“As market demand for denser, greater-capacity storage pushes for higher V-NAND layer counts, Samsung has adopted its advanced 3D scaling technology to reduce surface area and height, while avoiding the cell-to-cell interference that normally occurs with scaling down,” said SungHoi Hur, Executive Vice President of Flash Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics. “Our eighth-generation V-NAND will help meet rapidly growing market demand and better position us to deliver more differentiated products and solutions, which will be at the very foundation of future storage innovations.”

Samsung was able to attain the industry’s highest bit density by significantly enhancing the bit productivity per wafer. Based on the Toggle DDR 5.0 interface* — the latest NAND flash standard — Samsung’s eighth-generation V-NAND features an input and output (I/O) speed of up to 2.4 gigabits per second (Gbps), a 1.2X boost over the previous generation. This will enable the new V-NAND to accommodate the performance requirements of PCIe 4.0, and later, PCIe 5.0.

The eighth-generation V-NAND is expected to serve as the cornerstone for storage configurations that help expand the storage capacity in next-generation enterprise servers, while extending its use into the automotive market where reliability is especially critical.

* Editor’s note: Toggle DDR interface generations — 1.0 (133Mbps), 2.0 (400Mbps), 3.0 (800Mbps), 4.0 (1,200Mbps), 5.0 (2,400Mbps)

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today unveiled an array of next-generation memory and storage technologies during Flash Memory Summit 2022, held at the Santa Clara (California) Convention Center, August 2-4. In a keynote titled “Memory Innovations Navigating the Big Data Era,” Samsung spotlighted four areas of technological advancement driving the big data market — data movement, data storage, data processing and data management — and revealed its leading-edge memory solutions addressing each field.

Petabyte Storage: Maximizing Server Utilization

To maximize data center efficiency in an increasingly data-driven world, Samsung introduced a next-generation storage technology, ‘Petabyte Storage.’ The new solution will allow a single server unit to pack more than one petabyte of storage, enabling server manufacturers to sharply increase their storage capacity within the same floor space with a minimal number of servers. High server utilization will also help to lower power consumption.

Memory-Semantic SSD: AI- and ML-Optimized Storage

Samsung announced its ‘Memory-semantic SSD’ that combines the benefits of storage and DRAM memory. Leveraging Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect technology and a built-in DRAM cache, Memory-semantic SSDs can achieve up to a 20x improvement in both random read speed and latency when used in AI and ML applications. Optimized to read and write small-sized data chunks at dramatically faster speeds, Samsung’s Memory-semantic SSDs will be ideal for the growing number of AI and ML workloads that require very fast processing of smaller data sets.

Telemetry: Enabling More Reliable Data Center Management

As SSDs become more widely adopted in data centers, technology to manage these storage drives with the highest degree of reliability is becoming increasingly critical. Samsung’s telemetry technology gathers human-readable metadata from key components inside customers’ SSDs such as NAND flash and DRAM as well as SSD controllers and firmware. Based on this broad set of telemetry information, data centers can detect and prevent any potential problems ahead of time, enabling a more reliable and efficient operation.

Updates to Prior Milestones

Additionally, Samsung informed its keynote audience of important product updates to previously-announced mobile storage and high-performance SSD milestones.

The industry’s first UFS 4.0 mobile storage, developed by Samsung in May, is scheduled to enter mass production this month. The new UFS 4.0 will be a critical component in flagship smartphones that require large amounts of data processing for features like high-resolution images and graphics-heavy mobile games, and will later be used in mobility, VR and AR.

Samsung also announced market availability of two enterprise SSDs. Its PM1743, a CES 2022 Innovation Awards honoree, is the industry’s first PCIe 5.0 SSD, while the PM1653 is the first 24G SAS SSD, both now in mass production. The company further highlighted its paradigm-shifting SmartSSD and CXL DRAM, which have been designed to avoid bottlenecks in current memory and storage architectures.

“The IT industry is facing a new set of challenges brought on by the explosive growth in big data, and this underscores the importance of a robust, cross-industry ecosystem,” said Jin-Hyeok Choi, keynote speaker and executive vice president of Memory Solution & Product Development at Samsung Electronics. “We are committed to developing transformative memory technologies that can bring far-reaching changes in how we move, store, process and manage data for future AI, ML and HPC applications, as we navigate these challenging tides together with industry partners.”

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is being recognized for its environmental reliability by receiving the industry’s first Environmental Product Declaration^* (EPD) certificate in Korea with its 512Gb 64-layer 3bit V-NAND and 860 EVO 4TB SSD.

The Environmental Product Declaration is a national certification system in Korea which recognizes a product’s performance according to seven key environmental metrics including carbon footprint, resource footprint, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical smog, and water footprint.

In terms of per capacity (gigabit), the carbon emission of the 512Gb 3-bit V-NAND has been reduced to less than half of that of the 10-nanometer (nm)-class 64Gb V-NAND that was certified last year.

An 8TB SSD composed with the 512Gb V-NAND can reduce approximately 240kg CO2 of carbon emission per year compared to a 8TB SSD product composed with the 64Gb NAND, producing the same effect as planting twenty-five 30-year-old trees^**.

“The EPD certification will serve as an assurance to our customers that Samsung’s high-capacity products offer not only cutting-edge technology, but also certified environmental reliability” said Mike Mang, Vice President of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung plans to begin mass production of 1Tb V-NAND in the future to lead the growth of the rapidly expanding ultrahigh-capacity storage market and strengthen its eco-friendly technology leadership.”

Samsung Electronics seeks to leverage its advancements in environmental reliability to lead the consumer market by exceeding customer expectations, just as it has continuously delivered in high performance and energy efficiency in the corporate SSD market.

Samsung earned its first low carbon footprint certification for the DDR3 DRAM server module in 2009 and had since expanded its environmental certification portfolio across its key products, including NAND flash, LPDDR, SSD, and application processors.

[Table] Carbon Footprint Comparison

^* The EPD certification is developed in accordance with the International Standards ISO 14000s (14025, 14044, 14046). The certification is managed by the Korean Ministry of Environment and operated by the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute.

^** The amount of carbon absorbed by an average 30-year-old tree in a year is 9.36 kg CO2.

Samsung Electronics announced a new suite of slim and sophisticated USB Flash Drives (UFD) available in three ergonomic form factors, each equipped with robust Samsung NAND flash technology.

The introduction of this product line now provides customers with a more complete menu of branded memory products available from Samsung that currently include, a full line of SD and microSD memory cards, internal SSDs and portable SSD products. All of the USB 3.0 drives are also compatible with USB 2.0 and come in metal-based design equipped with Samsung’s robust NAND flash and equipped with Samsung’s 5-proof technologies and a 5 year warranty commencing on the date of purchase.

“Launching the premium UFDs will provide a full lineup of external storage products that can be used with confidence for all our global customers.” said, Un-Soo Kim, Senior Vice President of Branded Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “Our customers now have a quality, one-stop-shop for all their memory needs.”

Samsung USB 3.0 flash drives come in three different form factors – Bar type as well as FIT and DUO types. The bar type offers a modern classy look with a light champagne colored, high-quality metal casing for added durability, and a streamlined spherical end for ergonomic experiences, which allow users to easily insert and extract the drive from devices and can double as a subtle key ring to help prevent loss. Measuring 40mm long and weighing under 9 grams, the drive is specifically designed for use in PC devices and is available in three capacities, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. The drive offers sequential read speed of up to 130MB/s, allowing users to download a 2.4GB full HD video or approximately 40 hours of mp3 music from the UFD to their device in less than 20seconds.

The Samsung USB 3.0 flash drive FIT is the most compact of Samsung’s new UFD lineups. It is designed for use in ultra-slim notebooks or in automobiles equipped with USB ports for data or music storage. The drive allows great portability and maintains streamlined edges of devices while providing an easy grip for removal. The FIT drive is less than 20mm long and weighs just over 2.0 grams and also offers sequential read speed of up to 130MB/s in both 32GB and 64GB capacities.

The Samsung USB 3.0 flash drive DUO is specifically designed for smartphone, tablet and PC users on the go who require added flexibility of an all-in-one solution for standard and micro USB ports. The DUO comes with a convenient attached cap that protects the micro USB. The drive provides sequential read speed of up to 130 MB/s and is compatible with Android devices with a micro USB 2.0 interface. The DUO drive is available in 32GB and 64GB capacities and is less than 37mm long and weighs less than 6 grams.

The Samsung 5-Proof technology guarantees each drive to withstand up to 72 hours in seawater and survive operating temperatures from -0°C to 60°C (32°F to 140°F). Data stored on the drives will not be affected by standard airport X-ray machines or extreme levels of shock up to 1,500g (gravitational force), and can resist up to 15,000 gauss magnetic force, which is the equivalent of a high-field MRI scanner.

A total of seven drives in different form factors and capacities will be available globally, including in Korea, the United States, China, Europe and other regions, further strengthening its presence in the global memory market. The drives will be also available in 128GB capacity in each form factor later this year.