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September 18, 2018

Samsung Electronics Begins Mass Production of First 4-bit Consumer SSD

The technology world will see its first ever 4-bit SSD in the near future for consumers to purchase.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., which is a world leader in advanced memory technology, has begun mass-producing the industry’s first 4-bit, QLC, quad-level cell, 4-terabyte (TB) SATA solid-state drive (SSD) for consumers.

The device is based on 1-terabit (Tb) V-NAND. It  will offer competitive performance. This smartphone can be compared to the company’s 3-bit design, Samsung’s QLC SSD. The newer device is expected to bring a new level of efficiency to consumer SSDs.

“Samsung’s new 4-bit SATA SSD will herald a massive move to terabyte-SSDs for consumers,” said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president of memory sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics. “As we expand our lineup across consumer segments and to the enterprise, 4-bit terabyte-SSD products will rapidly spread throughout the entire market.”

Accompanied with a new 1Tb 4-bit V-NAND chip, Samsung will be able to produce a 128GB memory card for smartphones that will lead toward higher capacities for high-performance memory storage. Data is often stored within a memory cell and is increased from three to four bits. This makes the chip capacity per unit area rise and the electrical charge, which is used to determine information from a sensor. The outcome would a decrease in capacity by as much as 50 percent. This allows the device to be considerably more difficult to maintain a device’s desired performance and speed.

Does this Samsung device maintain its performance? Samsung’s 4-bit 4TB QLC SATA SSD maintains its performance levels at the same level as a 3-bit SSD. The device accomplishes this by using a 3-bit SSD controller and TurboWrite technology, while increasing drive capacity through the use of 32 chips, all based on 64-layer fourth-generation 1Tb V-NAND.

The 4-bit QLC SSD enables a sequential read speed of 540 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 520 MB/s. The smartphone comes with a three-year warranty. Moving forward, Samsung hopes to introduce several 4-bit consumer SSDs later this year. They should be equipped with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities in the widely used 2.5-inch form factor.

Samsung Electronics expects to provide M.2 NVMe SSDs for the enterprise this year and begin mass production of 4-bit fifth-generation V-NAND. This will considerably expand its SSD lineup to meet the growing demand for faster, more reliable performance across a wide span of applications, such as next generation data centers, enterprise servers, and enterprise storage.

With Samsung’s new invention the technology world has moved forward in what can be expected from companies such as Samsung.


Chrissie Cluney has been a correspondent for IoT Evolution World since 2015. She holds a degree in English with a concentration in writing from the College of Saint Elizabeth.

Edited by Maurice Nagle


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