On the demand side, DRAMeXchange points out that PCIe SSD has a significant edge over SATA SSD when it comes to read/write performance. In the highly competitive PC market, specification upgrade will certainly be a selling point. As the price difference between PCIe SSD and SATA III SSD has a chance to narrow considerably during this year, major PC OEMs and modules makers are expected to actively increase the PCIe SSD adoption rate in their products.

On the supply side, the oversupply in the NAND Flash market has put most SSD suppliers under the pressure of capacity consumption. Together with most SSD suppliers’ promotion of their new 64- and 72-layer 3D SSDs at lower prices, contract prices of mainstream Client-SSDs for PC-OEMs are on a slide during 2Q18. By interface, the average contract price of SATA Client-SSDs falls by 6-11% QoQ, while that of the PCIe counterparts drops by 3-10% QoQ. For both SATA-SSD and PCIe-SSD, contract prices have been falling for two consecutive quarters.

The average contract price of PCIe products is still about 10% higher compared with that of the SATA III products during 2Q18. Nevertheless, the price difference has a chance to narrow considerably during this year. This is attributed to the decreasing prices of Client SSD in general, as well as the release of entry- and mid-level controller chips for PCIe SSDs, which narrows down the price difference gradually.

DRAMeXchange notes that, in addition to existing suppliers like Marvell, SMI and Phison, some promising new players like ASolid, Maxiotek, Realtek, SAGE, etc. have also entered the market of SSD controller chip. Marvell, SMI, and Phison have complete product lines, ranging from entry-level SATA to high-end PCIe, with the most extensive customer base.

On the other hand, new entrants currently focus on SATA DRAMless controller chip solutions. They aim to first secure a place in the SATA sector, before expanding their research and development to more challenging PCIe products. For example, ASolid’s new AS2258 SSD SATA 6Gbps Controller is designed for new-generation 3D NAND Flash with high performance-price ratio and dual-channel architecture. It integrates SDRAM, LDPC of Error Correction Code and Die RAID for better performance and data protection.

These new entrants are also actively deploying in PCIe controller chip product lines. Realtek's existing PCIe products have entered mass production, while ASolid, SAGE, and Maxiotek all plan to send their PCIe products to clients for test in the second half of this year, adding new growth momentum to PCIe SSD market.