Samsung Launching Branded SSD with 3D V-NAND

Samsung announced on Tuesday the upcoming launch of the 850 Pro solid state drive that's based on the company's proprietary three-dimensional (3D) vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory technology. This new series will provide four capacities: 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB.

So what's the big deal about 3D V-NAND flash? Samsung reports that this tech overcomes the density limitations when using planar NAND architecture, which is found in conventional flash memory.

"3D V-NAND replaces 2D Planar NAND's conductor with an insulator that allows cells to hold their charges after writing data. Due to its vertical cell arrangement, Samsung's 3D V-NAND features a wider bit line, effectively removing cell-to-cell interference," explains the product page.

By stacking vertical layers in three dimensions, Samsung is able to increase its 24-layer products to 32-layer products. The company reports that the pattern limitation is eliminated by using stacking instead of photolithography to increase capacity. The benefits of using V-NAND include more power efficiency, speed, endurance and capacity.

According to the company, the new SSD line is ideal for high-end PCs and workstations. When connected to a SATA 3 (6 Gbps) interface, the series provides sequential read speeds up to 550 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 520 MB/s. As for random read performance, the new line provides up to 100,000 IOPS, while the random write speeds are up to 90,000 IOPS.

The new series also uses Samsung's Dynamic Thermal Guard, a feature that monitors and maintains the drive's optimal operating temperature. This is done by using a throttle that automatically drops the SSD's temperature while operating, preventing data loss due to overheating.

"You can kick up the read/write performance on every capacity when you need it with the RAPID mode," states the product page. "Just like shifting gears in a car, Magician software gives you the option to enhance performance by processing data on a system level using free PC memory (DRAM) as a cache. The 128 GB model, for example, is able to double its performance by using the V-NAND technology."

For more information about the new SSD 850 Pro series, head here. We have reached out to Samsung for the pricing and availability of all four models, so stay tuned.

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