3D content has often been associated with inconvenience. Enjoying it typically required specialized equipment such as 3D glasses or head-mounted displays (HMDs). Imperfections in the delivery of 3D images caused crosstalk, potentially leading to dizziness. These discomforts would chip away the immersion of 3D content.

Samsung Electronics is changing that narrative with the introduction of the Odyssey 3D (G90XF) — a finely tuned glasses-free 3D gaming monitor. Featuring eye-tracking and view-mapping technology, the Odyssey 3D marks a paradigm shift in immersive viewing and gaming experiences.

Samsung Newsroom sat down with Donghwa Lim from the Enterprise R&D Lab and Taekwan Lee from the Product Innovation Lab, both part of the Visual Display (VD) Business at Samsung Electronics, to discuss how the Odyssey 3D is redefining perceptions of 3D.

▲ Donghwa Lim and Taekwan Lee break down the Odyssey 3D’s technology and components.

The Three Core Technologies Behind Odyssey 3D

3D displays create a sense of dimension using binocular disparity, in which the brain perceives depth by processing the slightly different images seen by each eye. Leveraging this principle, the Odyssey 3D delivers a glasses-free 3D experience by precisely presenting different images to each eye without the need for external equipment. The eye-tracking technology is designed to recognize users’ eyes even when they are wearing glasses.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to bring to market a technology that once seemed out of reach.”
— Donghwa Lim, Samsung Electronics

At the heart of the Odyssey 3D are three key technologies — eye tracking, view mapping and a lenticular lens.

▲ Odyssey 3D features a myriad of technologies to deliver an immersive, glasses-free 3D experience

Eye tracking is enabled by a stereo camera mounted at the top of the monitor, detecting and tracking the user’s eye movements in real time.

“Because the two cameras capture different images, much like human eyes, they can determine the exact position of the user’s eyes and distance between the eyes and the monitor in real time,” said Lim. “This real-time eye position detection allows us to deliver a precise 3D image, even when the user moves.”

▲ (From left) View mapping and the lenticular lens

Based on this data, the system calculates the correct pixel positioning for each eye and reconstructs a single image through a process called view mapping. The final mapped images are then separately delivered to each eye through the lenticular lens, allowing the images from the display panels to be visible to each eye by utilizing light refraction.

What’s more, the Odyssey 3D isn’t limited to 3D gameplay alone. Since the Odyssey 3D was developed as a gaming monitor, it performs exceptionally well in terms of picture quality and response speed, even when used for 2D gameplay. The lenticular lens activates only when a 3D mode is enabled by Odyssey 3D Hub.

Minimizing Crosstalk With Samsung’s Advanced Display Technology

While 3D effects offer new levels of immersion, even minor visual inconsistencies can disrupt the experience. Samsung has dedicated significant resources to ensuring premium 3D visuals.

“Crosstalk occurs when the images perceived by the left and right eyes aren’t properly aligned,” said Lim. “It can lead to dizziness and other visual discomforts, so we developed several techniques to reduce it.”

▲ Donghwa Lim, Enterprise R&D Lab, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, explains how technologies were meticulously put together to minimize crosstalk

“Even the slightest misalignments during the production or assembly of camera and display components can affect image accuracy,” he noted. “To address this, Samsung applies post-assembly calibration for both the camera and display panel and stores unit-specific data into a dedicated chip inside the monitor.”

In addition to hardware calibration, the Odyssey 3D features a deep learning-based eye-tracking algorithm and a specially engineered display cell coating designed to reduce light distortion and glare — all contributing to minimizing crosstalk and delivering a refined 3D experience.

Driving 3D Gaming Innovation Through Industry Partnerships

The true strength of the Odyssey 3D comes to life during gameplay. Samsung has made high-quality 3D gaming content available through Odyssey 3D Hub — a Windows-based 3D content platform that also supports the conversion of 2D photos and videos into 3D.

“When industry-leading companies join forces, the benefits are ultimately passed on to gamers.”
— Taekwan Lee, Samsung Electronics

To bring immersive and personalized gaming experiences to users, Samsung is actively collaborating with industry partners to optimize games for glasses-free 3D.

▲ Taekwan Lee, Product Innovation Lab, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, explains that cross-industry efforts are key in expanding the 3D market

Joint efforts are also underway to expand 3D gaming content.

“Game developers are constantly exploring ways to offer new experiences to users,” said Lee. “One of those directions is 3D gaming.”

While the 3D gaming market is still emerging, Lee emphasized that industry-wide collaboration is key to accelerating its growth.

“The First Berserker: Khazan” — a recently published game developed by Nexon Korea and Neople — stands as a notable example of how 3D immersion can come to life through collaboration with Samsung during development.

“Through this partnership, Nexon, Neople and Samsung have been working closely to tailor the 3D visuals, carefully adjusting them based on the composition of characters and backgrounds. We ensured that everything from scene-specific factors to cinematic transitions could be presented more vividly on Odyssey 3D monitor,” he explained.

▲ A scene from “The First Berserker: Khazan”

“Creating effects like drifting particles, fast-moving flames and cinematic cutscenes¹ was technically challenging, but I’m proud of what we achieved through teamwork,” Lee added. “In particular, the snowy mountain scene in Khazan gives the impression that snowflakes are flying directly toward the player when played on the Odyssey 3D. It’s an experience I would strongly recommend trying firsthand.”

“Our research is a journey to connect users to the future.”
— Taekwan Lee, Samsung Electronics

With the Odyssey 3D, Samsung is elevating the gaming experience to new levels of immersion.

“We are in discussions with local and global game developers to expand the 3D gaming market,” he emphasized. “Our goal is to collaborate with more developers to bring a broader range of 3D games to users. When industry-leading companies join forces, the benefits are ultimately passed on to gamers.”

From Impossible to Possible: Leading the Future of 3D Monitors

Lim reflected on how far technology has come over the past decade.

“Way back when I first joined Samsung, I attended a meeting on 3D technology where the lenticular lens was deemed ‘not feasible’ with existing technology,” he said. “Now, years later, we’ve not only made it possible, but we’ve also brought it to market. It’s incredibly remarkable and deeply rewarding to see a product launch built on technology that once seemed out of reach.”

▲ Donghwa Lim and Taekwan Lee are excited about the market potential of 3D content and monitors

“Our research to create new experiences is a journey to connect users to the future. The Odyssey 3D marks the beginning of a new era in expanding the boundaries of technology-driven experiences,” said Lee. “Games played on the Odyssey 3D are sure to deliver a ‘wow’ factor — not just at specific moments, but throughout the entire experience.”

As Samsung continues to lead the gaming monitor market, the Odyssey 3D stands as a powerful example of how the company is redefining immersive experiences and pushing the limits of display innovation.

* This article has been updated for accuracy.

¹ Short storytelling clips shown between stages during gameplay.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun volume production of 64-layer, 256Gb V-NAND flash memory for use with an expanding line-up of storage solutions for server, PC and mobile applications.

Since Samsung began producing the industry’s first SSD based on 64-layer 256Gb V-NAND chips in January for key IT customers, it has been working on a wide range of new V-NAND-based mobile and consumer storage solutions. These include embedded UFS memory, branded SSDs and external memory cards, which the company plans to introduce later this year.

To solidify its competitive edge in the memory market, Samsung intends for its volume production of the 64-layer V-NAND chip, which is widely referred to as 4^th generation V-NAND, to cover more than 50 percent of its monthly NAND flash production by year end.

“Following a long commitment to innovative technology, we will continuously push the limits of generations of industry-first V-NAND production, in moving the industry closer to the advent of the terabit V-NAND era,” said Kye Hyun Kyung, Executive Vice President of the Flash Product and Technology team, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will keep developing next-generation V-NAND products in sync with the global IT industry so that we can contribute to the timeliest launches of new systems and services, in bringing a higher level of satisfaction to consumers.”

The Samsung 64-layer 3-bit 256Gb V-NAND features a data transfer speed of 1Gbps (gigabit per second), which is the fastest among currently available NAND flash memory. Also, the V-NAND has the industry’s shortest page program time (tPROG)* of 500 microseconds (㎲) among NAND flash memory, which is about four times faster than that of a typical 10-nanometer (nm) class, planar NAND flash memory and approximately 1.5 times faster than that of Samsung’s fastest 48-layer 3-bit 256Gb V-NAND flash. With today’s ample supply of leading-edge V-NAND products, Samsung expects that the industry will now focus more on the high performance and reliability of memory storage, rather than immerse itself in a chip scaling race.

The new 64-layer 256Gb V-NAND provides more than a 30 percent productivity gain, compared to the 48-layer 256Gb V-NAND that preceded it. In addition, the 64-layer V-NAND has a 2.5V input voltage for its circuits, which leads to approximately 30 percent greater energy efficiency than the 3.3 volts that 48-layer V-NAND used. Also, the reliability of the new V-NAND cell increased by about 20 percent compared to its predecessor.

Samsung enabled these improvements by tackling a diversity of challenges that appear in the advanced V-NAND manufacturing process. Chief among them were realizing multi-billion channel holes that penetrate several dozen layers of cell-arrays, and minimizing the loss of electrons from about 85.3 billion cells.

As the layers of cell arrays increase, the level of technological difficulty also increases, especially in making the channel holes homogeneous in their shape from the top to the bottom layer, and in properly dispersing the weight of all the layers to improve the stability of the channel holes.

Another challenge that Samsung overcame was to realize 64 layers of cell arrays based on 3D CTF (charge trap flash) structure and uniformly cover the inner side of each channel hole with an atomically thin, non-conductive substance. This led to the creation of smaller cells with improved performance and reliability.

Based on 15 years of research into its proprietary V-NAND 3D structure, Samsung has formed the basis for more than 500 patents related to essential technological findings, and filed applications for them in many countries including Korea, the U.S. and Japan. Based on its success with 64-layer V-NAND, Samsung has secured the fundamental technology that it needs in the future to produce V-NAND chips with one terabit capacity and more, by stacking over 90 layers of cell arrays.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced that it is adding three TCO-optimized, high-performance SSDs, based on 3-dimensional (3D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology, to its industry-leading portfolio of advanced enterprise and data center SSDs in the US. The drives are available now.

“We are providing high-end capabilities and capacities for all of our latest SSDs, something we believe will elicit a high degree of interest from OEMs and computer enthusiasts throughout the world,” said Jim Elliott, Corporate Vice President, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “We understand the performance needs of our customers in a rapidly expanding SSD universe and are determined to meet those needs.”

Designed for OEMs, Samsung’s new SSDs – the PM1633, PM1725 and PM953 all utilize Samsung’s 3-bit MLC (multi-level-cell) V-NAND flash memory, while providing outstanding performance and reliability, as well as high capacities.

PM1633: a 2.5” 12Gb/s SAS SSD designed for enterprise storage

Samsung’s latest SAS SSD, the PM1633, is designed to meet all requirements of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface based systems. The 2.5” 12 gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) SAS SSD will be offered in 480GB, 960GB, 1.92 terabyte (TB) and 3.84TB versions.

The PM1633 delivers random read and write speeds of up to 160,000 and 18,000 IOPS respectively, and boasts sequential read and write speeds of up to 1,100MB/s and 1,000MB/s.

PM1725: can randomly read 1 million IOPS with a 6.4TB HHHL-card NVMe PCIe* SSD design

Targeting the next-generation enterprise storage market, Samsung is introducing a half-height, half-length (HHHL) card-type NVMe SSD, the PM1725, offering blazingly fast data transmission and a 3.2TB or 6.4TB storage capacity.

The PM1725 provides a random read speed of up to 1,000,000 IOPS (input output operations per second) and writes randomly at up to 120,000 IOPS. It also sequentially reads at up to 5,500 megabytes per second (MB/s) and writes sequentially at up to 1,800MB/s, which enables users to save a 5GB video in less than three seconds.

In addition, the 6.4TB PM1725 features outstanding reliability with five DWPDs (drive writes per day) for five years, which translates to writing a total of 32TBs per day during that time. This means users can write 6,400 files of 5GB-equivalent data or video every day, which represents a level of reliability quite sufficient for enterprise storage systems that have to perform ultrafast transmission of large amount of data.

PM953: an advanced NVMe SSD in M.2 and 2.5” form factors offering up to 1.92TB storage

Samsung is introducing an update to the industry’s first NVMe SSD (SM951) in an M.2 form factor that was announced earlier this year.

The new PM953 comes in NVMe interface and is available in both M.2 and 2.5” form factors to satisfy a variety of next-generation system requirements such as large-scale data centers and mobile workstations as well as ultra-slim notebook PCs and high-end desktops. The M.2 version will be offered with either 480 or 960 gigabytes (GBs), while the 2.5” version will be out in 480GB, 960GB and 1.92TB capacities.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced that it has begun mass producing the industry’s first 256-gigabit (Gb), three-dimensional (3D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory based on 48 layers of 3-bit multi-level-cell (MLC) arrays for use in solid state drives (SSDs).

“With the introduction of our 3rd generation V-NAND flash memory to the global market, we can now provide the best advanced memory solutions, with even higher efficiency based on improved performance, power utilization and manufacturing productivity, thereby accelerating growth of the high-performance and the high-density SSD markets,” said Young-Hyun Jun, President of the Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “By making full use of Samsung V-NAND’s excellent features, we will expand our premium-level business in the enterprise and data center market segments, as well as in the consumer market, while continuing to strengthen our strategic SSD focus.”

Samsung’s new 256Gb 3D V-NAND flash doubles the density of conventional 128Gb NAND flash chips. In addition to enabling 32 gigabytes (256 gigabits) of memory storage on a single die, the new chip will also easily double the capacity of Samsung’s existing SSD line-ups, and provide an ideal solution for multi-terabyte SSDs.

Samsung introduced its 2nd generation V-NAND (32-layer 3-bit MLC V-NAND) chips in August 2014, and launched its 3rd generation V-NAND (48-layer 3-bit MLC V-NAND) chips in just one year, in continuing to lead the 3D memory era.

In the new V-NAND chip, each cell utilizes the same 3D Charge Trap Flash (CTF) structure in which the cell arrays are stacked vertically to form a 48-storied mass that is electrically connected through some 1.8 billion channel holes punching through the arrays thanks to a special etching technology. In total, each chip contains over 85.3 billion cells. They each can store 3 bits of data, resulting 256 billion bits of data, in other words, 256Gb on a chip no larger than the tip of a finger.

A 48-layer 3-bit MLC 256Gb V-NAND flash chip consumes over a 30 percent reduction in power compared to a 32-layer, 3-bit MLC, 128Gb V-NAND chip when storing the same amount of data. During production, the new chip also achieves approximately 40 percent more productivity over its 32-layer predecessor, bringing much enhanced cost competitiveness to the SSD market, while mainly utilizing existing equipment.

Samsung plans to produce 3rd generation V-NAND throughout the remainder of 2015, to enable more accelerated adoption of terabyte-level SSDs. While now introducing SSDs with densities of two terabytes and above for consumers, Samsung also plans to increase its high-density SSD sales for the enterprise and data center storage markets with leading-edge PCIe NVMe and SAS interfaces.