Since the PCIe 5.0 specification was first released in 2019, new server processors supporting the interface, along with peripheral devices, have been introduced to the market one after another. In response to that rapid growth, Samsung Electronics recently developed the PM1743 – a high-performance PCIe 5.0 SSD based on the company’s advanced sixth-generation V-NAND. The new device will help process vast amounts of data more quickly as the increasing popularity of AI services drives market demand for high-performance servers.

Ushering in a new generation of solid-state storage, the PCIe 5.0 SSD is twice as fast as PCIe 4.0 drives, offering a bandwidth of 32 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) and featuring an EDSFF (E3.S) form factor with a thickness of 7.5mm. This allows for easy server scalability, while its enhanced power efficiency and advanced security and reliability support greater speed and accuracy. Together, these elements have the potential to make life and work a little better for everyone.

Incorporating the PM1743 into high-performance server systems maximizes systems’ efficiency and enables superfast data processing. This will not only help save time, but also enable convenient solutions to enhance our personal and professional lives.

The video below highlights how the PM1743 works and how it can help make work and life more comfortable. In a nutshell, the new SSD supports the fast and accurate analysis of huge amounts of data across a variety of fields including everything from smart farms to healthcare and finance.

“For over a decade, Samsung has been delivering SATA, SAS and PCIe-based SSDs that have been recognized for outstanding performance and reliability by leading enterprise server customers including corporations, governments and financial institutions,” said Yong Ho Song, Executive Vice President and Head of the Memory Controller Development Team at Samsung Electronics. “The introduction of our PCIe 5.0 SSD, along with PCIe 6.0-based product developments that are underway, will further solidify our technological leadership in the enterprise server market.”

“Intel has been working with Samsung to test Samsung’s newest PCIe NVMe SSD, the PM1743. Together, we have jointly resolved complicated technical issues encountered with PCIe 5.0 during this initial evaluation period. The performance potential of Gen5 is truly impressive. In the near future, we strongly believe that PCIe Gen5 systems with high-speed NVMe SSDs will have the ability to transform applications such as AI/ML and high-performance databases,” said Jim Pappas, Director, Technology Initiatives, Intel Corporation. “Looking ahead, we are confident that Intel and Samsung’s continued commitment in industry leadership will provide these and other benefits to our mutual customers.”

PCIe 5.0 offers a bandwidth of 32 gigatransfers per second (GT/s), doubling that of PCIe 4.0. Leveraging a proprietary controller designed to support the latest PCIe standard, the PM1743 will deliver outstanding read and write speeds to accommodate the rapidly increasing performance requirements of data centers.

Samsung’s PM1743 will feature a sequential read speed of up to 13,000 megabytes per second (MB/s) and a random read speed of 2,500K input/output operations per second (IOPS), offering 1.9x and 1.7x faster speeds over the previous PCIe 4.0-based products. Moreover, write speeds have been elevated significantly, with a sequential write speed of 6,600 MB/s and a random write speed of 250K IOPS, also delivering 1.7x and 1.9x faster speeds, respectively. These remarkable data transfer rates will allow enterprise server manufacturers deploying the PM1743 to enjoy a much higher level of performance.

In addition, the new SSD can provide improved power efficiency of up to 608 MB/s per watt, which represents about a 30% boost over the previous generation. This is expected to lower server and data center operating costs significantly, while also helping to reduce their carbon footprint.

Available in a wide variety of capacities from 1.92 terabytes (TB) to 15.36TB, the PM1743 will be offered in the conventional 2.5-inch form factor, as well as in a 3-inch EDSFF (E3.S) — an increasingly popular SSD form factor designed specifically for next-generation enterprise servers and data centers. Customers deploying 7.5mm EDSFF SSDs will be able to double the storage density in their systems, compared to when the 15mm 2.5-inch form factor is used. Coupled with excellent signal integrity and thermal efficiency, the EDSFF is ideal for most PCIe 5.0 enterprise solutions.

Furthermore, the PM1743 is expected to be the industry’s first PCIe 5.0 SSD with dual-port support, guaranteeing server operational stability and high availability when a connection to one port fails.

Recently, the importance of data security has been growing stronger in the enterprise server market. To ensure that these needs are addressed, Samsung’s PM1743 will implement advanced security features that were traditionally only available at the server level. By embedding a security processor and Root of Trust (RoT), the SSD will protect against security threats and data forgery to provide data confidentiality and integrity, while also enabling Secure Boot in server systems through attestation.

Samsung is now delivering samples of the PM1743 to global chipset and server manufacturers for joint system development. The company plans to begin mass producing the PM1743 in the first quarter of 2022, as it continues to foster a highly robust ecosystem for the new PCIe 5.0 standard.

The PM1743 has been designated a CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree in the category of Computer Hardware & Components.

^* This description has been updated for clarity.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced that it has started mass production of the industry’s first NVMe PCIe solid state drive (SSD) which has an M.2 form factor for use in PCs and workstations. Samsung is also the first in the industry to announce that it has begun shipping NVMe SSDs to OEMs for the PC market. The new SM951-NVMe features the industry’s most advanced performance figures, exceptionally low power use in standby mode and the most compact size of any NVMe SSD.

“Our new NVMe SSD will allow for faster, ultra-slim notebook PCs with extended battery use, while accelerating the adoption of NVMe SSDs within the consumer marketplace,” said Jeeho Baek, Senior Vice President of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to stay a critical step ahead of others in the industry in introducing a diversity of next-generation SSDs, that contribute to an enhanced user experience through rapid popularization of ultra-fast, highly energy-efficient, compact SSDs.”

Samsung has been offering an AHCI-based PCIe 3.0 version of its SM951 SSD since early January. Now, it has added an NVMe version to form an even stronger SSD portfolio. This follows a previous industry-first introduction of 2.5” NVMe SSDs for the server market in 2013.

The new NVMe-based SM951 SSD achieves sequential data read and write performance up to 2,260 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 1,600MB/s, respectively, while using Samsung’s leading-edge controller technology. These performance figures are the industry’s most advanced, with speeds four and three times faster than those of a typical SATA-based M.2 SSD which usually moves data at up to 540MB/s and 500MB/s, respectively.

The drive attains its high-speeds by using four 8 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) lanes (PCIe Gen 3.0 x4) of simultaneous data flow. This allows for a data transfer rate of 32Gbps and a maximum throughput of 4GB/s, giving the new drive a huge advantage over SATA-based M.2 SSDs, which can only transfer data up to 600MB/s.

When it comes to random read operations, the SM951-NVMe can process 300,000 IOPS (Input Output Per Second), which is more than twice as fast as the 130,000 IOPS rate of its AHCI-based equivalent and more than three times faster than the 97,000 IOPS of a SATA-based SSD.

Meeting all M.2 form factor requirements, the drive’s thickness does not exceed 4 millimeters, (3.73 millimeters maximum, when equipping chips on both sides of the board). This is less than the thickness of two stacked nickels. The drive also weighs less than 7 grams, which is lighter than two nickels and only a tenth the weight of a 2.5” SSD. Capacities are 512 gigabyte (GB), 256GB and 128GB.

In addition, the SM951-NVMe has adopted the L1.2 low-power standby mode (which allows all high-speed circuits to be turned off when a PC is on sleeping mode or in hibernation), as defined by PCI-SIG, the PCIe standards body. By embracing the L1.2 level of standby operation, the SM951’s power consumption is drastically reduced – to under 2mW, representing about a 97 percent decrease from the 50mW consumed using an L1 state, which is the most widely used low-power mode today.

In the future, Samsung plans to incorporate its next-generation 3D V-NAND technology into its NVMe SSD line-ups, which will enable even higher densities and performance. Samsung also will maintain a fast-to-market supply of advanced SSDs to meet increasing customer demand, as the company continues to lead the premium SSD market and aggressively innovates to expand the mainstream SSD segment.