Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
Posted by The Techinical Support
MiTAC/Tyan Shows Off Motherboard and Servers for Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs 
Later this year Intel is set to introduce its Xeon 6-branded processors, codenamed Granite Rapids (6x00P) and Sierra Forest (6x00E). And with it will come a new slew of server motherboards and pre-built server platforms to go with it. On the latter note, this will be the first generation where Intel won't be offering any pre-builts of its own, after selling that business off to MiTAC last year.
To that end, MiTAC and its subsidiary Tyan were at this year's event to demonstrate what they've been up to since acquiring Intel's server business unit, as well as to show off the server platforms they're developing for the Xeon 6 family. Altogether, the companies had two server platforms on display – a compact 2S system, and a larger 2S system with significant expansion capabilities – as well as a pair of single-socket designs from Tyan.
The most basic platform that MiTAC had to show is their TX86-E7148 (Katmai Pass), a half-width 1U system that's the successor to Intel's D50DNP platform. Katmai Pass has two CPU sockets, supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 16 slots (8 per CPU), and has two low-profile PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. Like its predecessor, this platform is aimed at mainstream servers that do not need a lot of storage or room to house bulky add-in cards like AI accelerators.
The company's other platform is TX77A-E7142 (Deer Creek Pass), a considerably more serious offering that replaces Intel's M50FCP platform. This board can house up to 4 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 32 slots (16 per CPU with 2DPC), four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 5.0 x8 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 24 hot-swap U.2 bays. Deer Creek Pass can be used both for general-purpose workloads, high-performance storage, as well as workloads that require GPUs or other special-purpose accelerators.
Meanwhile Tyan had the single-socket Thunder CX GC73A-B5660 on display. That system supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 memory over 16 RDIMMs and offers two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 12 hot-swappable U.2 drive bays.
Finally, Tyan's Thunder HX S5662 is an HPC server board specifically designed to house multiple AI accelerators and other large PCIe cards. This board supports one Xeon 6 6700 processor, up to 1 TB of memory over eight DDR5-6400 RDIMMs, and has five tradiitonal PCIe 5.0 x16 slots as well as two PCIe 5.0 x2 M.2 slots for storage.
MiTAC is expected to start shipments of these new Xeon 6 motherboards in the coming months, as Intel rolls out its next-generation datacenter CPUs. Pricing of these platforms is unknown for now, but expect it to be comparable to... Servers
Fadu's FC5161 SSD Controller Breaks Cover in Western Digital's PCIe Gen5 Enterprise Drives 
When Western Digital introduced its Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs earlier this year, the company did not disclose which controller it used for these drives, which made many observers presume that WD was using an in-house controller. But a recent teardown of the drive shows that is not the case; instead, the company is using a controller from Fadu, a South Korean company founded in 2015 that specializes on enterprise-grade turnkey SSD solutions.
The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD is aimed at performance-hungry hyperscale datacenters and enterprise customers which are adopting PCIe Gen5 storage devices these days. And, as uncovered in photos from a recent Storage Review article, the drive is based on Fadu's FC5161 NVMe 2.0-compliant controller. The FC5161 utilizes 16 NAND channels supporting an ONFi 5.0 2400 MT/s interface, and features a combination of enterprise-grade capabilities (OCP Cloud Spec 2.0, SR-IOV, up to 512 name spaces for ZNS support, flexible data placement, NVMe-MI 1.2, advanced security, telemetry, power loss protection) not available on other off-the-shelf controllers – or on any previous Western Digital controllers.
The Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD offers sequential read speeds up to 13.7 GB/s as well as sequential write speeds up to 7.5 GB/s. As for random performance, it boasts with an up to 3.3 million random 4K read IOPS and up to 0.8 million random 4K write IOPS. The drives are available in capacities between 1.6 TB and 7.68 TB with one or three drive writes per day (DWPD) over five years rating as well as in U.2 and E1.S form-factors.
While the two form factors of the SN861 share a similar technical design, Western Digital has tailored each version for distinct workloads: the E1.S supports FDP and performance enhancements specifically for cloud environments. By contrast, the U.2 model is geared towards high-performance enterprise tasks and emerging applications like AI.
Without any doubts, Western Digital's Ultrastar DC SN861 is a feature-rich high-performance enterprise-grade SSD. It has another distinctive feature: a 5W idle power consumption, which is rather low by the standards of enterprise-grade drives (e.g., it is 1W lower compared to the SN840). While the difference with predecessors may be just 1W, hyperscalers deploy thousands of drives and for their TCO every watt counts.
Western Digital's Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs are now available for purchase to select customers (such as Meta) and to interested parties. Prices are unknown, but they will depend on such factors as volumes.
Sources: Fadu, Storage Review
Storage
MiTAC/Tyan Shows Off Motherboard and Servers for Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs
Later this year Intel is set to introduce its Xeon 6-branded processors, codenamed Granite Rapids (6x00P) and Sierra Forest (6x00E). And with it will come a new slew of server motherboards and pre-built server platforms to go with it. On the latter note, this will be the first generation where Intel won't be offering any pre-builts of its own, after selling that business off to MiTAC last year.
To that end, MiTAC and its subsidiary Tyan were at this year's event to demonstrate what they've been up to since acquiring Intel's server business unit, as well as to show off the server platforms they're developing for the Xeon 6 family. Altogether, the companies had two server platforms on display – a compact 2S system, and a larger 2S system with significant expansion capabilities – as well as a pair of single-socket designs from Tyan.
The most basic platform that MiTAC had to show is their TX86-E7148 (Katmai Pass), a half-width 1U system that's the successor to Intel's D50DNP platform. Katmai Pass has two CPU sockets, supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 16 slots (8 per CPU), and has two low-profile PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. Like its predecessor, this platform is aimed at mainstream servers that do not need a lot of storage or room to house bulky add-in cards like AI accelerators.
The company's other platform is TX77A-E7142 (Deer Creek Pass), a considerably more serious offering that replaces Intel's M50FCP platform. This board can house up to 4 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 32 slots (16 per CPU with 2DPC), four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 5.0 x8 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 24 hot-swap U.2 bays. Deer Creek Pass can be used both for general-purpose workloads, high-performance storage, as well as workloads that require GPUs or other special-purpose accelerators.
Meanwhile Tyan had the single-socket Thunder CX GC73A-B5660 on display. That system supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 memory over 16 RDIMMs and offers two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 12 hot-swappable U.2 drive bays.
Finally, Tyan's Thunder HX S5662 is an HPC server board specifically designed to house multiple AI accelerators and other large PCIe cards. This board supports one Xeon 6 6700 processor, up to 1 TB of memory over eight DDR5-6400 RDIMMs, and has five tradiitonal PCIe 5.0 x16 slots as well as two PCIe 5.0 x2 M.2 slots for storage.
MiTAC is expected to start shipments of these new Xeon 6 motherboards in the coming months, as Intel rolls out its next-generation datacenter CPUs. Pricing of these platforms is unknown for now, but expect it to be comparable to... Servers
Fadu's FC5161 SSD Controller Breaks Cover in Western Digital's PCIe Gen5 Enterprise Drives
When Western Digital introduced its Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs earlier this year, the company did not disclose which controller it used for these drives, which made many observers presume that WD was using an in-house controller. But a recent teardown of the drive shows that is not the case; instead, the company is using a controller from Fadu, a South Korean company founded in 2015 that specializes on enterprise-grade turnkey SSD solutions.
The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD is aimed at performance-hungry hyperscale datacenters and enterprise customers which are adopting PCIe Gen5 storage devices these days. And, as uncovered in photos from a recent Storage Review article, the drive is based on Fadu's FC5161 NVMe 2.0-compliant controller. The FC5161 utilizes 16 NAND channels supporting an ONFi 5.0 2400 MT/s interface, and features a combination of enterprise-grade capabilities (OCP Cloud Spec 2.0, SR-IOV, up to 512 name spaces for ZNS support, flexible data placement, NVMe-MI 1.2, advanced security, telemetry, power loss protection) not available on other off-the-shelf controllers – or on any previous Western Digital controllers.
The Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD offers sequential read speeds up to 13.7 GB/s as well as sequential write speeds up to 7.5 GB/s. As for random performance, it boasts with an up to 3.3 million random 4K read IOPS and up to 0.8 million random 4K write IOPS. The drives are available in capacities between 1.6 TB and 7.68 TB with one or three drive writes per day (DWPD) over five years rating as well as in U.2 and E1.S form-factors.
While the two form factors of the SN861 share a similar technical design, Western Digital has tailored each version for distinct workloads: the E1.S supports FDP and performance enhancements specifically for cloud environments. By contrast, the U.2 model is geared towards high-performance enterprise tasks and emerging applications like AI.
Without any doubts, Western Digital's Ultrastar DC SN861 is a feature-rich high-performance enterprise-grade SSD. It has another distinctive feature: a 5W idle power consumption, which is rather low by the standards of enterprise-grade drives (e.g., it is 1W lower compared to the SN840). While the difference with predecessors may be just 1W, hyperscalers deploy thousands of drives and for their TCO every watt counts.
Western Digital's Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs are now available for purchase to select customers (such as Meta) and to interested parties. Prices are unknown, but they will depend on such factors as volumes.
Sources: Fadu, Storage Review
Storage
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works 
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
TSMCs Q2'24 Results: Best Quarter Ever as HPC Revenue Share Exceeds 52% on AI Demand 
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. this week said its revenue for the second quarter 2024 reached $20.82 billion, making it the company's best quarter (at least in dollars) to date. TSMC's high-performance computing (HPC) platform revenue share exceeded 52% for the first time in many years due to demand for AI processors and rebound of the PC market.
TSMC earned $20.82 billion USD in revenue for the second quarter of 2024, a 32.8% year-over-year increase and a 10.3% increase from the previous quarter. Perhaps more remarkable, $20.82 billion is a higher result than the company posted Q3 2022 ($20.23 billion), the foundry's best quarter to date. Otherwise, in terms of profitability, TSMC booked $7.59 billion in net income for the quarter, for a gross margin of 53.2%. This is a decent bit off of TSMC's record margin of 60.4% (Q3'22), and comes as the company is still in the process of further ramping its N3 (3nm-class) fab lines.
When it comes to wafer revenue share, the company's N3 process technologies (3nm-class) accounted for 15% of wafer revenue in Q2 (up from 9% in the previous quarter), N5 production nodes (4nm and 5nm-classes) commanded 35% of TSMC's earnings in the second quarter (down from 37% in Q1 2024), and N7 fabrication processes (6nm and 7nm-classes) accounted for 17% of the foundry's wafer revenue in the second quarter of 2024 (down from 19% in Q1 2024). Advanced technologies all together (N3, N5, N7) accounted for 67% of total wafer revenue.
"Our business in the second quarter was supported by strong demand for our industry-leading 3nm and 5nm technologies, partially offset by continued smartphone seasonality," said Wendell Huang, Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer of TSMC. "Moving into third quarter 2024, we expect our business to be supported by strong smartphone and AI-related demand for our leading-edge process technologies."
TSMC usually starts ramping up production for Apple's fall products (e.g. iPhone) in the second quarter of the year, so it is not surprising that revenue share of N3 increased in Q2 of this year. Yet, keeping in mind that TSMC's revenue in general increased by 10.3% QoQ, the company's shipments of processors made on N5 and N7 nodes are showing resilience as demand for AI and HPC processors is high across the industry.
Speaking of TSMC's HPC sales, HPC platform sales accounted for 52% of TSMC's revenue for the first time in many years. The world's largest contract maker of chips produces many types of chips that get placed under the HPC umbrella, including AI processors, CPUs for client PCs, and system-on-chips (SoCs) for consoles, just to name a few. Yet, in this case TSMC attributes demand for AI processors as the main driver for its HPC success.
As for smartphone platform revenue, its share dropped to 33% as actual sales declined by 1% quarter-over-quarter. All other segments grew by 5% to 20%.
For the third quarter of 2024, TSMC expects revenue between US$22.4 billion and US$23.2 billion, with a gross profit margin of 53.5% to 55.5% and an operating profit margin of 42.5% to 44.5%. The company's sales are projected to be driven by strong demand for leading-edge process technologies as well as increased demand for AI and smartphones-related applications.
Semiconductors
![](https://twitter.com/share?url=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2025/07/western-digital-introduces-4-tb_17.html&text=Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/wd-4-8-16-carousel_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21508">Gen 5 client SSDs</a> and <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21505">128 TB-class datacenter SSD</a>. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/4tb-uduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/8tb-sduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21472/">introduction of the 8 TB SN850X</a>, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/16t-externals_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.</p>
</p> Storage){kind=link}
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2025/07/western-digital-introduces-4-tb_17.html&media=https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vS86kEuA6C_HhXpCeE7SYMc7_0jXJLnNvxziRX5Zy5sr4OfGYeAKs8UnrVS4Xz--ivMgjZ-ufnPJpD9crqSKfyOyLmo42Xvz_yfQHLa1Z2eRfXGH4t9f-RsRd8biKDnsJ8vb94Fvg&description=Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/wd-4-8-16-carousel_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21508">Gen 5 client SSDs</a> and <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21505">128 TB-class datacenter SSD</a>. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/4tb-uduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/8tb-sduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21472/">introduction of the 8 TB SN850X</a>, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/16t-externals_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.</p>
</p> Storage){kind=link}
![](https://web.whatsapp.com/send?text=Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/wd-4-8-16-carousel_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21508">Gen 5 client SSDs</a> and <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21505">128 TB-class datacenter SSD</a>. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/4tb-uduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/8tb-sduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21472/">introduction of the 8 TB SN850X</a>, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/16t-externals_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.</p>
</p> Storage | https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2025/07/western-digital-introduces-4-tb_17.html){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/wd-4-8-16-carousel_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21508">Gen 5 client SSDs</a> and <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21505">128 TB-class datacenter SSD</a>. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/4tb-uduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/8tb-sduc_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21472/">introduction of the 8 TB SN850X</a>, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21521/western-digital-introduces-4-tb-microsduc-8-tb-sduc-and-16-tb-external-ssds"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21521/16t-externals_575px.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.</p>
</p> Storage&body=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2025/07/western-digital-introduces-4-tb_17.html){kind=link}
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's.
MiTAC/Tyan Shows Off Motherboard and Servers for Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs
Later this year Intel is set to introduce its Xeon 6-branded processors, codenamed Granite Rapids (6x00P) and Sierra Forest (6x00E). And with it will come a new slew of server motherboards and pre-built server platforms to go with it. On the latter note, this will be the first generation where Intel won't be offering any pre-builts of its own, after selling that business off to MiTAC last year.
To that end, MiTAC and its subsidiary Tyan were at this year's event to demonstrate what they've been up to since acquiring Intel's server business unit, as well as to show off the server platforms they're developing for the Xeon 6 family. Altogether, the companies had two server platforms on display – a compact 2S system, and a larger 2S system with significant expansion capabilities – as well as a pair of single-socket designs from Tyan.
The most basic platform that MiTAC had to show is their TX86-E7148 (Katmai Pass), a half-width 1U system that's the successor to Intel's D50DNP platform. Katmai Pass has two CPU sockets, supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 16 slots (8 per CPU), and has two low-profile PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. Like its predecessor, this platform is aimed at mainstream servers that do not need a lot of storage or room to house bulky add-in cards like AI accelerators.
The company's other platform is TX77A-E7142 (Deer Creek Pass), a considerably more serious offering that replaces Intel's M50FCP platform. This board can house up to 4 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 32 slots (16 per CPU with 2DPC), four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 5.0 x8 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 24 hot-swap U.2 bays. Deer Creek Pass can be used both for general-purpose workloads, high-performance storage, as well as workloads that require GPUs or other special-purpose accelerators.
Meanwhile Tyan had the single-socket Thunder CX GC73A-B5660 on display. That system supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 memory over 16 RDIMMs and offers two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 12 hot-swappable U.2 drive bays.
Finally, Tyan's Thunder HX S5662 is an HPC server board specifically designed to house multiple AI accelerators and other large PCIe cards. This board supports one Xeon 6 6700 processor, up to 1 TB of memory over eight DDR5-6400 RDIMMs, and has five tradiitonal PCIe 5.0 x16 slots as well as two PCIe 5.0 x2 M.2 slots for storage.
MiTAC is expected to start shipments of these new Xeon 6 motherboards in the coming months, as Intel rolls out its next-generation datacenter CPUs. Pricing of these platforms is unknown for now, but expect it to be comparable to... Servers
Fadu's FC5161 SSD Controller Breaks Cover in Western Digital's PCIe Gen5 Enterprise Drives
When Western Digital introduced its Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs earlier this year, the company did not disclose which controller it used for these drives, which made many observers presume that WD was using an in-house controller. But a recent teardown of the drive shows that is not the case; instead, the company is using a controller from Fadu, a South Korean company founded in 2015 that specializes on enterprise-grade turnkey SSD solutions.
The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD is aimed at performance-hungry hyperscale datacenters and enterprise customers which are adopting PCIe Gen5 storage devices these days. And, as uncovered in photos from a recent Storage Review article, the drive is based on Fadu's FC5161 NVMe 2.0-compliant controller. The FC5161 utilizes 16 NAND channels supporting an ONFi 5.0 2400 MT/s interface, and features a combination of enterprise-grade capabilities (OCP Cloud Spec 2.0, SR-IOV, up to 512 name spaces for ZNS support, flexible data placement, NVMe-MI 1.2, advanced security, telemetry, power loss protection) not available on other off-the-shelf controllers – or on any previous Western Digital controllers.
The Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD offers sequential read speeds up to 13.7 GB/s as well as sequential write speeds up to 7.5 GB/s. As for random performance, it boasts with an up to 3.3 million random 4K read IOPS and up to 0.8 million random 4K write IOPS. The drives are available in capacities between 1.6 TB and 7.68 TB with one or three drive writes per day (DWPD) over five years rating as well as in U.2 and E1.S form-factors.
While the two form factors of the SN861 share a similar technical design, Western Digital has tailored each version for distinct workloads: the E1.S supports FDP and performance enhancements specifically for cloud environments. By contrast, the U.2 model is geared towards high-performance enterprise tasks and emerging applications like AI.
Without any doubts, Western Digital's Ultrastar DC SN861 is a feature-rich high-performance enterprise-grade SSD. It has another distinctive feature: a 5W idle power consumption, which is rather low by the standards of enterprise-grade drives (e.g., it is 1W lower compared to the SN840). While the difference with predecessors may be just 1W, hyperscalers deploy thousands of drives and for their TCO every watt counts.
Western Digital's Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs are now available for purchase to select customers (such as Meta) and to interested parties. Prices are unknown, but they will depend on such factors as volumes.
Sources: Fadu, Storage Review
Storage
0 Comments