Phison was the first company to offer an SSD controller with a PCIe 5.0 x4 host interface and was the indisputable leader in the market of enthusiast-grade SSDs for a couple of years. This week, the company cemented its lead by introducing its next-generation PCIe 5.0 SSD controller for the best high-end SSDs, the PS5028-E28. The new chip promises even higher performance and compatibility with next-gen 3D NAND.
The Phison PS5028-E28 is a brand-new, eight-channel controller that can work with upcoming types of 3D NAND featuring a 4200 MT/s interface and supports SSDs with a 32TB capacity. Regarding performance, the unit promises a maximum sequential read and write performance of 14.5 GB/s (the absolute maximum that a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface can offer) as well as a maximum random read and write performance of 3 million IOPS.
Due to its compatibility with next-generation 3D NAND memory, the Phison E28 controller will enable SSDs with capacities of up to 32TB, which is good enough for client PCs, workstations, and even entry-level datacenter applications.
Phison did not disclose many specifications for its new E28 controller. However, it is reasonable to expect it to have improved compute capabilities compared to the E26 to ensure compatibility with upcoming generations of 3D NAND memory and to provide enhanced functionality.
Phison uses TSMC’s N6 process technology (6nm-class) to make its PS5028-E28 chip, which is a significant upgrade compared to TSMC’s 12FFC (12nm-class) production node used to make the PS5026-E26 controller. The average power consumption of an E28-based SSD will be around 8.5W, which is slightly higher than the 7W advertised for E26-based drives. However, this is expected since NAND memory gets more complex and requires more processing to read reliably.
At its CES 2025 booth, Phison demonstrated E28-based SSDs with 3D TLC NAND memory from Kioxia (T2BIGB5A2V), which is unsurprising as the two companies work closely together. Over time, the controller will be qualified with 3D NAND memory from other makers, including Micron.
It is hard to say when exactly the actual SSDs based on Phison’s PS5028-E28 controller will hit the market. Still, knowing how long it takes to qualify a new controller with advanced memory, we would speculate that the next-generation PCIe 5.0 x4 drives will be available a year from now.
