ShineDisk

History

2023: Intentional use of defective memory

In mid-August 2023, information appeared that little-known Chinese manufacturers of solid-state drives, including ShineDisk, began to deliberately supply devices based on defective flash memory chips to the market.

According to Tom's Hardware, we are talking about the use of NAND chips in SSDs, which were originally intended for other customers, but were rejected for one reason or another. Such products may not have passed the manufacturer's internal quality control or they were eliminated due to non-compliance with the client's requirements.

Little-known Chinese SSD manufacturers began to deliberately supply devices based on defective flash memory chips to the market

In particular, low-grade flash memory chips were found as part of a 120 GB ShineDisk M667 (M667-120G) drive with a SATA interface. This device is sold in China at a price of only about $13 (approximately 1200 rubles at the exchange rate as of August 22, 2023). It turned out that the named SSD used NAND chips manufactured by SK hynix, originally intended for Apple technology. In particular, the E2NAND product from SK hynix is involved, which is a multi-chip packet with an MSP controller with built-in ECC support.

The origin of these NAND chips is unknown. The modules could be delivered directly from an enterprise producing flash memory for Apple. The second option is to remove chips from Apple devices that have failed. It is noted that the reuse of electronic components for lower-level products is a common practice in the hardware world. This approach allows manufacturers to reduce the costs associated with the release of low quality products or defective components. In addition, enterprises are able to reduce the volume of electronic garbage, the disposal of which also requires financial costs.^[1]

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