Western Digital outs a mystery NVMe SSD

IDF 2013: Not Stec, this one is internal

Western Digital LogoWestern Digital was showing off a surprise product at IDF, an NVMe SSD so new it doesn’t have a name yet. Even more curious is that this new toy is not one from the newly purchased Stec, it is an internal design.

Western Digital NVMe SSD

The drive from obstructed view seats

There isn’t much to say about this device that may end up being called the WDC3500BKM, it is a 4-lane PCIe NVMe SSD that uses an IDT/PCM controller and in this case Micron flash. The device is said to be capable of 400K IOPS but in this case being an early untuned engineering sample it was running at a hair over 200K IOPS. That could be down to some minor motherboard compatibilities or even a slot only training at PCIe2 speeds as well. Not much else to say other than the more players in this space the better and cheaper the products, so welcome to Western Digital and the (possibly named) WDC3500BKM.S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate