It was mentioned that there are other SSDs that are suitable for AMD’s SmartAccess Storage (SAS).
According to an interview with PCWorld, SAS is based on Microsoft’s Direct Storage, but it operates in combination with SAM (Smart Access Memory) technology, and accordingly, there are separate requirements for the technology.
Therefore, it was announced that even PCIe 5.0 SSDs are not suitable for all SAS technology, and that they are acquiring a list of SAS-compatible NVMe SSDs and controllers internally. MS Direct Storage basically requires all storage including HDD, DX12 shader model 6.0 GPU, and Windows 10 or higher operating system, but for an experience suitable for technical characteristics, an NVMe SSD of PCIe 3.0 or higher is recommended.
It is unclear what level of SSD AMD’s SAS will specifically require, but it is estimated that a 2nd-generation PCIe 4.0 SSD with at least 5000MB/s with DRAM cache will be required, like the PS5’s extended storage.
Meanwhile, SAS pointed out that based on PCIe Resizable Bar technology (SAM), the entire VRAM has been improved to be used as a decompression buffer for direct storage technology.
