Kingmax today introduced the PQ4442 line of M.2 NVMe Gen 4 SSDs in the compact M.2-2242 form-factor (42 mm length). The drive comes in 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, and combines 3D QLC NAND flash with a Silicon Motion SM2268XT DRAMless controller. All three variants offer sequential read speeds of up to 5000 MB/s, but while the 2 TB variant offers up to 4400 MB/s sequential writes, the 1 TB variant offers up to 4300 MB/s, and the 500 GB model just up to 2500 MB/s.

4K random reads are rated up to 400,000 IOPS for the 2 TB and 1 TB variants, and up to 350,000 IOPS for the 500 GB variant; all three variants offer up to 500,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Write endurance of the 2 TB variant is rated at 960 TBW, and 560 TBW for the 1 TB variant; while the 500 GB variant offers 280 TBW. Kingmax is backing these drives with 3-year product warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.