Adata Blackbird and Nighthawk: PCIe 5.0 SSDs with 14 GB/s

In the context of CES 2022, manufacturer Adata wants to present two new PCIe 5.0 SSDs that are clearly superior to the current models in terms of speed. Two prototypes with PCIe Gen5 x4 are to be presented: Adata Blackbird and Adata Nighthawk bring it to a peak of 14 GB/s when writing.

Adata Blackbird and Nighthawk unveiling at CES

For now, Adata is calling the two SSD prototypes in the M.2-2280 form factor “Project Nighthawk” and “Project Blackbird.” They are scheduled to be officially unveiled at CES 2022, which will be held in Las Vegas in January.

In the case of the Adata Blackbird, they rely on a black PCB on which the controller has been positioned on the edge next to the connector pins. The first picture shows an installed DRAM device, which realizes speeds of up to 14 GB/s for reading and 10 GB/s for writing.

On the other hand, the Adata Nighthawk SSD presents itself somewhat differently, relying on a blue PCB. Other differences include a centrally located controller, two NAND packages and two DRAM devices, which results in a higher speed.

According to Adata’s Chinese announcement, the PCIe 5.0 SSD achieves a whopping 14 GB/s sequential read and 12 GB/s sequential write. Both SSDs are also said to already support NVMe 2.0. In terms of capacities, the maximum is 8 terabytes.

Controller of the Adata SSDs

In an English-language press release, Adata revealed which controllers are used on the prototypes. Accordingly, the Nighthawk model uses the SM2508 controller from Silicon Motion. The Blackbird, on the other hand, uses the IG5666 from Innogrit. However, neither controller has been presented in detail yet.

Adata also wants to show the already announced external SSD Elite SE920 with USB-4 connection, as well as several new notebooks, gaming peripherals and RAM components at CES 2022.