Samsung's latest data centre SSDs "never die"

by Mark Tyson on 20 September 2019, 11:11

Tags: Samsung (005935.KS)

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Samsung has started to mass produce its latest high performance SSDs for severs and data centres. The new PM1733 and PM1735 series arrive with 19 different models with capacities ranging from 0/8TB to a whopping 30.72TB, in form factors like HHHL (card-type) and 2.5-inch U.2.

The Samsung PM1733 & PM1735 utilise PCIe Gen4-based interfaces and can perform up to 14 times faster than SATA-based SSDs, with the new 12.8TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD (PM1735), for example, achieving 8GB/s for read operations and 3.8GB/s for writes. Furthermore, the new Samsung PM1735 drive can deliver 1,450,000 IOPS for reads and 260,000 IOPS for writes.

The full range of new Samsung PM1733 & PM1735 drives are summarised in the chart below.

Beyond the pure hardware specs, impressive as they are, Samsung recognises that good firmware and software is important to a slick product. "We are combining breakthrough speeds and capacities with revolutionary software solutions as we accelerate expansion in the premium SSD market," said Kye Hyun Kyung, EVP of Memory Solution Product & Development at Samsung Electronics.

In particular there are three software innovations present in the new SSDs; Samsung FIP technology, Samsung SSD virtualization technology, and the company's V-NAND machine learning technology.

The "revolutionary," feature as per our headline today is the new FIP technology which seeks to ensure SSDs operate normally even when errors occur at the chip level, "enabling a never-dying SSD for the first time in the industry". Samsung says its FIP software can detect a faulty chip, scan for any damage in data, then relocate the data into working chips, thus avoiding the costs associated with system downtime and hardware replacement.

One of Samsung's new HHHL form factor SSDs

It is worth mentioning the other two software innovations from Samsung. Its SSD virtualization technology allows a single SSD to be subdivided into a maximum of 64 smaller SSDs, providing independent, virtual workspaces for multiple users. The tech even lets SSDs take on some of the virtualized tasks typically carried out by the server CPUs, such as Single-Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), requiring fewer server CPUs and SSDs.

Lastly, "V-NAND machine learning technology helps to accurately predict and verify cell characteristics, as well as detect any variation among circuit patterns through big data analytics." This is another data reliability feature especially useful with these very fast drives which pose a challenge in reading and verifying data through the extremely rapid voltage pulses.

Samsung plans to expand the use of the above software technologies into a wider array of server and data centre SSDs.



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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In that top image, is that SATA and then some other connector at the other end?
Be nice to have multiple connection methods on a drive but not sure how that'd eat into other product line sales..
[GSV
Trig;304]In that top image, is that SATA and then some other connector at the other end?
Be nice to have multiple connection methods on a drive but not sure how that'd eat into other product line sales..

U.2 connector? Dunno what one looks like to be honest.

EDIT: Also, this isn't “never die”. This is a new strategy to mitigate the problems of NAND lifespan and potential for data loss. We're better at recovering data from damaged spinning platters than from NAND and this looks like when the data is compromised due to wear, it can move it, intact, to another chip. Sounds pretty awesome as it negates one of the major drawbacks of NAND. This still means the old chip is dead and the drive will likely need replacing at some point. What it does it is means you can do that at your convenience and when enough chips have failed to mean you have to replace it.

Entropy still exists, Samsung. Stop using marketing to claim you've managed to break the laws of physics.

By the way, can I have a 3.5mm headphone jack back, please? Otherwise, I'm going to buy the new hacker phone of choice - Huawei.
Never die - sure it will. And it is a challenge for those who hates Samsung)
rave_alan
Never die - sure it will. And it is a challenge for those who hates Samsung)

setting fire to it doesn't count ;)
philehidiot
[GSV
Trig;304]In that top image, is that SATA and then some other connector at the other end?
Be nice to have multiple connection methods on a drive but not sure how that'd eat into other product line sales..

U.2 connector? Dunno what one looks like to be honest.

EDIT: Also, this isn't “never die”. This is a new strategy to mitigate the problems of NAND lifespan and potential for data loss. We're better at recovering data from damaged spinning platters than from NAND and this looks like when the data is compromised due to wear, it can move it, intact, to another chip. Sounds pretty awesome as it negates one of the major drawbacks of NAND. This still means the old chip is dead and the drive will likely need replacing at some point. What it does it is means you can do that at your convenience and when enough chips have failed to mean you have to replace it.

Entropy still exists, Samsung. Stop using marketing to claim you've managed to break the laws of physics.

By the way, can I have a 3.5mm headphone jack back, please? Otherwise, I'm going to buy the new hacker phone of choice - Huawei.

No google apps or anything for you then…