Samsung Launches 1-Terabit V-NAND Chips To Fuel Next Wave Of Massive SSDs
As a major player in the storage market, Samsung has the advantage of also being a producer of its own flash memory chips. That means it does not have to rely on other chip makers, but can innovate and actively drive the market forward. And that is exactly what Samsung is doing. At its inaugural Samsung Tech Day at this year's Flash Memory Summit, Samsung trotted out various vertical NAND (V-NAND) solutions. It also announced a 1-terabit V-NAND chip that will pave the way for more capacious M.2 NVMe solid state drives.
This is something that Samsung has been working on for quite some time. After initially making mention of 1Tb V-NAND chips back in 2013 during the unveiling of the industry's first 3D NAND memory, Samsung says it expects Its new higher capacity memory chips to enter the market sometime next year. While it will not quite be a pinnacle moment in storage, it is a major achievement.
"The arrival of a 1Tb V-NAND chip next year will enable 2TB of memory in a single V-NAND package by stacking 16 1Tb dies and will represent one of the most important memory advances of the past decade," Samsung says.
Samsung's achievement in V-NAND will lead to 4-terabyte capacity SSDs, assuming the use of two packages on a single solution (one on each side). These could show up both in the DIY market and among pre-built systems, including Apple's MacBook Pro machines—the current model sports up to 2TB SSDs with two 1TB Samsung V-NAND boards.
Capacities could also scale much larger in some segments. For example, Samsung was showing off massive capacity 128TB SSD in the 2.5-inch form factor that was built using 32-die stack of 1TB QLC NAND.
Samsung said it has also begun sampling the industry's first 16TB Next Generation Small Form Factor (NGSFF) SSD to replace the current M.2 standard. This drive measures 30.5mm x 110mm x 4.38mm and boasts four times the memory capacity of a 1U chassis that uses M.2 drives. Samsung will mass produce its first NGSFF SSDs in the fourth quarter of this year.
This is something that Samsung has been working on for quite some time. After initially making mention of 1Tb V-NAND chips back in 2013 during the unveiling of the industry's first 3D NAND memory, Samsung says it expects Its new higher capacity memory chips to enter the market sometime next year. While it will not quite be a pinnacle moment in storage, it is a major achievement.
"The arrival of a 1Tb V-NAND chip next year will enable 2TB of memory in a single V-NAND package by stacking 16 1Tb dies and will represent one of the most important memory advances of the past decade," Samsung says.
Samsung's achievement in V-NAND will lead to 4-terabyte capacity SSDs, assuming the use of two packages on a single solution (one on each side). These could show up both in the DIY market and among pre-built systems, including Apple's MacBook Pro machines—the current model sports up to 2TB SSDs with two 1TB Samsung V-NAND boards.
Capacities could also scale much larger in some segments. For example, Samsung was showing off massive capacity 128TB SSD in the 2.5-inch form factor that was built using 32-die stack of 1TB QLC NAND.
Samsung said it has also begun sampling the industry's first 16TB Next Generation Small Form Factor (NGSFF) SSD to replace the current M.2 standard. This drive measures 30.5mm x 110mm x 4.38mm and boasts four times the memory capacity of a 1U chassis that uses M.2 drives. Samsung will mass produce its first NGSFF SSDs in the fourth quarter of this year.
