ADATA Announces Premier SP550 SATA 6Gb/s SSD With TLC NAND – Cost-Effective Yet High Performance Upgrade

ADATA Technology, a leading producer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND flash devices, is announcing the Premier SP550 SSD, which utilizes triple-level cell (TLC) NAND architecture to create a high-performance, yet cost effective storage upgrade solution. The SP550 is ADATA’s first SSD to feature Silicon Motion’s SM2256 NAND controller, and SMI’s NANDXtend technology, which allows ADATA to include SSD technologies such as low-density parity check error correction code (LDPC ECC), data shaping, and a RAID engine to enhance data reliability, stability and data protection. SLC caching is also utilized to give the SP550 a performance boost.

ADATA SP550 BANNERThe Premier SP550 combines TLC flash with SMI’s latest controller to create an upgrade solution with an excellent cost-to-performance ratio. The SP550 features outstanding durability, which is indicated by its higher total bytes written (TBW) rating, which is the number of times a drive can write a designated capacity over the lifespan of the drive. Although it is a TLC SSD, the Premier SP550 features an SLC cache to improve read and write performance when needed. It also supports device sleep (DevSlp) low power mode to reduce power consumption costs, and to improve battery life in notebook-type computing devices.

ADATA SP550 front viewAccording to Kevin Chen, Vice President of ADATA, “Our Premier SP550 SSD integrates superior TLC NAND carefully selected and refined with ADATA quality assurance to deliver leading performance, data reliability, and endurance. It provides customers a clear choice for the best storage experience.”

ADATA SP550 LDPC ECCNelson Duann, Vice President of Product Marketing for Silicon Motion, observes that “The launch of ADATA’s Premier SP550 SSD with our SM2256 client controller represents a milestone in SSD adoption. TLC-based SSDs significantly improve the affordability of high-performance, low power SSDs.”

ADATA SP550 toolboxThe LDPC ECC helps minimize data errors, extending the life of the SSD. Consistent operation is maintained with smart data shaping, which also prevents premature NAND flash wear by even distribution of drive loads, while a RAID engine increases data reliability. The Premier SP550 comes bundled with free Acronis True Image HD software to simplify migration from your old drive to the SP550. Also included is a free download of ADATA’s Toolbox, which includes utilities that help you monitor your drive’s health, status, wear level, and lifespan info.

adata-logoYou can view the ADATA Premier SP550 product page here.

7 comments

  1. blank

    Can anyone explain the benefits of TLC besides the price?

    • blank

      SSD announcements are good to keep up with things, but what about reviews? I think there’s still no reviews for Mushkin enhanced striker, Intel 535 series, Patriot Blast, and some other interesting ssds. We need some pros and cons. Also ssd quick search really needs to be updated with a bunch of missing reviews.

    • blank

      TLC will last as long as you need it in a typical PC environment. Many might argue that, unless you have performance specific tasks at hand, TLC would be the way to go because of price…and the fact that it won’t die anytime soon contrary to popular belief.

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        It seems like everyone is moving to TLC. but I Always like the most durable products I can afford. I’m old school, and never believed that every new product is better than the old one. I don’t have a problem with TLC, but I hope that MLC will also stay around and not be discontinued. So we can have a choice to stick with MLC if we want to. I hate to be forced into new products that seem to be inferior just because that’s the only thing being made, sold and advertised. Everyone says TLC is durable enough but you will never know because you may get a 3 year warrantee but the manufacturers are only selling the next model in 1 year. If you want to buy more of what you already have you have to pay premium for it because its discontinued.

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        Much the same in my case… Where I think TLC might bring us though is to your typical computer systems that people buy for a budget price, yet only now they will get that boost seen with a solid state drive. Having been in the business since Day 1, it still surprises me how little the SSD has caught on with the typical PC user. Why does it not shock us that we can use a phone much like a PC, yet the phone allows instant access to our needs, whereas some endure excruciating long boot and shut down times on a PC still…not to mention application use with a hard drive.

      • blank

        There’s probably a ton of reasons why 1. Price per size 2. Bad reviews ( drive stopped working , disappeared , won’t show up in bios , lost all data) 3. It takes some knowledge and time to clone your operating system especially if going from larger hdd to smaller ssd. 4. drive may need to be aligned properly. Average users might have a hard time. 5 inconsistencies in brands (this one’s better, this one’s slower, this one’s not as reliable, this one has bad firmware.) 6. No one’s buying computers like they used to, the processors are so fast who needs to upgrade. 7. Microsoft operating system fiascoes ( vista, 8 , 10 ) windows 7 does it all and has Media Center. 8. If people bought new computers that had ssds already in them then they would get used to the speed and could not go back to hdd then hard drive manufactures would lose money if everyone switched to ssds.
        I could keep on going, but this is just me speculating as to why. My opinion.

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