“Representing the culmination of our SATA SSD line, the new 870 EVO delivers a compelling mix of performance, reliability and compatibility for casual laptop and desktop PC users as well as Network Attached Storage (NAS) users,” said KyuYoung Lee, vice president of Memory Brand Product Biz at Samsung Electronics.

The Samsung 870 EVO features the company’s latest V-NAND and controller, allowing it to reach the maximum SATA sequential read and write speeds of 560 and 530MB/s, respectively. Using a large variable SLC buffer, the drive’s Intelligent TurboWrite technology helps maintain its peak performance levels. The 870 EVO also delivers a nearly 38% improvement in random read speed over the previous 860 model,² enabling enhanced user experiences when multi-tasking, web browsing or simply booting up PCs.

Harnessing its accumulated experience and expertise in storage memory technologies, Samsung designs all SSD components in-house to ensure that every part works together cohesively. As a result, the 870 EVO offers around 30% improvement in sustained performance over the 860 EVO,³ as well as a class-leading terabytes written (TBW) rating of 2,400TB,⁴ or a 5-year limited warranty, for its 4TB model.⁵

In addition to exceptional performance and reliability, the 870 EVO provides broad compatibility with many computing devices and the most up-to-date PC features. The drive can be used with all devices that have 2.5-inch SATA interface connection. Moreover, with its power saving sleep mode, the 870 EVO is compatible with devices that support Window’s Modern Standby function, offering added convenience to PC users.⁶

The new 870 EVO is also designed with the environment in mind. By minimizing its carbon footprint throughout the entire production process, the drive expands consumer choice for greener products.

The Samsung 870 EVO carries a manufacturer’s suggested retail price that starts at $49.99 for the 250GB model. To find out more, please visit samsung.com/ssd or samsungssd.com.

Key Specifications:

¹ Sources: 850 EVO and 860 EVO series, NPD (US data from Jan. 2015 to Apr. 2020) and GfK (EU5 data from Jan. 2015 to Apr. 2020, China data from Sep. 2018 to Apr. 2020)

² Random performance improved up to 38% with QD1 Random read

³ Compared to the 250GB model

⁴ TBW ratings differ depending on model: 2TB = 1,200 TBW / 1TB = 600 TBW / 500GB = 300TBW / 250GB = 150TBW

⁵ Product guaranteed according to limited 5-year warranty or TBW rating, whichever comes first. For more information on warranty, please find the enclosed warranty statement in the package.

⁶ Modern Standby is supported by Windows 8 and 10. Use of Modern Standby is also contingent on PC and display meeting the feature’s requirements.

“By bringing cutting-edge 3D memory technology to volume production, we are able to introduce timely memory lineups that significantly raise the bar for speed and power efficiency,” said Kye Hyun Kyung, executive vice president of Solution Product & Development at Samsung Electronics. “With faster development cycles for next-generation V-NAND products, we plan to rapidly expand the markets for our high-speed, high-capacity 512Gb V-NAND-based solutions.”

The Only Single-stack 3D Memory Die With a 100+ Layer Design

Samsung’s sixth-generation V-NAND features the industry’s fastest data transfer rate, capitalizing on the company’s distinct manufacturing edge that is taking 3D memory to new heights.

Utilizing Samsung’s unique ‘channel hole etching’ technology, the new V-NAND adds around 40-percent more cells to the previous 9x-layer single-stack structure. This is achieved by building an electrically conductive mold stack comprised of 136 layers, then vertically piercing cylindrical holes from top to bottom, creating uniform 3D charge trap flash (CTF) cells.

As the mold stack in each cell area increases in height, NAND flash chips tend to become more vulnerable to errors and read latencies. To overcome such limitations, Samsung has incorporated a speed-optimized circuit design that allows it to achieve the fastest data transfer speed, at below 450 microseconds (μs) for write operations and below 45μs for reads. Compared to the previous generation, this represents a more than 10-percent improvement in performance, while power consumption is reduced by more than 15 percent.

Thanks to this speed-optimized design, Samsung will be able to offer next-generation V-NAND solutions with over 300 layers simply by mounting three of the current stacks, without compromising chip performance or reliability.

In addition, the number of channel holes required to create a 256Gb chip density has decreased to 670 million holes from over 930 million with the previous generation, enabling reduced chip sizes and less process steps. This brings a more than 20-percent improvement in manufacturing productivity.

Leveraging the high-speed and low-power features, Samsung plans to not only broaden the reach of its 3D V-NAND into areas like next-generation mobile devices and enterprise servers, but also into the automotive market where high reliability is extremely critical.

Following today’s introduction of the 250GB SSD, Samsung plans to offer 512Gb three-bit V-NAND SSD and eUFS in the second half of this year. The company also expects to expand production of higher-speed and greater-capacity sixth-generation V-NAND solutions at its Pyeongtaek (Korea) campus starting next year to better meet demand from global customers.

Reference: Samsung V-NAND Mass Production Timeline

Samsung Electronics the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry’s first 512-gigabyte (GB) embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) 3.0 for next-generation mobile devices. In line with the latest eUFS 3.0 specification, the new Samsung memory delivers twice the speed of the previous eUFS storage (eUFS 2.1), allowing mobile memory to support seamless user experiences in future smartphones with ultra-large high-resolution screens.

“Beginning mass production of our eUFS 3.0 lineup gives us a great advantage in the next-generation mobile market to which we are bringing a memory read speed that was before only available on ultra-slim laptops,” said Cheol Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “As we expand our eUFS 3.0 offerings, including a 1-Terabyte (TB) version later this year, we expect to play a major role in accelerating momentum within the premium mobile market.”

Samsung produced the industry-first UFS interface with eUFS 2.0 in January, 2015, which was 1.4 times faster than the mobile memory standard at that time, referred to as the embedded multi-media card (eMMC) 5.1. In just four years, the company’s newest eUFS 3.0 matches the performance of today’s ultra-slim notebooks.

Samsung’s 512GB eUFS 3.0 stacks eight of the company’s fifth-generation 512-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND die and integrates a high-performance controller. At 2,100 megabytes-per-second (MB/s), the new eUFS doubles the sequential read rate of Samsung’s latest eUFS memory (eUFS 2.1) which was announced in January. The new solution’s blazing read speed is four times faster than that of a SATA solid state drive (SSDs) and 20 times faster than a typical microSD card, allowing premium smartphones to transfer a Full HD movie to a PC in about three seconds*. In addition, the sequential write speed also has been improved by 50 percent to 410MB/s, which is equivalent to that of a SATA SSD.

The new memory’s random read and write speeds provide up to a 36-percent increase over the current eUFS 2.1 industry specification, at 63,000 and 68,000 Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS), respectively. With the significant gains in random read and writes that are more than 630 times faster than general microSD cards (100 IOPS), a number of complex applications can be simultaneously run, while achieving enhanced responsiveness, especially on the newest generation of mobile devices.

Following the 512GB eUFS 3.0 as well as a 128GB version that are both launching this month, Samsung plans to produce 1TB and 256GB models in the second half of the year, to further help global device manufacturers in better delivering tomorrow’s mobile innovations.

* The calculation is based on transferring a 3.7GB full HD movie file from a mobile device with the 512GB eUFS 3.0 to a PC with a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) interface SSD.

※ Reference: Comparison of Samsung’s internal memory performance

Unveiled at its annual Samsung Tech Day include:

• 7nm EUV process node from Samsung’s Foundry Business, providing significant strides forward in power, performance and area.
• SmartSSD, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) SSD, that will offer accelerated data processing and the ability to bypass server CPU limits.
• QLC-SSD for enterprise and datacenters that offer 33-percent more storage per cell than TLC-SSD, consolidating of storage footprints and improving total cost of ownership (TCO).
• 256-gigabyte (GB) 3DS (3-dimensional stacking) RDIMM (registered dual in-line memory module), based on 10nm-class 16-gigabit (Gb) DDR4 DRAM that will double current maximum capacity to deliver higher performance and lower power consumption.

“Samsung’s technology leadership and product breadth are unparalleled,” said JS Choi, President, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “Bringing 7nm EUV into production is an incredible achievement. Also, the announcements of SmartSSD and 256GB 3DS RDIMM represent performance and capacity breakthroughs that will continue to push compute boundaries. Together, these additions to Samsung’s comprehensive technology ecosystem will power the next generation of datacenters, high-performance computing (HPC), enterprise, artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging applications.”

Advanced Foundry Technology

Initial wafer production of Samsung’s 7nm LPP (Low Power Plus) EUV process node represents a major milestone in semiconductor fabrication. The 7LPP EUV process technology provides great advances, including a respective maximum of 40-percent area reduction, 50-percent dynamic power reduction and 20-percent performance increase over 10nm processes. The 7LPP process represents a clear demonstration of the foundry business’ technology roadmap evolution, providing Samsung’s customers a direct path forward to 3nm.

Powering Server-less Computing

Samsung enables the most advanced providers of server-less computing through products including the new SmartSSD, quad-level cell (QLC)-SSD, 256GB 3DS RDIMM as well as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) 2 Aquabolt. By accelerating data processing, bypassing server CPU limits and reducing power demands, these products will enable datacenter operators to continue to scale at faster speeds while containing costs.

Samsung’s industry-leading flash memory products for future datacenters will also include Key Value (KV)-SSD and Z-SSD. KV-SSD eliminates block storage inefficiency, reducing latency and allowing datacenter performance to scale evenly when CPU architectures max out. The company’s next-generation Z-SSD will be the fastest flash memory ever introduced, with dual port high availability, ultra-low latency and a U.2 form factor, designed to meet the emerging needs of enterprise clients. Z-SSD will also feature a PCIe Gen 4 interface with a blazing-fast 12-gigabytes-per-second (GB/s) sequential read, which is 20 times faster than today’s SATA SSD drives.

Accelerating Application Learning

A range of revolutionary Samsung solutions will enable the development of upcoming machine learning and AI technologies. The Tech Day AI display highlighted astounding data transfer speeds of 16Gb GDDR6 (64GB/s), ultra-low latency of Z-SSD and industry-leading performance of Aquabolt, which is the highest of any DRAM-based memory solution currently in the market. Together, these solutions help Samsung’s enterprise and datacenter clients open new doors to application learning and create the next wave of AI advancements.

Streamlining Data Flow

Samsung’s new solutions will enable not just faster speeds and higher performance but also improved efficiency for its enterprise clients. Enterprise products on display at Tech Day included D1Y 8Gb DDR4 Server DRAM, which incorporates the most advanced DRAM process, resulting in lower power usage. Samsung’s 256GB 3DS RDIMM also helps to improve enterprise performance and enables memory-intensive servers capable up to 16-terabytes (TB).

Additionally, Samsung’s dual-port x4 PCIe Gen 4 32TB SSD offers 10GB/s performance. Samsung’s 1Tb QLC-SSD presents a cutting-edge storage option for enterprise clients with competitive efficiency when compared to hard disk drives (HDD), while KV-SSD allows server performance to scale even as CPU architectures max out, also providing a competitive TCO, write amplification factor (WAF) improvement and scalability.

Breaking Performance Barriers

With their leading-edge specs, Samsung’s QLC-SSD, Z-SSD and 8GB Aquabolt help high-performance computing clients blast through performance barriers and reach new heights. The 8GB Aquabolt provides the fastest data transmission speed and highest performance of any DRAM-based memory solution on the market today at 307GB/s per HBM cube. QLC-SSD and Z-SSD, both powerful on their own, are also offered in a tiered storage solution that results in a 53-percent increase in overall system performance.

Enabling Future Innovation

Emerging tech requires the most innovative and flexible components. Samsung’s SmartSSD will increase speed and efficiency, and lower operating costs by pushing intelligence to where data lives.  Movement of data for processing has traditionally caused increased latency and energy consumption while reducing efficiency. Samsung’s new SmartSSDs will overcome these issues by incorporating an FPGA accelerator into the SSD unit. This allows for faster data processing through bypassing server CPU limits. As a result, SmartSSDs will have higher processing performance, improved time-to-insight, more virtual machines (VM), scalable performance, better de-duplication and compression, lower power usage and fewer CPUs per system.

Unparalleled Product Ecosystem

Samsung’s comprehensive product portfolio with state-of-the-art solutions set new standards for data processing speed, capacity, bandwidth and energy conservation. By leveraging such solutions, data centers, enterprise companies, hyper-scalers and emerging tech platforms are able to configure product solutions based on their requirements and develop exciting new tech offerings such as 5G, AI, enterprise and hyperscale data centers, automotive, networking and beyond.

Samsung will continue to push boundaries in tomorrow’s semiconductor technologies through innovations such as its sixth-generation V-NAND built on a single structure, or with ‘1-stack technology,’ and sub-10nm DRAM with EUV for super-high density and performance.

Experts across the industry, including Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, were invited at Samsung Tech Day to address the advancements and challenges in today’s semiconductor market, and offer insights for the future of semiconductors. More than 400 customers, partners and industry influencers attended the event.

This breakthrough was made possible by combining 32 of the new 1TB NAND flash packages, each comprised of 16 stacked layers of 512Gb V-NAND chips. These super-dense 1TB packages allow for approximately 5,700 5-gigabyte (GB), full HD movie files to be stored within a mere 2.5-inch storage device.

In addition to the doubled capacity, performance levels have risen significantly and are nearly twice that of Samsung’s previous generation high-capacity SAS SSD. Based on a 12Gb/s SAS interface, the new PM1643 drive features random read and write speeds of up to 400,000 IOPS and 50,000 IOPS, and sequential read and write speeds of up to 2,100MB/s and 1,700 MB/s, respectively. These represent approximately four times the random read performance and three times the sequential read performance of a typical 2.5-inch SATA SSD*.

“With our launch of the 30.72TB SSD, we are once again shattering the enterprise storage capacity barrier, and in the process, opening up new horizons for ultra-high capacity storage systems worldwide,” said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president, Memory Sales & Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to move aggressively in meeting the shifting demand toward SSDs over 10TB and at the same time, accelerating adoption of our trail-blazing storage solutions in a new age of enterprise systems.”

Samsung reached the new capacity and performance enhancements through several technology progressions in the design of its controller, DRAM packaging and associated software. Included in these advancements is a highly efficient controller architecture that integrates nine controllers from the previous high-capacity SSD lineup into a single package, enabling a greater amount of space within the SSD to be used for storage. The PM1643 drive also applies Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology to interconnect 8Gb DDR4 chips, creating 10 4GB TSV DRAM packages, totaling 40GB of DRAM. This marks the first time that TSV-applied DRAM has been used in an SSD.

Complementing the SSD’s hardware ingenuity is enhanced software that supports metadata protection as well as data retention and recovery from sudden power failures, and an error correction code (ECC) algorithm to ensure high reliability and minimal storage maintenance. Furthermore, the SSD provides a robust endurance level of one full drive write per day (DWPD), which translates into writing 30.72TB of data every day over the five-year warranty period without failure. The PM1643 also offers a mean time between failures (MTBF) of two million hours.

Samsung started manufacturing initial quantities of the 30.72TB SSDs in January and plans to expand the lineup later this year – with 15.36TB, 7.68TB, 3.84TB, 1.92TB, 960GB and 800GB versions – to further drive the growth of all-flash-arrays and accelerate the transition from hard disk drives (HDDs) to SSDs in the enterprise market. The wide range of models and much improved performance will be pivotal in meeting the growing storage needs in a host of market segments, including the government, financial services, healthcare, education, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, social media, business services, retail and communications sectors.

* Compared to 2.5-inch Samsung SSD 850 EVO