a 1TB HP EX920 drive for about $120 last summer. I get close to 1000/MBps transfers from MacBook Pro. Nice to see manufacturer's catching up!