Phison Introduces Controller for 4TB Storage Sticks with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2

Phison has announced the U18 flash drive controller. The controller supports USB sticks with up to 4TB storage capacity and enables maximum sequential transfer speeds of 1.9GB/s.

Phison’s U18 flash controller supports the combination with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 as standard, but can also be used for flash disks with, for example, USB 3.2 Gen1 or USB 2.0. In addition, the U18 supports both tlc and qlc nandflash, with the maximum storage capacity that can be addressed is 4TB. Phison publishes speeds that the controller can achieve in combination with 3d-tlc and at 4TB that is 1900MB/s for sequential read and 1700MB/s for sequential write.

Phison mentions a footprint of 26x60mm for the controller with which it can be used for sticks with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2. Any device with a USB Type C connector can then handle the flash disks, but there is also support for Type A connectors, although no USB 3.2 support is present. In addition to the size, the company calls the consumption an advantage over external SSDs with a bridge chip to USB: the U18 works at 500mA when reading.

At the same time, Phison introduces the U17 controller, but it is for entry-level flash drives with USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 interfaces, which can be combined with up to 1TB storage media with a sequential read speed of up to 1000MB/s.