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.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, has announced new V-NAND (Vertical NAND) memory solutions and technology that will address the pressing requirements of next-generation data processing and storage systems. With the rapid increase of data-intensive applications across many industries using artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, the role of flash memory has become extremely critical in accelerating the speed at which information can be extracted for real-time analysis.

At the inaugural Samsung Tech Day* and this year’s Flash Memory Summit**, Samsung is showcasing solutions to address next-generation data processing challenges centered around the company’s latest V-NAND technology and an array of solid state drives (SSDs). These solutions will be at the forefront of enabling today’s most data-intensive tasks such as high-performance computing, machine learning, real-time analytics and parallel computing.

“Our new, highly advanced V-NAND technologies will offer smarter solutions for greater value by providing high data processing speeds, increased system scalability and ultra-low latency for today’s most demanding cloud-based applications,” said Gyoyoung Jin, executive vice president and head of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to pioneer flash innovation by leveraging our expertise in advanced 3D-NAND memory technology to significantly enhance the way in which information-rich data is processed.

Samsung Heralds Era of 1-Terabit (Tb) V-NAND Chip

Samsung announced a 1Tb V-NAND chip that it expects to be available next year. Initially mentioned in 2013, during unveiling of the industry’s first 3D NAND, Samsung has been working to enable its core memory technologies to realize one terabit of capacity on a single chip using a V-NAND structure.

The arrival of a 1Tb V-NAND chip next year will enable 2TB of memory in a single V-NAND package by stacking 16 1Tb dies and will represent one of the most important memory advances of the past decade.

NGSFF (Next Generation Small Form Factor) SSD to Improve Server Storage Capacity and IOPS

Samsung is sampling the industry’s first 16-terabyte (TB) NGSFF SSD, which will dramatically improve the memory storage capacity and IOPS (input/output operations per second) of today’s 1U rack servers. Measuring 30.5mm x 110mm x 4.38mm, the Samsung NGSFF SSD provides hyper-scale data center servers with substantially improved space utilization and scaling options.

Utilizing the new NGSFF drive instead of M.2 drives in a 1U server can increase the storage capacity of the system by four times. To highlight the advantages, Samsung demonstrated a reference server system that delivers 576TB in a 1U rack, using 36 16TB NGSFF SSDs. The 1U reference system can process about 10 million random read IOPS, which triples the IOPS performance of a 1U server equipped with 2.5-inch SSDs. A petabyte capacity can be achieved using only two of the 576TB systems.

Samsung plans to begin mass producing its first NGSFF SSDs in the fourth quarter of this year, while working to standardize the form factor with industry partners.

Z-SSD: Optimized for Systems Requiring Fast Memory Responsiveness

Following last year’s introduction of its Z-SSD technology, Samsung introduced its first Z-SSD product, the SZ985. Featuring ultra-low latency and high performance, the Z-SSD will be used in data centers and enterprise systems dealing with extremely large, data-intensive tasks such as real-time “big data” analytics and high-performance server caching. Samsung is collaborating with several of its customers on integrating the Z-SSD in upcoming applications.

The Samsung SZ985 requires only 15 microseconds of read latency time which is approximately a seventh of the read latency of an NVMe*** SSD. At the application level, the use of Samsung’s Z-SSDs can reduce system response time by up to 12 times, compared to using NVMe SSDs.

With its fast response time, the new Z-SSD will play a pivotal role in eliminating storage bottlenecks in the enterprise and in improving the total cost of ownership (TCO).

New Approach to Storage with Proprietary Key Value SSD Technology

Samsung also introduced a completely new technology called Key Value SSD. The name refers to a highly innovative method of processing complex data sets. With the sharply increasing use of social media services and IoT applications, which contribute to the creation of object data such as text, image, audio and video files, the complexity in processing this data increases substantially.

Today, SSDs convert object data of widely ranging sizes into data fragments of a specific size called “blocks.” The use of these blocks requires implementation processes consisting of LBA (logical block addressing) and PBA (physical block addressing) steps. However, Samsung’s new Key Value SSD technology allows SSDs to process data without converting it into blocks. Samsung’s Key Value instead assigns a ‘key’ or specific location to each ”value,” or piece of object data – regardless of its size. The key enables direct addressing of a data location, which in turn enables the storage to be scaled. Samsung’s Key Value technology enables SSDs to scale-up (vertically) and scale-out (horizontally) in performance and capacity. As a result, when data is read or written, a Key Value SSD can reduce redundant steps, which leads to faster data inputs and outputs, as well as increasing TCO and significantly extending the life of an SSD.

* Editor’s Note: Samsung Tech Day hosted at Samsung’s Silicon Valley headquarters on Monday August 7th, showcased “Samsung@the Heart of Storage” and provided insights into the company’s plans to deliver IT products that support the big data explosion, give greater access to massive real-time data sets, and provide real-time, fast data capabilities. The event also hosted an executive, customer and analyst panel, and displayed product demos across Samsung’s comprehensive product ecosystem.

** Editor’s Note: Flash Memory Summit (FMS), produced by Conference ConCepts, showcases the mainstream applications, key technologies and leading vendors that are driving the multi-billion dollar non-volatile memory and SSD markets. FMS is reportedly the world’s largest event featuring the trends, innovations, and influencers driving the adoption of flash memory in demanding enterprise storage applications, as well as in smartphones, tablets, and mobile and embedded systems. For more information, please visit at www.flashmemorysummit.com/

*** Editors’ Note: Often shortened as NVMe, NVM Express (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a high performance, scalable host controller interface with a streamlined ‘register and command’ set that has been optimized for enterprise and client systems using PCIe SSDs. For more information, please visit www.nvmexpress.org

At Flash Memory Summit 2016*, held in the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center, Samsung showcased its 4^th generation Vertical NAND (V-NAND) and a line-up of high-performance, high-capacity solid state drives (SSDs) available for its enterprise customers as well as Z-SSD, a new solution providing breakthrough performance for flash-based storage.

Samsung’s new flash storage devices are expected to contribute significantly to the global IT industry in meeting the growing storage requirements of today’s enterprise computing environment. These solutions will accommodate enormous amounts of data, and extremely high-speed information processing, while enhancing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for data centers.

“With our 4^th generation V-NAND technology, we can provide leading-edge differentiated values in high capacity, high performance and compact product dimensions, which together will contribute to our customers achieving better TCO results,” said Young-Hyun Jun, President of the Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to introduce more advanced V-NAND solutions and expand our flash business initiatives in maximizing an unbeatable combination of performance and value.”

Samsung’s 4^th Generation V-NAND Stacks 30 Percent More Layers of Cell-Arrays than its Predecessor

Samsung introduced its 4th generation, 64-layer triple-level-cell V-NAND flash memory that pushes the envelope of NAND scaling, performance and storage capacity. Stacking 64 layers of cell-arrays, the new V-NAND can increase its single-die density to an industry-leading 512Gb and its IO speed to 800Mbps, which further distinguishes Samsung’s technology leadership in three-dimensional NAND cell structure design and production. Starting in August 2013, Samsung has previously introduced three generations of “industry-first” V-NAND products with 24, 32 and 48-layer vertical cell-array stacking technologies.

Samsung plans to provide the world’s first 4^th generation V-NAND flash memory products in the fourth quarter of this year, which will help manufacturers to produce faster, more stylish and portable computing devices, while offering consumers a more responsive computing environment.

World Largest Capacity Drive − 32TB SAS SSD − for Enterprise Storage Systems

Samsung’s latest Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) SSD is the world largest single drive ever introduced to the industry based on 512-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND chips. A total of 512 V-NAND chips are stacked in 16 layers to form a 1-terabyte (TB) package and the 32-terabyte (TB) SSD contains 32 of those packages.

By adopting a new 4^th generation V-NAND design, the 32TB SAS SSD can reduce system space requirements up to 40 times compared with the same type of system using two racks of hard disk drives (HDDs). The 32TB SAS SSD will come in a 2-5-inch form factor and be produced in 2017. Samsung also expects that SSDs with more than 100TB of storage capacity will be available by 2020, thanks to continued refinement of V-NAND technology.

1TB Memory in a Single BGA Package

The Samsung 1TB BGA SSD features an extremely compact, ball grid array (BGA) package design that contains all essential SSD components including triple-level-cell V-NAND flash chips, LPDDR4 mobile DRAM and a state-of-the-art Samsung controller.

It will deliver unprecedented performance, reading sequentially at 1,500MB/s and writing sequentially at 900MB/s. By reducing its size up to 50 percent compared to its predecessor, the SSD weighs only about one gram (less than half the weight of a U.S. dime), making it ideal for ultra-compact next generation notebooks, tablets and convertibles.

Next year, Samsung plans to launch its 1TB BGA SSD by adopting a high-density packaging technology called “FO-PLP (Fan-out Panel Level Packaging)” which Samsung Electronics developed with Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

New ‘Z- SSD’ Breaks through Performance Limits of Current NAND Flash Memory Storage

Samsung has also developed a high performance, ultra-low latency SSD solution, the Z-SSD. Samsung’s Z-SSD shares the fundamental structure of V-NAND and has a unique circuit design and controller that can maximize performance, with four times faster latency and 1.6 times better sequential reading than the Samsung PM963 NVMe** SSD.

The Z-SSD will be used in systems that deal with extremely intensive real-time analysis as well as extending high performance to all types of workloads. It is expected to be released next year.

* Flash Memory Summit (FMS), produced by Conference ConCepts, showcases the mainstream applications, key technologies, and leading vendors that are driving the multi-billion dollar non-volatile memory and SSD markets. FMS is now the world’s largest event featuring the trends, innovations, and influencers driving the adoption of flash memory in demanding enterprise storage applications, as well as in smartphones, tablets, and mobile and embedded systems. For more information, please visit at www.flashmemorysummit.com/

** Often shortened as NVMe, NVM Express (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is an optimized, high performance, scalable host controller interface with a streamlined register interface and command set designed for enterprise and client systems that use PCIe SSDs. For more information, please visit www.nvmexpress.org