Things are even worse in the storage market, and despite Silicon Motion's target to bring the next-gen PCIe controller next year, worse market conditions are expected.
Silicon Motion Plans to Bring PCIe 6.0 SSD Controller Next Year, But Growing Demand From AI Data Centers May Keep Storage Drive Prices Elevated Beyond 2027
The DRAM and storage market has been incredibly impacted due to the AI boom, which has diverted all resources towards AI data centers and servers. It has been over six months since the RAMpocalypse started, but the prices for RAM and SSDs haven't stabilized yet, and it's expected that the situation will continue to worsen in the next year.
According to a recent interview with Silicon Motion's Senior VP, Nelson Duann, Tom's Hardware reports that the company is preparing its first consumer PCIe 6.0 SSD controller for launch next year. This is even though the industry braces for a worsening NAND shortage that is driven by AI demand.
The next-gen controller, codenamed Neptune, is expected to power upcoming consumer SSDs that take advantage of the PCIe 6.0 interface, which will double the bandwidth of the storage drives compared to PCIe 5.0 drives. However, these faster SSDs may arrive at a time when the NAND flash memory will become increasingly difficult to source. Duann expects that the situation will worsen over the next few years, estimating that as much as 70-80% of NAND output will be allocated to data centers by 2027.
As a result, the consumer SSD market will face tighter supply and higher prices than currently, making it more difficult to build PCs and also increasing the prices of consumer electronics. As we see shrinking demand for retail SSDs due to higher prices and lower availability, Silicon Motion is still benefiting. As more OEMs are turning towards independent SSD manufacturers, demand for third-party controllers has increased.
This is why the company reported strong growth across its controller business, mostly driven by enterprise SSDs, PCIe 5.0 client drives, and UFS storage for smartphones. As far as the PCIe 6.0 controller is concerned, it's expected to double the bandwidth PCIe 5.0 offers, and Duann indicated that the company is evaluating eight-channel controller designs for consumer SSDs. However, the enterprise PCIe 6.0 solutions will utilize 16-channel architectures for maximum throughput.
That said, despite having the fastest storage solutions in the market, consumers will likely have to pay a premium for these storage drives, as the enterprise market will continue to gobble up a larger share of the global NAND production.
About the author: Sarfraz Khan is a hardware reporter with a focus on PC components and the builder community. With years of experience writing about PC hardware and laptops, his work has been featured on several reputable technology publications. Sarfraz's hands-on experience is demonstrated through his first-person accounts of using and comparing different hardware configurations, providing practical and relatable insights for everyday users. His technical analysis is respected by peers in the enthusiast community and has been cited by specialized hardware sites such as Germany's Igor's Lab.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
