Silicon Motion SM2320 Single-Chip Controller For External Portable SSDs

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation launched its SM2320 single-chip high performance, lower power and cost effective solution for external portable SSDs.

It is designed with integrated hardware and firmware as well as security features which meet the needs of game console users requiring high performance and the low power requirements of laptop users. The external portable SSD market is growing due to the performance, low power consumption, reliability and portability of such devices enabled by NAND memory. Customers include Kingston Technology Corp., which has designed SM2320 into its XS2000 external portable SSD, as well as other module and NAND flash providers.

“Kingston is thrilled to collaborate with SMI for the launch of our new pocket-sized XS2000 portable SSD,” said Keith Schimmenti, SSD business manager, Kingston. “Our Kingston engineers continue to focus on improving the performance of our products and with the new SM2320 controller, we are able to get XS2000 in the hands of our customers and meet the high performance and high capacity demands they need to keep up with the ever-evolving digital world.“

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The SM2320 features an USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, advanced SSD controller architecture and 4 NAND channels, and delivers sequential R/W speeds up to 2,100/2,000MB/s. By eliminating a USB bridge chip typically required in other more traditional designs, it also lowers the BoM cost and power consumption. It includes firm‘s NANDXtend ECC end-to-end data path protection and supports up to 4TB of capacity using the latest TLC and QLC NAND. Additionally, it support data security by providing AES 256-bit encryption, full compliance with the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Opal spec and auxiliary Fingerprint Security support.

“The market for high-performance external portable SSDs is expected to grow due to the wide range of applications requiring fast external storage such as gaming consoles and laptops used for data intensive applications like image and video storage and editing,” said Stanley Huang, senior director, SSD storage marketing. “The best external portable SSDs are not just delivering faster performance, but also offering lower power, smaller size and lower cost. By eliminating the bridge chip design, our new portable SSD controller solutions provide a simpler, more cost-effective solution for this growing product segment.”