Nearly two years ago, Samsung launched their Samsung 960 PRO and 960 EVO to major fanfare. These two juggernaut introductions in addition to their enterprise cousins further established Samsung’s position as the undisputed leader in M.2 form-factor NVMe SSDs. At the time, the industry had been facing a massive shortage of NAND which slowed down product introductions across the board, but as NAND supply has finally begun stabilizing, companies are now finally introducing some new products to once again reignite demand.

Recently, Samsung launched the Samsung 970 EVO and the Samsung 970 PRO which will replace the aging Samsung 960 [...]

After the successful release of the Force MP500 PCIe SSD earlier this year, Corsair is adding another PCIe SSD to the mix with the new Corsair Neutron NX500.

The new SSD will be available in capacities of 400GB, 800GB, and 1600GB will come in an HHHL form factor and feature support for NVMe over a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. Performance of the Neutron NX500 is rated at up to 3,000/2,400 MB/s sequential reads/writes and 300K/270K IOPS 4K random reads/writes. The NX500 will also feature MLC NAND for greater performance and reliability compared to TLC NAND.

The Corsair NX500 400GB and 800GB capacity drives are now available with the 1,600GB capacity drive available [...]

For FMS 2017, Samsung shared several new releases along with its SSD/NAND flash roadmap for the coming years. Among the new releases include Samsung’s 96-Layer QLC (Quad Level Cell) NAND and a few new enterprise SSDs.

64-Layer 3D V-NAND Transition

Samsung is already transitioning its entire line of products to utilize 4th Generation 64-layer 3D V-NAND. Their 64-Layer 3D V-NAND has been in mass production since June of this year and promises to be 30% faster, 30% more power efficient, and 20% more reliable than previous generation 48-layer 3D V-NAND.

This could potentially mean that Samsung’s successor to the 960 Pro and 960 Evo [...]

Phison today launched their new Phison PS8313 UFS 2.1 controller at FMS 2017.

Designed for top tier mobile chipsets and smartphones, the Phison PS8313 integrates their CoXProcessor 2.0 architecture currently used on Phison’s PCIe controllers for improved performance and reliability in the UFS standard. The PS8313 controller also features use of an advanced 28nm manufacturing process, a 2-lane UFS interface, an ultra compact and low power LDPC ECC engine and support for the latest 3D TLC NAND.

According to Phison’s internal testing, the PS8313 is capable of up to 920/550 MB/s sequential reads/writes and 67K/62K IOPS 4K random read performance when [...]

To meet the capacity and performance demands of the rapidly developing IoT industry, Toshiba is introducing the BG3 SDD, a tiny, single-package SSD for thinner, more reliable mobile and embedded devices.

As the successor to the BG2, the BG3 uses Toshiba’s 64-layer TLC NAND for higher storage density per drive. It also features a DRAM-less design for better power consumption, lower cost, and a smaller footprint.

Utilizing two PCIe 3.0 lanes and Toshiba’s in-house controller, the BG3 can achieve sequential read/write speeds of up to 1,520MB/840MB/s respectively. The BG3 also has an SLC caching feature which can boost performance when the drive [...]

Despite the global NAND shortage and the financial troubles Toshiba is experiencing as of late, the company recently announced the new TR200 SSD featuring their latest 64-Layer BiCS TLC 3D NAND.

The new Toshiba TR200 will be available in capacities of 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. Performance is rated at up to 550MB/s sequential reads and 525MB/s sequential writes. 4K performance is rated at up to 80K/87K IOPS random reads/writes. The drive will feature an endurance of 60-240TBW and a warranty period of 3 years.

The Toshiba TR200 is expected to be showcased at the ChinaJoy show in Shanghai, China from July 27 to July 30, then at GamesCon in Cologne, Germany [...]

Samsung announced today that its new fab in Pyeongtaek, South Korea has entered mass production and is shipping its first products to customers. The newly-opened plant which will be the largest single fab in the industry will focus on production of Samsung’s latest 4th generation, 64-layer 3D V-NAND. Samsung’s 64-layer TLC 3D NAND enables capacities of up to 256Gbit per chip bringing increased performance and storage capacity to consumer and enterprise devices. The new factory represents a major step towards Samsung’s goal of shifting 50% of its production to 64-Layer 3D NAND by the end of this year.

Within the next four years, Samsung is also [...]

Over the past few months, there hasn’t been a whole lot of good news coming out of Toshiba, but here’s a recent announcement that I think we can all appreciate. In a recent announcement, Toshiba shared news that they’ve developed the industry’s first 4-bit per cell, Quad Level Cell (QLC) BiCS NAND flash memory chips.

The new QLC NAND features a 64-layer cell structure and boasts up to 768Gbit / 96GB per die making it currently the densest dies on the market. By using 16 dies, Toshiba is able to cram as much as 1.5 TB in a single package. This is a 50% increase over a comparable TLC NAND package with the same number of dies.

“From SLC to [...]

SK Hynix is making some major advances in NAND technology as it recently announced its first 256Gb 72-layer TLC 3D NAND flash memory. SK Hynix’s 72-layer 3D NAND follows their 48-layer 3D NAND product which was released just five months ago in November 2016.

According to SK Hynix, the new 72-layer TLC 3D NAND is capable of utilizing existing manufacturing lines allowing for 30% better manufacturing efficiency, 2x faster internal operation speed, 20% higher performance, and 1.5x cell density over previous generation 48-Layer 3D NAND.

The new SK Hynix 72-layer 3D NAND will go into mass production in the 2H2017 initially targeting business use. The company [...]

Several years ago, Samsung made their first introduction into the branded memory card space with their EVO and PRO lineup of memory cards and quickly dominated the space thanks to its great performance, reasonable pricing, and strong brand.

Following the introduction of the EVO and PRO memory card lines, Samsung also introduced the EVO Plus and PRO Plus lineup of memory cards back in 2015 to offer consumers a memory card that offers better performance and higher capacities than its predecessors. Although the EVO Plus and PRO Plus memory cards were already a great choice for customers, advancements have been made in NAND flash memory [...]