Dev Mandya, Senior Director, Strategic Business Development for SiFive

The storage market was among the earliest to recognize and embrace the value proposition of the RISC‑V architecture. At the heart of this shift was the appeal of an open standard — one that offered a faster track to innovation while helping to address potential supply chain risks. RISC-V also empowered companies to create and deploy custom instructions tailored to accelerate specific algorithms.

Given that storage systems often function as “black boxes” running proprietary software, this flexibility opened the door to building optimized hardware solutions for tasks such as wear leveling and encryption—achieving performance gains without fragmenting the broader software ecosystem, and RISC-V has been racing to keep pace.

The world of SSDs is evolving at record speed. In 2025, not only are we seeing a leap in raw performance, but also a transformation in how storage is architected, managed, and optimized for new workloads like AI, gaming, and cloud computing. SiFive, the RISC-V pioneer, is at the heart of this shift — delivering flexible, efficient, and secure processor IP that aligns perfectly with the latest trends in SSD controller design.

SSD Controllers in 2025: What’s New?

• Blazing Speeds with PCIe Gen5

The latest generation SSD controllers are smashing through speed barriers and are built on advanced technology nodes, allowing them to deliver high read/write speeds, up to 14.5 GB/s and random IOPS in the millions—ideal for AI, high-performance gaming, and data center workloads. These controllers support multiple NAND channels and the newest NVMe 2.0 protocol, ensuring high throughput and low latency for demanding applications.

Read more: DIGITIMES: Storage giants collaborate with Silicon Motion Technology

• Efficiency and Power Optimization

With power budgets tighter than ever, the new SSD controllers are engineered for efficiency and cut power consumption by up to 50% compared to previous generations. Some of the new designs are bringing Gen5 performance to more affordable, energy-conscious devices, making high speeds accessible for notebooks and mainstream users.

• AI and Computational Storage

AI is no longer just a buzzword in storage. Modern SSD controllers are being designed to handle AI-driven workloads and in-storage processing. This means SSDs are starting to process data directly—whether it’s pre-processing, encryption, or even running ML inference—reducing bottlenecks and accelerating analytics at the edge and in the cloud.

• Security and Reliability

Controllers now offer enhanced security features like secure boot, AES 128/256 encryption, TCG Opal 2.0 compliance, and advanced ECC—critical for both enterprise and consumer markets.

Read more: Micron: The value of Crucial hardware encryption

How SiFive’s RISC-V Solutions Fit the New SSD Landscape

SiFive’s RISC-V portfolio is purpose-built for these new realities:

• Configurability and Scalability: SiFive provides a highly configurable and scalable portfolio of processor cores, ranging from the compact and efficient SiFive Essential™ family cores like the E2, to mid-range, single-issue, multi-core E6 options ideal for back-end control. For demanding workloads, SiFive also offers high-performance, multi-core, dual-issue 32-bit E7, 64-bit S7, and MMU-supported U7 cores, as well as advanced 64-bit Out-of-Order Performance cores designed for front-end compute and AI acceleration. This broad portfolio enables SSD designers to tailor solutions that address the full spectrum of requirements—from cost-sensitive consumer-class devices to robust, enterprise-class, multi-channel controllers.

• Performance and Power: Our latest Essential Gen4 cores deliver up to 40% lower runtime power and improved code density compared to previous generation cores, featuring advanced power management technologies such as fine-grained clock gating and DVFS. These enhancements mirror the efficiency gains seen in the latest commercial SSD controllers. There is a strong focus on energy efficiency for storage solutions in consumer platforms like smartphones. In the enterprise segment, the demands of PCIe Gen6 are driving companies to seek higher-performance processors with multi-issue, out-of-order pipelines. SiFive Performance™ family cores are well-suited to meet these emerging requirements for next-generation SSD controllers.

• Security and Reliability: SiFive cores support secure boot, hardware encryption, and advanced error correction, meeting the stringent requirements of modern SSDs.

• AI and Computational Storage Ready: SiFive Intelligence™ family cores (X280, X380) are designed for computational storage, enabling real-time analytics and ML workloads directly at the storage layer—perfect for the AI-driven future of storage.

Real-World Impact: Customer Success

SiFive’s technology has demonstrated significant real-world benefits in the SSD market. For example, FADU, a leading storage solution provider, achieved up to 30% lower power consumption, a smaller die size, and three to four times greater IOPS per watt by utilizing SiFive’s Essential cores in its Annapurna SSD controller and Bravo Series Enterprise SSD. These improvements enabled FADU to maximize efficiency and effectively balance the trade-offs between power and performance, highlighting the tangible advantages of adopting SiFive’s solutions. FADU has harnessed a range of Essential cores including the E2, E5 and S5, for different generations of SSD platforms.

Read more: FADU Launches Industry Leading SSD Solutions Powered by SiFive RISC-V Core IP

In addition to this success, SiFive’s processor cores have been adopted and evaluated by leading storage solution providers worldwide. Companies across multiple regions are choosing SiFive’s Essential and other advanced cores for both current and next-generation SSD controller architectures. This underscores our proven production track record, robust technical support, and the ability to meet diverse requirements in consumer and enterprise storage markets. SiFive’s strong collaboration with FADU on their storage products has been developing since 2017, and since then, FADU has adopted a range of our Essential products as the foundation of their product lineup. More details about this collaboration and recent product reviews that demonstrate the competitiveness of FADU’s enterprise SSDs can be found on their respective sites.

The Bottom Line

The SSD controller market is in the midst of a revolution—driven by the need for speed, efficiency, intelligence, and security. With the latest PCIe Gen5 controllers delivering record-breaking performance and energy efficiency, and with AI workloads moving closer to the data, the architecture inside your SSD matters more than ever.

SiFive’s RISC-V solutions are uniquely positioned to meet these challenges, offering unmatched configurability, proven efficiency, and future-ready AI capabilities. Whether you’re building SSDs for the cloud, the edge, or the next gaming powerhouse, SiFive is helping storage innovators stay ahead of the curve—one core at a time.

If you’d like more information on how we can help you meet your storage challenge, contact us via this form or email storagesolutions@sifive.com.