Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has launched an 800-gigabyte (GB) solid state storage drive—the SZ985 Z-SSD, for the most advanced enterprise applications including supercomputing for AI analysis.

Developed in 2017, the new 800GB Z-SSD provides the most efficient storage solution for high-speed cache data and log data processing, as well as other enterprise storage applications that are being designed to meet rapidly growing demand within the AI, big data and IoT markets.

“With our leading-edge 800GB Z-SSD, we expect to contribute significantly to market introductions of next-generation supercomputing systems in the near future, enabling improved IT investment efficiency and exceptional performance,” said Jinman Han, senior vice president, Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to develop next-generation Z-SSDs with higher density and greater product competitiveness, in order to lead the industry in accelerating growth of the premium SSD* market.”

The new single port, four-lane Z-SSD features Z-NAND chips that provide 10 times higher cell read performance than 3-bit V-NAND chips, along with 1.5GB LPDDR4 DRAM and a high performance controller. Armed with some of the industry’s most advanced components, the 800GB Z-SSD features 1.7 times faster random read performance at 750K IOPS, and five times less write latency – at 16 microseconds, compared to an NVMe SSD PM963, which is based on 3-bit V-NAND chips. The Z-SSD also delivers a random write speed of up to170K IOPS.

Due to its high reliability, the 800GB Z-SSD guarantees up to 30 drive writes per day (DWPD) for five years, or a total of 42 petabytes. That translates into storing a total of about 8.4 million 5GB-equivalent full-HD movies during a five-year period. The reliability of the new Z-SSD is further underscored by a mean time between failures (MTBF) of two million hours.

Samsung will introduce its new Z-SSD in 800GB and 240GB versions, as well as related technologies at ISSCC 2018 (International Solid-State Circuits Conference), which will be held February 11-15 in San Francisco.

Note: All brand, product, service names and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized and acknowledged. Z-SSD is a trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

* Editor’s Note: The premium SSD means an SSD with IOPs exceeding 550K for random reads, and latency lower than 20us.

“By developing innovative technologies in DRAM circuit design and process, we have broken through what has been a major barrier for DRAM scalability,” said Gyoyoung Jin, president of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “Through a rapid ramp-up of the 2nd-generation 10nm-class DRAM, we will expand our overall 10nm-class DRAM production more aggressively, in order to accommodate strong market demand and continue to strengthen our business competitiveness.”

Samsung’s 2nd-generation 10nm-class 8Gb DDR4 features an approximate 30 percent productivity gain over the company’s 1st–generation 10nm-class 8Gb DDR4. In addition, the new 8Gb DDR4’s performance levels and energy efficiency have been improved about 10 and 15 percent respectively, thanks to the use of an advanced, proprietary circuit design technology. The new 8Gb DDR4 can operate at 3,600 megabits per second (Mbps) per pin, compared to 3,200 Mbps of the company’s 1x-nm 8Gb DDR4.

To enable these achievements, Samsung has applied new technologies, without the use of an EUV process. The innovation here includes use of a high-sensitivity cell data sensing system and a progressive “air spacer” scheme.

In the cells of Samsung’s 2nd-generation 10nm-class DRAM, a newly devised data sensing system enables a more accurate determination of the data stored in each cell, which leads to a significant increase in the level of circuit integration and manufacturing productivity.

The new 10nm-class DRAM also makes use of a unique air spacer that has been placed around its bit lines to dramatically decrease parasitic capacitance**. Use of the air spacer enables not only a higher level of scaling, but also rapid cell operation.

With these advancements, Samsung is now accelerating its plans for much faster introductions of next-generation DRAM chips and systems, including DDR5, HBM3, LPDDR5 and GDDR6, for use in enterprise servers, mobile devices, supercomputers, HPC systems and high-speed graphics cards.

Samsung has finished validating its 2nd-generation 10nm-class DDR4 modules with CPU manufacturers, and next plans to work closely with its global IT customers in the development of more efficient next-generation computing systems.

In addition, the world’s leading DRAM producer expects to not only rapidly increase the production volume of the 2nd-generation 10nm-class DRAM lineups, but also to manufacture more of its mainstream 1st-generation 10nm-class DRAM, which together will meet the growing demands for DRAM in premium electronic systems worldwide.

* Editors’ Note 1: 10nm-class denotes a process technology node somewhere between 10 and 19 nanometers. Samsung launched its first DRAM product based on a 10nm-class process in February, 2016.

** Editors’ Note 2: Parasitic capacitance is unwanted capacitance that exists between the parts of an electronic circuit or electronic part, because of their proximity to each other. When two electrical conductors at different voltages are too close together, they are adversely affected by each other’s electric field and store opposite electric charges such as those produced by a capacitor.

Samsung Electronics, announced today that it is introducing the industry’s first 8-gigabyte (GB) LPDDR4 (low power, double data rate 4) mobile DRAM package, which is expected to greatly improve mobile user experiences, especially for those using Ultra HD, large-screen devices. The 8GB mobile DRAM package utilizes four of the newest 16 gigabit (Gb) LPDDR4 memory chips and advanced 10-nanometer (nm)-class* process technology.

“The advent of our powerful 8GB mobile DRAM solution will enable more capable next-generation, flagship mobile devices around the world,” said Joo Sun Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to provide advanced memory solutions offering the highest values and leading-edge benefits to meet the escalating needs of devices having dual camera, 4K UHD and VR features.”

The new 8GB LPDDR4 operates at up to 4,266 megabits per second (Mbps), which is twice as fast as DDR4 DRAM for PCs working typically at 2,133 Mbps per pin. Assuming a 64 bit (x64) wide memory bus, this can be viewed as transmitting over 34GBs of data per second.

While many high-end ultra-slim note PCs use 8GB of DRAM currently, Samsung’s new 8GB LPDDR4 package will help other next-generation mobile devices take full advantage of its extremely high capacity. For example, equipping tablets with 8GB of LPDDR4 will enable virtual machine operation** and smoother 4K UHD video playback, popular features of many premium PCs.

The Samsung 8GB LPDDR4 DRAM provides much more efficient power consumption thanks to its use of the latest 10nm-class process technology and Samsung’s proprietary low-power circuit design. This circuit design enables the memory chip to double the capacity of the company’s 20nm-class 4GB DRAM package, while consuming approximately the same amount of power.

The 8GB LPDDR4 package has XYZ dimensions of under 15mm by 15mm by 1.0mm, which satisfies space requirements of most new, ultra slim mobile devices. Using a DRAM package thinner than 1.0mm enables stacking the package together with UFS memory or a mobile application processor, depending on device manufacturers’ preferences, which will allow further space savings on the printed circuit board.

In August last year, Samsung introduced the industry-first 20-nanometer 12Gb LPDDR4 DRAM. After only a 14-month development period, Samsung is now introducing the first 10nm-class 16Gb LPDDR4 DRAM and this single-package solution of 8GB LPDDR4 DRAM, which will speed up the launch of next-generation mobile devices with even more advanced performance.

Samsung will continue to rapidly expand production of its DRAM products based on 10nm-class process technology. The company has been manufacturing 10nm-class DRAM on a leading-edge fabrication line and plans to also use the 10nm-process technology in other fabs in the near future, to meet ever-increasing demands for advanced, high-density mobile DRAM.

*10nm-class is a process technology node somewhere between 10 nanometer and 20 nanometer, and 20nm-class is a process technology node somewhere between 20 nanometer and 30 nanometer.

**A virtual machine (VM) is an emulation of a computer system that provides the functionality of a physical computer. Virtual machines allow users to run multiple operating systems (OS) on a single PC.