Samsung is using a PCIe x4 connection here, which gives upwards of 4GB/sec of bus bandwidth Samsung’s official ratings are up to 2.5GB/sec reads, but this is still a large jump compared to the 600MB/sec limit imposed by SATA. capacity versus their current M.2 planar drives.īut compared to the 850 Pro in particular, we’re also seeing a shift from SATA to PCIe, which will significantly boost performance in this product segment. The die size difference between Samsung’s 32-layer V-NAND and the smallest planar nodes is not overwhelming, but it will still help to push the envelope on price vs. V-NAND in turn further improves Samsung’s ability to scale up NAND density, and by extension bring down costs for any given capacity. As we’ve seen with the NVMe SM951, just the switch to NVMe with planar NAND has greatly improved small I/O latency while also improving overall I/O consistency.
The release of a V-NAND plus NVMe drive has been a long time coming, and should confer both performance and cost improvements. And in the interim Samsung has announced the enterprise-level PM953, a drive which combines TLC V-NAND with NVMe, however as we still don’t have a release date for that drive it looks like the 950 Pro will be the first such drive to actually ship out of Samsung’s entire product lineup, never mind the consumer lineup. Alternatively Samsung offers NVMe drives to OEMs in the form of the SM951-NVMe, however this drive is built with planar NAND. Until now Samsung has offered V-NAND based drives using AHCI, such as the current 850 Pro. The 950 Pro is in turn the first SSD shipping from Samsung that combines the company’s V-NAND technology with NVMe protocol support. As a result the 950 Pro comes as a M.2 2280 drive, what is quickly becoming the common size for “full size” laptop SSDs. The 950 Pro marks Samsung’s transition from SATA to PCIe for their flagship consumer drive, and in doing so shifting the primary form factor from 2.5” to M.2.
So let’s start with the base specifications.
Consequently for Samsung, they are going all-in on all of those major transitions at once with the 950 Pro. The 950 Pro comes at an interesting time for Samsung and the industry as a whole, as we’re in the midst of many transitions: SATA to PCIe, AHCI to NVMe, and planar NAND to 3D/V-NAND. To jump right into matters then, the centerpiece of Samsung’s consumer announcements today is the 950 Pro SSD, the latest iteration of the company’s flagship consumer SSD. This event is typically held mid-summer, however with MERS concerns in South Korea this year, the company held off on the event until now. We’re here at Samsung’s SSD Global Summit, the company’s annual SSD technology reveal.
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