Apacer today announced it will release products featuring SLC-lite. The company claims that with SLC-lite it's able to provide SLC like performance and reliability at the cost of MLC NAND. The technology behind SLC-lite is likely nothing new, Intel calls the same technology High Endurance Technology (HET). SSDs featuring the technology have been available since at least 2011.
The technology is based on die-screening of consumer MLC to improve endurance and by increasing the typical page programming cycle. It could well be that Apacer has further developed the technology but the way the company describes the technology seems similar to HET.
According to Apacer it uses MLC chips combined with an unique technique to break through hardware limits. The company mentions that the firmware simulate the way of writing SLC which likely indicates the firmware increases the page programming cycle which is different in SLC compared to SLC. Apacer states it has developed a complete SLC-lite product line ranging from mSATA, SATA-2 and SATA-3 drives of which the SATA-2 drives are currently available. SATA-3 SLC-Lite drives should become available in Q4 of this year.
