Samsung has unveiled its first 3D V-NAND SSD products

by Mark Tyson on 14 August 2013, 09:30

Tags: Samsung (005935.KS)

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It was only a week ago that we heard that Samsung had started mass production of the industry's first 3D V-NAND flash memory. However Samsung has already got products employing this new flash memory technology and has announced the first SSDs, based upon 3D V-NAND, at the Flash Memory Summit 2013 in Santa Clara, Ca.

Enterprise only for now

Samsung announced two new SSD drives which will use the new 3D flash memory chips. These V-NAND SSDs will be available in two capacities; 480GB and 960GB. The two drives are "designed for use in enterprise servers and data centres". If you wanted to read that these drives were to be made available for the enthusiast PC market you may be disappointed. However Samsung does intend to make 3D V-NAND SSD drives for the PC market, this aim is mentioned twice in the company press release, including once in the quote below.

"By applying our 3D V-NAND – which has overcome the formidable hurdle of scaling beyond the 10-nanometer (nm) class, Samsung is providing its global customers with high density and exceptional reliability, as well as an over 20 percent performance increase and an over 40 percent improvement in power consumption," said E.S. Jung, executive vice president, semiconductor R&D center at Samsung Electronics and a keynote speaker at the Flash Memory Summit. "As we pioneer a new era of memory technology, we will continue to introduce differentiated green memory products and solutions for the server, mobile and PC markets to help reduce energy waste and to create greater shared value in the enterprise and for consumers."

Back on the subject of the two new enterprise V-NAND drives it has announced, Samsung says the 960GB version offers the highest level of performance "offering more than 20 percent increase in sequential and random write speeds by utilizing 64 dies of MLC 3D V-NAND flash, each offering 128 gigabits (Gb) of storage, with a six-gigabit-per-second SATA interface controller."  Additionally this V-NAND SSD "offers 35K program erase cycles". Both the newly announced drives will be available in the 2.5-inch form factor and measure 100 x 70 x 7mm.

Costs down, PC market drives on the way

Samsung says that its 3D V-NAND tech "achieves manufacturing productivity improvements over twice that of 20nm-class planar NAND flash" which should be good for helping drive costs/prices down.  E.S. Jung emphasised in his keynote that the new tech "will drive disruptive innovation... and contribute to much more significant growth in the memory market". The company "will continue to introduce next-generation V-NAND products" including to PCs where cost-effectiveness and high density are high priorities.



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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Dangit. And heres me on the verge pf buying an ssd (840 evo) and now this news…do i wait and save money/more capacity. Or do i bite the bullet and be happy now rather than later.
Samsung seems to be on a roll with their SSD tech as of late. Can't wait to see what these are capable of.
Samsung seem to be capable of pumping out a new type so SSD every month or so, Bravo Chaps!
The two drives are “designed for use in enterprise servers and data centres”. If you wanted to read that these drives were to be made available for the enthusiast PC market you may be disappointed.
How are they going to prevent an enthusiast from getting one of these drives - only sell to businesses? Presumably the pricing will dissuade most of the potential non-business users.
wyte_w0lf
Dangit. And heres me on the verge pf buying an ssd (840 evo) and now this news…do i wait and save money/more capacity. Or do i bite the bullet and be happy now rather than later.
I share your pain - I was looking for a replacement for the spinny rust that I've got my apps on (plus something a bit more modern than my two-year old Vertex 2E for the OS drive might be nice). Originally I was going to go for an 830, then the 840, then the 840PRO and now 840EVO, so now 850? It's like a duck shoot! I guess the smart view is to judge whether the price/performance is good enough and if so, then buy. After all, there will ALWAYS be something faster/larger/cheaper coming along if you wait long enough.

And then there's the nice-to-have's. E.g. should my replacement “apps” drive be a 256GB which'll be just large enough, or a slower 500GB drive that'll give me plenty of space for more Steam “special offers”. Then again, surely even a “slow” (e.g. 840 standard) SSD will still be a heck of a lot faster than a conventional HDD.

Nevertheless, at the rate Sammy seem to be pushing, the consumer V-NANDers should be announced by the end of the month! :rolleyes:
crossy
How are they going to prevent an enthusiast from getting one of these drives - only sell to businesses? Presumably the pricing will dissuade most of the potential non-business users.

I imagine they'll be priced with business users in mind, so in other words, pretty expensive. That in itself will put off a lot of enthusiast users. If they're optimised for servers though, they probably won't be all that suited to enthusiast client-centred needs anyway…servers need reliability & consistency rather than pure IO.