Toshiba Memory Introduces RD500 and RC500 NVME SSDs

Toshiba Memory comes with two new SSD series. The RD500 and RC500 models use 96-layer TLC Nand memory. The RD500 series achieves speeds of over 3GB/s; for the RC500 models it is about half.

In the RD500 series, SSDs come out with a capacity of up to 2TB and with the slower RC500 models, that is a maximum of 1TB. Both series use BiCS nand memory from Toshiba Memory. That is TLC memory that consists of 96 layers. The PCI-E 3.0 x4 SSDs have slc cache on board and will be available in the m2-2280 form factor.

The speed difference is due to the different controllers Toshiba Memory uses. The RD500, which achieves sequential read and write speeds of 3.4 and 3.2 GB/s, is equipped with an eight-channel memory controller and the variant in the RC500 SSDs has four channels. Which controllers are used exactly, the manufacturer does not say in its announcement.

Toshiba Memory still releases the RD500 and RC500 SSDs under its current name. In July, the company announced that it would change its name to Kioxia as of October. The predecessors in the RD400 series were still released under the brand name OCZ, which is owned by Toshiba. That name will also disappear in October.

The RD500 and RC500 NVME SSDs should be released in the fourth quarter of this year. What they will cost has not yet been announced.