Category: Press Releases

June 4, 2019

• 2019

Joint development in further advancing performance-based SSDs
with integration of Violin advanced technologies

SAN JOSE, Calif., DATE, 2019 – Violin^® Systems LLC and Phison Electronics Corporation today announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to integrate Phison’s E12DC controller with Violin’s industry-leading technology and extreme-performance storage systems.

As the pioneer in all-flash-arrays Violin has led the market in innovating consistent extreme performance its Flash Fabric Architecture and vRAID while ensuring continuity of operations with its advanced enterprise data services.  With the catch-up of industry standards of NVMe to the level of Violin’s proprietary technology, Violin is evolving from custom to customized SSDs without sacrificing resiliency or performance and working with leading NAND providers to integrate Violin IP for even greater performance and capability beyond off-the-self NVMe.

Phison is the market leader in NAND flash controllers and applications, shipping more than 600 million controllers annually and rapidly demonstrating its capabilities and position at the forefront of enterprise-class technology. Violin is both a customer and joint technology partner of Phison, enabling highly collaborative innovation in performance optimization.

By enhancing the NVMe standard interface with its proprietary performance-enhancing technologies, Violin’s performance storage solution and advanced enterprise software enable consistent extreme performance for today’s, SQL databases, real-time analytics and virtualization applications, as well as the rapidly evolving AI, machine-to-machine learning and commercial IoT applications where there is zero tolerance of any performance lag.

“We aim to be our customers’ most dependable IT business partner,” said K.S. Pua, CEO of Phison.  “Phison is constantly striving to find new ways to integrate capabilities into our product sets that add true value for our customers. The Phison E12DC enterprise controller builds on the award-winning success of the E12 solution by adding robust algorithms to ensure predictable latency and consistent I/O. With the E12 already strongly established in the consumer space, we are able to accelerate our growth in the enterprise-embedded market. We believe that partnering with Violin and leveraging each other’s technology and expertise allows us to make a big impact on the market”

“The tight collaboration of extreme-performance storage systems expert Violin with resources of an industry leader in flash controllers and NAND solutions like Phison is a great move that can enable rapid innovation working with standards-based interfaces,” said Eric Burgener, research vice president, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group, IDC.

Violin’s deep and broad set of enterprise services leveraged on standards-based technology is an increasingly attractive alternative to others that require a major overhaul to implement. Combined with Violin’s hallmarks of consistent performance and enterprise-class data services, this joint development offers customers a transformative capability ensuring business-critical information remains immediately accessible in order to derive maximum value from it.

“While NVMe is becoming a growing standard in performance storage, we have been able to further enhance the advancements made with the technology by leveraging our patented technology to provide enterprises extreme, consistent performance,” said Mark Lewis, Chairman and CEO of Violin Systems. “This joint development with Phison allows both companies to push the boundaries of enterprise SSDs and bring true innovation to the market through standards-based technology vs. proprietary technology.”

Category: Press Releases

May 28, 2019

• 2019

Computex Taipei, unveiled on May 28^t, 2019 , will be highlighting applications and technologies driven by high-performance gaming and 5G innovation this year. PHISON Electronics (TPEX: 8299) will once again showcase its full range of NAND storage solutions at the event, from the flagship PCIe^® 4.0 PS5016-E16 (E16) SSD controller for gaming, to storage solutions aim for AIoT, automotive, and edge computing applications.

PHISON's flagship PS5016-E16 is the first PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD controller in the consumer market today and one of the biggest highlight of Computex this year. Combining the latest 96-layer 3D flash memory and the fourth-generation LDPC ECC engine, E16 controller can reach maximum performance of 5000/4400 MB/s in sequential read/write respectively. Equipped with the patented hardware accelerator, E16 provides gamers with ultimate performance like never before. In addition, with the exclusive design of intelligent temperature control mechanism and a hidden IC heat sink, E16 has excellent thermal control even under extreme gaming operation. E16 SSD will be available in M.2 2280 form factor and will enter mass production starting from this quarter.

“This is a big year for PHISON Computex. In furthering the leadership in consumer-market, PHISON has also shifted its focus on storage solutions for embedded and enterprise Market,” said K.S. Pua, CEO of PHISON Electronics.  “The high-end application storage segment has high barriers of entry but allows better gross margins for the business. PHISON will continue to invest resources to transform business strategy and strive for operating efficiency and improved profit.”

In addition to the flagship product E16, PHISON also displayed PS5013-E13T and PS3113-S13T SSD controllers supporting the latest generation of QLC NAND flash, the SD 7.1 PS5017 controller, high-end USB controller PS2251-17 that supports the latest USB 3.2 Gen2x2 specification, and UFS 3.0 controller PS8317 that is designed for flagship mobile market. PHISON is well-positioned for addressing the needs of high-end NAND storage application markets.

Category: Press Releases

May 27, 2019

• 2020

Computex, the world-famous Taipei International Computer Show, opens on May 28th 2019. One of the major themes this year is “Gaming” and the introduction of PCIe^® 4.0 is generating a lot of excitement. PHISON Electronics (TPEX: 8299), the world-wide leader in SSD storage, proudly announces the arrival of the first PCIe 4.0 SSD. The PS5016-E16 is fully aligned with AMD X570 chipset motherboards. The improved performance and reduced latencies of PCIe 4.0 enabled solution will bring enhanced realism to the gaming world.

“3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Desktop Processors and AMD X570 motherboards for socket AM4 create the world’s first PC platform to support PCIe 4.0 connectivity”, said Chris Kilburn, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Channel, AMD. “We are delighted to be working with PHISON to lead the ecosystem of advanced PCIe 4.0 technologies.”

K.S. Pua, Chairman and CEO of PHISON, said “Working with AMD has enabled rapid innovation and expansion of the PCIe 4.0 ecosystem. The PS5016-E16 is the world’s first Gen4x4 NVMe SSD controller IC. When combined with AMD X570 motherboards, this storage solution is ready to meet the high bandwidth requirement of 8K HD gaming.”

PS5016-E16 controller IC is PHISON’s latest flagship SSD solution and the only PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD controller chip in the consumer application market. Based on the 28nm process node and using PHISON’s fourth-generation LDPC ECC engine, the PHISON PS5016-E16 controller IC can push flash memory to new levels. It is expected to start sampling and begin mass production from this quarter.

The motherboards that participate in and support AMD's first wave of PCIe 4.0 ecosystem include ASRock X570 Taichi and X570 Phantom Gaming X MB products, CORSAIR Force Series MP600 Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD, Gigabyte X570 AORUS XTREME and MASTER series MB products and AORUS NVMe Gen4 M.2 SSD series products, GALAX HOF Pro PCIe M.2 SSD products, and MSI X570 Series MB products, which are expected to bring a wave of heated discussions in Computex. PHISON will also continue to work closely with AMD and motherboard manufacturers and branded SSD partners to promote PCIe 4.0 applications and drive next-generation storage solutions.

Category: Press Releases

March 19, 2019

• 2019

By integrating Cigent’s Bare Metal™ active data protections with Phison’s industry-leading commitment to cyber-secure SSDs, global OEM/ODM customers can soon offer a level of embedded data security which far exceeds current software-only EDR and encryption-based solutions.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – March 19, 2019 – Phison Electronics Corp. and Cigent Technology, Inc. today announced the world’s first cyber-secure PCIe based NVMe SSD controller. When paired with Cigent’s endpoint software, Phison’s E12DC Gen3x4 NVMe SSD controller will use elements of AI, machine learning and deception to detect security anomalies and actively respond with hardware-based data protections.  

“Phison is a world leader in SSD Flash controllers, shipping over 40 million of SSD controllers annually to a broad base of global customers,” said Bradley A. Rowe, CEO and co-founder of Cigent. “We are thrilled by Phison’s commitment to embed active data protection into millions of storage devices. Phison offers system and OEM/ODM services for numerous major brand names.  Phison is a proven leader and innovator in storage technology, but they are now an important player in cybersecurity.”

The global cyber-crime epidemic has reached epic proportions and is projected to hit $6 trillion by 2021. Every day 1.5 million businesses and people worldwide are affected by cyber-crime and the loss of intellectual property. Existing tools are only effective to a point as the bad actors eventually get in. By inserting protection into the firmware layer of an SSD, Bare Metal™ promises to prevent data theft and thwart cyber-criminals.

“The opportunity for innovation with our new partner, Cigent, is almost limitless,” said KS Pua, CEO and co-founder of Phison. “Existing endpoint security solutions fall short of locking down critical data in an elevated threat environment. Cigent’s and Phison’s collaboration will enable any partner cybersecurity company to tether their protections directly to critical data where it resides in NAND. Firmware-based protections are exceptionally difficult to bypass.”

Cigent Bare Metal enabled SSDs are designed to work in conjunction with all existing security solutions and proactively lock-down critical data in an elevated threat environment. The Bare Metal firmware-based approach models data access patterns and actively defends critical data with minimal user interaction. Cigent’s endpoint agent utilizes these access patterns, along with other system sensors, to provide continuous user authentication for both local and cloud-based data and applications. Cigent’s endpoint agent further supports an API for third-party security integrations.  The partners expect the first shipments of Cigent Bare Metal-enabled E12DC NVMe SSD controllers by Phison in the second quarter of 2019.