Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced it has successfully developed the industry’s first PCIe 4.0 automotive SSD based on eighth-generation vertical NAND (V-NAND). With industry-leading speeds and enhanced reliability, the new auto SSD, AM9C1 is an optimal solution for on-device AI capabilities in automotive applications.

With about 50% improved power efficiency compared to its predecessor, the AM991, the new 256GB auto SSD will deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 4,400 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and 400MB/s, respectively.

“We are collaborating with global autonomous vehicle makers and providing high-performance, high-capacity automotive products,” said Hyunduk Cho, Vice President and Head of Automotive Group at Samsung Electronics’ Memory Business. “Samsung will continue to lead the Physical AI¹ memory market that encompasses applications from autonomous driving to robotics technologies.”

Built on Samsung’s 5-nanometer (nm) controller and providing a single-level cell (SLC) Namespace² feature, the auto SSD AM9C1 demonstrates high performance for easier access to large files. By switching from its original triple-level cell (TLC) state to SLC mode, users can enjoy boosted read and write speeds of up to 4,700MB/s and 1,400MB/s, respectively, while also benefiting from the added reliability of SLC SSDs.

The 256GB AM9C1 is currently being sampled by key partners and is expected to begin mass production by the end of this year. Samsung plans to offer multiple storage capacities for the AM9C1 ranging from 128GB to 2 terabytes (TB) to address the growing demand for high-capacity automotive SSDs. The 2TB model, which is set to offer the industry’s largest capacity in this product category, is scheduled to start mass production early next year.

Through intensified board-level tests, Samsung’s new auto SSD satisfies the automotive semiconductor quality standard AEC-Q100³ Grade 2, ensuring stable performance over a wide temperature range of -40°C to 105°C.

To further meet the high standards of the automotive industry in terms of durability and stability, Samsung also conducts various quality assurance processes. The company received ASPICE CL3 authentication⁴ for its UFS 3.1 product in March this year.

In an effort to obtain CSMS certification based on ISO/SAE 21434,⁵ Samsung will continue to actively enhance the technological reliability and stability of its automotive solutions.

“ASPICE and ISO/SAE 21434 certifications are milestones that affirm the reliability and stability of our technology,” said Hwaseok Oh, Executive Vice President at Samsung Electronics’ Memory Business. “Beyond these achievements, Samsung will continue to elevate its product stability and quality by consistently providing the best solution to key partners.”

¹ AI such as robots and autonomous vehicles that perceives and interacts with the physical world through sensors.
² Provides SLC partition with better performance and reliability than TLC, allowing users to configure it in accordance to data type. However, when switched to SLC mode capacity decreases to 1/3 of the TLC.
³ Global standard that Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) has established for the reliability evaluation procedures and criteria for automotive electronic components.
⁴ Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (ASPICE) is a software development standard developed and distributed by the German Automotive Association (VDA) that evaluates the reliability and competence of automotive component manufacturers’ software development processes. It is divided into Capability Level (CL) stages 0 to 5, with CL3 meaning that an organization has established a systematic process and can effectively execute it.
⁵ Cyber Security Management System certification is an international standard designed to enhance cybersecurity in the automotive industry based on ISO/SAE 21434, covering cybersecurity processes and requirements from design to development, evaluation and mass production.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced the release of its 1-terabyte (TB) high-capacity microSD cards PRO Plus and EVO Plus. By adopting Samsung’s eighth-generation V-NAND (V8) technology, the PRO Plus and EVO Plus boast enhanced performance and high capacity, ideal for content creators and tech enthusiasts needing quick file transfers and storage for everyday use across their devices in everyday use.

“Creators and tech enthusiasts are increasingly using portable devices such as smartphones and handheld gaming devices to store data that demand high-performance and high-capacity,” said Hangu Sohn, Vice President of Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics. “The new high-capacity microSD cards, PRO Plus and EVO Plus, are response to the demand for storing large amounts of high-quality data in a reliable and secure way.”

More Storage Capacity

The increased storage size of the PRO Plus and EVO Plus gives users the high-capacity storage options entering the TB capacity range that is mainly used in SSD devices. With 1TB of storage, users can store more than 400K 4K UHD (2.3MB) images or more than 45 console games (20GB). The enhanced capacity of the PRO Plus and EVO Plus unlock new possibilities for everyday devices on the go such as smartphones, action cameras, drones and handheld game consoles. The PRO Plus and EVO Plus offer a range of storage options including 128-gigabyte (GB), 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. The EVO Plus also has a 64GB option.

Enhanced Performance

The PRO Plus allows users storing large amounts of high-quality content to experience excellent performance for a seamless creative workflow. It promises exceptional efficiency and solid reliability with its storage options from 128GB to 1TB, offering sequential read speeds of up to 180 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) coupled with sequential write speeds of up to 130MB/s.¹ For fast loading and multitasking, the PRO Plus has UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30) for 4K UHD Video with A2 App Performance, allowing users to worry less about storing and organizing their content and focus on creating.

For daily use, storing data on devices can be enhanced with the EVO Plus with transfer speeds of up to 160MB/s.² It also boasts a UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30)³ for 4K UHD video with A2⁴ App Performance so users can experience seamless loading and multitasking. The 64GB EVO Plus model has varying specifications with UHS Speed Class 1 (U1), Video Speed Class 10 (V10) and A1 App Performance.

Maximized Power Efficiency and Increased Reliability With 28nm Controller

Samsung’s PRO Plus and EVO Plus 1TB microSD cards show improved power efficiency with its controller based on 28-nanometer (nm) process technology, compared to company’s previous lineup with a 55nm one. This allows users to make the most out of their device’s battery life with Samsung’s 1TB card.

With an Error Correction Code (ECC)⁵’s Low Density Parity Check (LDPC)⁶ code 2-kilobyte (KB) engine, the PRO Plus and EVO Plus 1TB cards offer enhanced durability for a higher volume of write-and-erase cycles, ensuring safer data storage over extended periods.

Proven Durability for Reliable Storage

The PRO Plus and EVO Plus are ultra-durable and have undergone comprehensive testing, achieving high-reliability ratings in six areas. Tested extensively under harsh conditions, the PRO Plus and EVO Plus are designed to withstand challenging environments and can withstand water,⁷ high temperatures,⁸ X-rays⁹ and magnetic field.¹⁰ For creators venturing into challenging conditions, the PRO Plus and EVO Plus have demonstrated durability through extensive testing and are drop-proof¹¹ and resistant to wear-out.¹²*¹³

Compatible Across Devices

The PRO Plus and EVO Plus are compatible with a range of everyday devices so that data is stored securely, including Android^TM smartphones, tablets and handheld gaming consoles. They are also compatible with devices used in harsh environments, such as action cameras or drones for creating, editing and saving data.

The 1TB models of the PRO Plus and EVO Plus microSD Cards will be available worldwide in July, 2024. The PRO Plus has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) ranging from $24.99 for the 128GB model to $153.99 for the 1TB model. The MSRP for the EVO Plus ranges from $12.99 for the 64GB model to $131.99 for the 1TB model.

The PRO Plus and EVO Plus have a 10-year limited warranty.

microSD Cards PRO Plus and EVO Plus Specifications

¹ The foregoing read & write speeds are based on internal tests conducted under controlled conditions. Actual speeds may vary depending upon card capacity. Stated performance was achieved by using PRO Plus microSD cards with Samsung readers.
² The foregoing read & write speeds are based on internal tests conducted under controlled conditions. Actual speeds may vary depending upon card capacity. Stated performance was achieved by using PRO Plus microSD cards with Samsung readers.
³ UHS Speed class (U1, U3) and Video Speed Class (V10, V30) are the speed class defined by SD Association, based on minimum sequential write speed of the memory card, For more information, please refer to the SD specification.
⁴ Application Performance class (A2) are the speed class defined by the SD Association, based on the minimum random read and write speed of the memory card. For more information, please refer to the SD specification.
⁵ Engine that detects and corrects errors in NAND flash
⁶ Error correction code that detects and corrects errors during memory transmission
⁷ 1M depth, salt water (3% NaCl), 35℃, 24hr
⁸ Operating temperatures of -25℃ ~ 85℃, Non-Operating temperatures of -40℃ ~ 85℃
⁹ 0.1 Gy of medium-energy radiation, 210 secs
¹⁰ 15,000 Gauss, 30 secs
¹¹ 10 cycles drop from 1.5 meter
¹² Insertions and extractions the card for a total of 10,000 cycles
¹³ Results from actual use may vary. Any damage or loss of data incurred as a result of exposure to water, high temperatures, X-rays, magnets, drop and wear-out are not warranted by Samsung. All tests were performed in accordance with microSD Card Addendum to Physical Layer Specifications Version 7.10 by SD Association. Please refer to the products’ page for more information.
¹⁴ 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes, actual usable storage capacity may vary. User capacity measured with SD Formatter 3.1 tool with FAT file system.
¹⁵ Performance results are based on internal testing conditions. Stated performance was achieved by using PRO Plus / EVO Plus microSD card with Samsung microSD Card reader (ver3.0) in a controlled environment. Actual read/write speeds may vary depending on host configuration and user environment. For more information, please refer to the datasheet.
¹⁶ V10, V30: Video Speed Class means sustained video capture rates of 10MB/s (V10) and 30MB/s (V30) which enable to support real-time video recording to UHS Bus IF products. Transfer speeds may vary by host device.
¹⁷ For more information on the warranty, please visit https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/documents/

“We are excited to deliver the industry’s first 9th-gen V-NAND which will bring future applications leaps forward. In order to address the evolving needs for NAND flash solutions, Samsung has pushed the boundaries in cell architecture and operational scheme for our next-generation product,” said SungHoi Hur, Head of Flash Product & Technology of the Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “Through our latest V-NAND, Samsung will continue to set the trend for the high-performance, high-density solid-state drive (SSD) market that meets the needs for the coming AI generation.”

With the industry’s smallest cell size and thinnest mold, Samsung improved the bit density of the 9th-generation V-NAND by about 50% compared to the 8th-generation V-NAND. New innovations such as cell interference avoidance and cell life extension have been applied to enhance product quality and reliability, while eliminating dummy channel holes has significantly reduced the planar area of the memory cells.

In addition, Samsung’s advanced “channel hole etching” technology showcases the company’s leadership in process capabilities. This technology creates electron pathways by stacking mold layers and maximizes fabrication productivity as it enables simultaneous drilling of the industry’s highest cell layer count in a double-stack structure. As the number of cell layers increase, the ability to pierce through higher cell numbers becomes essential, demanding more sophisticated etching techniques.

The 9th-generation V-NAND is equipped with the next-generation NAND flash interface, “Toggle 5.1,” which supports increased data input/output speeds by 33% to up to 3.2 gigabits-per-second (Gbps). Along with this new interface, Samsung plans to solidify its position within the high-performance SSD market by expanding support for PCIe 5.0.

Power consumption has also been improved by 10% with advancements in low-power design, compared to the previous generation. As reducing energy usage and carbon emissions becomes vital for customers, Samsung’s 9th-generation V-NAND is expected to be an optimal solution for future applications.

Samsung has started mass production for the 1Tb TLC 9th-generation V-NAND this month, followed by the quad-level cell (QLC) model in the second half of this year.

Whether through your smartphone gallery, video calling app or social media network, these heartwarming moments of reminiscence are made possible by the NAND flash memory¹ solutions used in today’s smartphones and data centers.

Aside from its technical definition, we can view NAND flash as that which makes it possible to record and save so many special moments. We at Samsung Electronics are working non-stop to provide consumers with the certainty that their most valuable communications will be around indefinitely, and as a technician responsible for the continued advancement of NAND flash in the semiconductor industry, I’d like to share some of these efforts with you.

Pioneering the Era of the Uncharted 3-Dimensional (3D) Vertical Structure

If we were to view the history of the universe as one year, the existence of the human species falls stunningly short of 14 seconds before the end of this year. With more than 170 billion known galaxies constantly expanding, our Sun and the Earth are by no means at the center of our universe’s development. This same analogy can be applied to semiconductors.

If you look at a semiconductor chip smaller than the size of a fingernail through an electron microscope, there lies an entire miniature universe. Despite its thickness of just 1mm, millions of carefully constructed spaces exist within a chip in order to store huge amounts of data.

For many years, NAND flash memory solutions designed to store data featured a two-dimensional (2D) structure, where chips were scaled and laid onto flat surfaces. But these 2D structures had significant limitations in terms of the amount of data that could be stored.

After extensive research to mitigate this issue, Samsung pioneered its V-NAND (with the ‘V’ standing for vertical) flash memory, a solution that connects its cell layers through pierced holes in vertically-stacked 3D space. Samsung is the first company in the world to develop and commercialize such a memory solution.

This 3D V-NAND debuted in 2013, creating an entirely new paradigm for memory semiconductor as compared with the conventional 2D structure that had dominated the world of electronic storage for decades. The technical transformation that it enabled can be compared to the experience of people used to living in 1- or 2-story houses moving into high-rise apartments for the first time.

V-NAND: Representing Samsung’s Mastery of the Semiconductor Solution

These days the V-NAND solution, with its revolutionary vertical 3D structure, has become an industry standard since its groundbreaking introduction.

Back in 2013, the first V-NAND solution developed by Samsung featured 24 layers — but these days it has evolved to almost 200, a number that continues to grow. However, much like with high-rise apartments, simply stacking more layers on top of one another is not everything.

An apartment should be tall but also sturdy, and easily accessible via a secure and efficient elevator as the height of the building increases. What’s more, consideration of noise levels between floors must be made, and due to altitude restrictions, a building’s height is far from limitless.

The same goes for V-NAND solution. Even if the number of layers is similar, a closer look reveals minute differences in functionality and structure. In the world of semiconductors, this can be of the utmost importance as even the smallest difference leads to a tremendously different outcome.

Introducing the Industry’s Smallest Cell, Made Possible by Single-Stack Etching Technology

Let’s go back for a minute or two to 2013.

In order to overcome the limitations of a semiconductor’s planar 2D structure, Samsung developed a product that stacks up cells–in three dimensions. At that time, since the structure did not feature many layers, there was no immediate need to consider the product’s height. However, as the number of layers grew to meet increasing demand for highly-integrated, high-capacity solutions, Samsung engineers had to consider the physical limitations that arose around the product’s height.

Samsung contemplated and began to design solutions for the impending problem of V-NAND height before any other player in the semiconductor industry. The company’s 176-layer 7^th generation V-NAND is similar in height to the industry’s 6^th generation, 100+ layer V-NAND, an innovation made possible thanks to our successful development of the industry’s smallest cell size yet.

Samsung managed to reduce the cell volume up to 35% by decreasing both its surface area and height through highly innovative 3D scaling technology. Any interference between cells that might occur during such a reduction was also controlled. This enables Samsung to stack more layers at lower heights, giving the company an edge in overcoming the anticipated limitations of height.

Samsung is the only one in the industry possessing single-stack etching technology capable of stacking over 100 layers at once and interconnected through more than a billion holes. Leveraging ultra-small cell size and the company’s proprietary single-stack etching technology, Samsung is in an unparalleled position to deliver V-NAND solutions made with several hundred cell layers.

Looking Ahead: Revolutionary 7^th and 8^th Generation V-NAND Solutions

In the second half of this year, Samsung is set to showcase a consumer solid-state drive (SSD) product based on its 7^th generation V-NAND chip, a solution with the smallest cell size yet in the industry. This 7^th generation V-NAND solution is expected to meet the performance requirements of both the 4^th generation PCIe interface (PCIe Gen 4) and, later the 5^th generation (PCIe Gen 5), thanks to its maximum input-output (I/O) of 2.0 gigabits per second (Gbps). Furthermore, the company’s solution will be optimized for multitasking huge workloads, such as simultaneous 3D modeling and video editing.

Samsung is also planning to expand the use of its 7^th generation V-NAND to data center SSDs. Furthermore, in order to encourage companies running data centers to reduce power consumption, Samsung’s low-power solution can help raise power efficiency by 16% over that of its 6^th generation solution.

The company has already secured a working chip of its 8^th generation V-NAND solution featuring over 200 layers and plans to introduce it to the market in accordance with consumer demand.

The Future of Samsung’s V-NAND: Aiming for Over 1,000 Layers

In the semiconductor industry, nothing happens by chance. Pioneering a previously-unknown technology requires not only time, but also a tremendous amount of capital and investment. Samsung has managed to become the world leader in the semiconductor industry in the face of setbacks and other challenges by maintaining the passion, commitment and the sense of duty that allows us to realize a better life for all of those necessary to bring about such innovation.

Just like how the first V-NAND was introduced in 2013 after more than 10 years of research, the company will be the first to overcome the height limit that will come about one day, through our use of 3D scaling technology. Even further down the line, when Samsung’s V-NAND solutions have evolved to feature over 1,000 layers, the company will continue to ensure that its memory solutions offer the industry’s highest reliability.

A New Paradigm of Extended Reality Will Extend the Role of Semiconductors

The world is shifting to a new paradigm of extended reality (XR) thanks to the rapid advancement of technology. In fact, due to the pandemic, the time when XR is set to become a part of all our daily lives has been advanced considerably. The era in which daily lifestyles include an overlap between reality and cyber space draws ever nearer. Moreover, the refinement of IT devices and technologies will require an entirely new approach that will be completely different from anything previously seen—and the role of semiconductors will become more important than ever before.

Unquestionably, Samsung will continue to work to enable a better society by introducing innovative semiconductor products based on robust technological advancements. This will happen so you can rest assured that the precious memories stored on your electronic devices will be around for a very long time to come.

¹ Non-volatile memory semiconductors that retain stored data even when the power is switched off.