More 128TB SSDs are coming as almost no one noticed this launch — another SSD controller that can support up to 128TB appeared paving the way for HDD-beating capacities (2024)

More 128TB SSDs are coming as almost no one noticed this launch — another SSD controller that can support up to 128TB appeared paving the way for HDD-beating capacities (1)

Samsung has forecast that we can expect single SSD capacity to be as high as 1PB within the next decade, a prediction which came off the back of the company exhibiting a prototype128TB SSDat the Flash memory Summit in San Jose in 2022, calling it a "petabyte scale product".

While Samsung has since launched a 128TB SSD with a proprietary controller, and Silicon Motion has an SSD controller that can support up to 128TB, SSDs of that size remain disappointingly rare.

At CES 2024, Phison demonstrated a range of SSDs and portable SSD controllers, including its X2 enterprise SSD platform. On the company’s site, this is listed as “world’s best-in-class Enterprise SSD” available in capacities of 1.92TB to 61.44TB. However, something that very few people noticed was the version on show at CES was listed as having up to 128TB capacity.

Not shouting about it... yet!

Although details are very scarce beyond the information found on Phison's media deck released prior to the show, we know that highlights of the X2 controller (beyond the massive capacity) include:

  • PCIe Gen5x4 Dual-Port
  • TSMC 12nm Process
  • 16-Channels,
  • 3D NAND
  • Computational Storage Devices (CSD)

We also know that it will come in U.2, E3.S form factors.

Phision additionally revealed that its device delivers the best performance-per-watt, and boasts sequential read speeds of over 14GB/s, sequential write speeds of 12GB/s, random read speeds of 3000K IOPS, and random write speeds of 800K IOPS.

It’s clear by the lack of fuss that Phison isn’t ready to shout about the updated X2 just yet, but it’s a positive sign that 128TB SSDs are slowly making their way to the market, and it will surely only be a matter of time before they start to become more commonplace, even if 1PB drives remain a distant dream for now.

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Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.

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More 128TB SSDs are coming as almost no one noticed this launch — another SSD controller that can support up to 128TB appeared paving the way for HDD-beating capacities (2024)

FAQs

What is 128 SSD equivalent to HDD? ›

It is equivalent to 1/8 of 1 TB HDD and 24 times the speed of 1 TB HDD.

Is 128 TB real? ›

While Samsung has since launched a 128TB SSD with a proprietary controller, and Silicon Motion has an SSD controller that can support up to 128TB, SSDs of that size remain disappointingly rare. At CES 2024, Phison demonstrated a range of SSDs and portable SSD controllers, including its X2 enterprise SSD platform.

Is 128 GB SSD worth it? ›

Over and above, using 128GB SSD is better if you use it just for games and not for backups or other software programs. SSD can give you some additional speed. Your maps will be loaded more quickly during games. Moreover, SSD is more reliable as compared to HDD, due to its immovable components.

What does 128 SSD mean? ›

A solid state drive is a computer storage medium with no moving parts and is much faster than the hard disk drives (HDD) computers have been using for decades now. 128GB is the capacity. 128 Gigabytes or 131,072 Megabytes or 134,217,728 Kilobytes, or 137,438,953,472 bytes. A byte is 8 bits. A bit is a 1 or a 0.

Which SSD is better 128 or 256? ›

Get model with 256GB SSD minimum. 128GB is barely enough for anything. You'll have no space for media files nor games. Anyway - if you decide to go for a smaller SSD model, then you can use SD Cards for user media files.

Is 128GB SSD enough with 1TB HDD? ›

Best Answered by. Yes, 128GB SSD is enough for your Windows OS if you have a 1TB HDD for other programs on your laptop. Usually, 128GB of storage is regarded as plenty for a Windows operating system installation, especially if you have a 1TB hard drive for storing other files and programs.

Is 1TB actually 1TB? ›

How much is 1 TB of storage? When talking about data storage, we often measure whole-system storage capacity in terabytes, but most individual large files take up megabytes or gigabytes. So how many gigabytes or megabytes are in a terabyte? 1 terabyte (TB) equals 1,000 gigabytes (GB) or 1,000,000 megabytes (MB).

Why a 2TB SSD is only 1.8 TB? ›

Inclusion of pre-installed software or partitioning on the drive. The reason why a 2TB drive may only have 1.8TB of usable space is due to the inclusion of pre-installed software or partitioning on the drive.

How much TB is enough? ›

With 2 TB of data, you can store an average of 200,000 photos with today's smartphones, and roughly 500,000 documents can fit on a 2TB drive. 2TB or 1TB of data storage is more than enough digital storage for most people.

Is it worth upgrading from 128GB to 256GB? ›

Overall, for most casual smartphone users 64GB phone memory is enough, although many people prefer to choose between 128GB and 256GB. Those who use their mobile phone to the absolute maximum should consider phones with storage of 512GB and 1TB to avoid running out of storage space and suffering with a slow phone speed.

Can Windows 10 run on 128GB SSD? ›

Technically, yes, you can install Windows 10 with your current hardware. However, you will need to consider the performance of the PC because Windows might not run smoothly due to your processor model and RAM capacity.

Should I buy a bigger SSD? ›

As a rule of thumb, consider your use case. If you're looking for a portable SSD to store data you can work on remotely, grab a smaller 128GB drive, while anything 250GB or less will run your operating system or let you do frequent backups of your device.

Does higher SSD mean faster? ›

What's more, a larger SSD even helps with your SSD speeds. The closer to full capacity an SSD gets past a certain point, the slower it becomes (some modern SSDs include a feature called overprovisioning, which mitigates this issue). So, a higher-capacity drive allows you to leave ample free space for peak performance.

How many SSD should I get? ›

Choose storage capacity

250GB: operating system, entertainment, and backups. 500GB: entertainment and business use. 1TB: business use, gaming, and photography. 2TB: professional gaming and image editing.

Is 128 GB ok for a laptop? ›

128GB of RAM is definitely overkill for the overwhelming majority of users; there's simply no need for that amount of memory in a business laptop. However, there is a section of laptop users that will benefit from it.

How many SSD is equal to HDD? ›

The average capacity of an HDD is around 500GB, while the average capacity of an SSD is only around 250GB. This means that you can store twice as much data on an HDD as an SSD.

Is 128GB SSD better than 500GB HDD? ›

On the other hand, HDDs are slower due to mechanical components. In terms of capacity, 128GB SSD is relatively smaller than a 500GB HDD, but the faster speed and responsiveness of an SSD often outweigh the larger storage capacity of an HDD.

What is the actual capacity of 128GB SSD? ›

What is the usable capacity of my SSD
Gross Capacity in GB (Values displayed on packaging)Capacity in GiB After formatting (Values displayed under Windows GB)
128 GB120 GiB
240 GB223 GiB
256 GB238 GiB
480 GB447 GiB
7 more rows

What is 256GB SSD equivalent to in HDD? ›

1TB is 1TB, 26GB is 256GB. Storage capacity isn't measured differently for different devices. A 256GB SSD has exactly the same amount of storage space as a 256GB HDD.

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