Phison announced the "fastest in the industry" SSD controller, showing that we are already approaching the limits of PCIe 4.0 speeds. The new PS5018-E18 PCIe 4.0 controller, or E18 for short, is a cut above Phision's E16 controller that dropped in 2019 and is currently found in many Gen 4 SSDs. The E18 was designed from the ground up at the TSMC process node. 12 nm and is capable of delivering extreme read and write speeds of 7 Gb/s. By comparison, the E16 controller, which debuted alongside AMD's Ryzen 3000 processors, was capable of 5 GB/s read speeds and 4,4 GB/s write speeds. The eight-channel E18 also provides up to IOPS and will be available in capacities up to 8TB per drive. This means it's also a step up from the recently launched Samsung 980 Pro, which also hits 7GB/s read speeds, but is only offered with up to storage. 1TB. The Phison E18 comes just in time for the launch of AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors, which support PCIe 4.0. “AMD is the industry leader with the best desktop processor and chipset support for PCIe 4.0. As we continue to develop new platforms that support PCIe® 4.0 technologies, we are pleased to see companies like Phison expand their Gen 4 SSD product offerings,” said Chris Kilburn, corporate vice president. and Managing Director, Customer Components Business Unit, AMD. "In partnership with leading storage companies like Phison, we are committed to delivering new levels of storage performance across the PC landscape." Intel has also confirmed that its incoming Rocket Lake processors will support PCIe 4.0, but that's unlikely to appear until early 2021.