Introduction

When it comes to SSD controllers, JMicron doesn't have the best reputation. The first affordable, consumer focused SSDs were built using controllers from JMicron and set the industry back just as it was starting to take off. Those cacheless drives eventually evolved into drives with DRAM cache, but even those second generation drives would skip and stu, stuu, stutter as soon as the DRAM buffer was full. By the time JMicron was ready to release their next controller, manufacturers weren't too excited about co-branding their products with JMicron and some went as far as to hide what controller was used in their budget products.

To be fair, we have yet to see a truly perfect SSD controller. Intel, Indilinx, Marvell and SandForce all had little issues that when ran across would drive you a bit crazy. When buying a SSD you want to look for the drive that best suits your needs and data usage scenarios. For the most part JMicron drives have only fit one category, low price.

The latest update to the long line of relatively unpopular controllers from JMicron is the new JMF616. The 616 uses twice the cache capacity found on the JMF612 and allows the controller to be used with the latest available Intel NAND flash.

The ADATA S596 Turbo is the first SSD to use the new JMF616 controller and today we are going to give the drive a run through.