Samsung is getting ready to introduce a lot of new merchandise on the upcoming Worldwide Stable-State Circuits Convention (ISSCC), one in all which might be a groundbreaking 280-layer QLC V9 NAND flash reminiscence chip that may pave the way in which to extra reasonably priced, higher-capacity solid-state drives (SSD).
As with all the different merchandise Samsung and different producers might be showcasing on the convention, particulars are gentle on the bottom, however we all know the South Korean tech large might be presenting “A 280-Layer 1Tb 4b/cell 3D-NAND Flash Reminiscence with a 28.5Gb/mm2 Areal Density and a 3.2Gb/s Excessive-Velocity IO Price”.
The principle takeaway from that is the record-breaking 280 layers and 28.5Gb/mm² density. This implies it’s going to surpass the present trade chief, China’s Yangtze Reminiscence Applied sciences (YMTC), which provides a 232-layer NAND at 19.8 Gb/mm². Samsung’s new product is almost 44% extra dense.
Bigger SSDs on the horizon
The pace can be noteworthy. Once we first heard about Samsung’s subsequent gen V9 QLC NAND it was with a 2.4Gb/s switch pace, the identical as different such merchandise, however in within the presentation, it has been elevated to three.2Gb/s, making it quick sufficient to be used in PCIe SSDs.
Nevertheless, Samsung’s breakthrough is not with out its challenges. As a result of QLC drives use an SLC buffer, the high-density reminiscence can’t keep most throughput for steady knowledge transfers. As soon as this buffer is full, switch speeds lower considerably. This usually signifies that QLC NAND drives prioritize capability over efficiency.
The potential capacities of this high-density chip are nonetheless unknown, however Tom’s {Hardware} suggests it might allow M.2 drives of 8TB or (take it with a grain of salt) even past. At the moment, Samsung’s largest client drive is 4TB, so that may be an enormous step in direction of revolutionizing client SSD capacities.
Samsung will not be the one producer showcasing a brand new NAND product. On the similar occasion, later in the identical session, Micron has an entry for “A 1TB Density 3b/Cell 3D-NAND Flash on a 2YY Tier Know-how with a 300Mb/s Write Throughput.”
