Ahead of Flash Memory Summit 2022 next week, Silicon Motion is announcing its PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD platform. It calls this the Silicon Motion “MonTitan” one of the more intriguing product names. At the heart of the new platform is the Silicon Motion SM8366 controller.
Silicon Motion MonTitan PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD Platform and SM8366 Controller Launched
The new Silicon Motion SM8366 powers the MonTitan platform. This is a PCIe Gen5 x4 controller that can also support x2, x2+x2, or x1,x1 operation. That means it is ready for a lot of different types of servers.
Here is the full spec sheet for the MonTitan platform that we found with this controller:
This is a very different feature set compared to what we see on consumer drives. It is clear that Silicon Motion is targeting companies building different types of data center SSDs. While form factors are not necessarily differentiated by platforms, the Silicon Motion platforms shown are all enterprise/ data center form factors with U.2 and E1.S/ E3.S EDSFF form factors. If you want to learn more about EDSFF, you can see the video we did last year on the topic here:
EDSFF is going to be a major push in the PCIe Gen5 generation of SSDs because power and thermals will stress traditional 2.5″ U.2 drives.
Final Words
We do not expect that the Silicon Motion MonTitan will be the last PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD controller launched in the next week or so. The industry is preparing for the major technology transition both on the server as well as a continued move on the consumer side. As a result, we will see new platforms like these. Now the question is when will we get to see more SSDs based on the MonTitan, and we hope it is soon.
