Samsung Unveils High Performance PCIe 5.0 Enterprise SSD

Samsung new PM1743 drives are its first enterprise-grade SSDs with a PCIe 5.0 interface. The PM1743 drives promise to offer extreme sequential and random performance, robust security capabilities, reduced power consumption, and capacities of up to 15.36TB. Samsung intends to start mass production of PM1743 drives in Q1 2022, which indicates that the company aims to be among the first to offer SSDs for Intel's upcoming Xeon Scalable 'Sapphire Rapids' platform. Samsung have also said that PCIe 6.0 SSDs are in development. 

"Intel has been working with Samsung to test Samsung's newest PCIe NVMe SSD, the PM1743," said Jim Pappas, Director, Technology Initiatives, Intel Corporation. "Together, we have jointly resolved complicated technical issues encountered with PCIe 5.0 during this initial evaluation period. The performance potential of Gen5 is truly impressive. In the near future, we strongly believe that PCIe Gen5 systems with high-speed NVMe SSDs will have the ability to transform applications such as AI/ML and high-performance databases."

Samsung's PM1743 SSDs will be based on the company's next-generation proprietary controller supporting PCIe Gen5 interface as well as the company's 'next-generation' V-NAND memory. Though the manufacturer does not specify whether 'next-generation' means 7th Gen V-NAND with 176 layers or 6th Gen V-NAND with 128 layers, earlier this year it indicated that the drives will stick to the latter (see table below).

Samsung rates the new PM1743 drives with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface for up to 13 GB/s sustained sequential read speed as well as up to 6.6 GB/s sustained sequential write speed, which is 1.9 times faster compared to Samsung's existing PM1733 drives. As for random performance, Samsung claims that the new SSDs are capable of 2.5M random reads as well as 250K random writes, up 1.7x – 1.9x compared to the predecessor. The manufacturer also says that the PM1743 drives have a 'power efficiency of up to 608 MB/s per watt', which roughly translates to a 21.4W peak power consumption.  

Being aimed at enterprises, Samsung's PM1743 SSDs will be available in a traditional 2.5-inch / 15mm with dual-port support as well as in a new-generation E3.S (76 × 112.75 × 7.5mm) form-factor. Capacities of the new drives will range from 1.92TB to 15.36TB.

To improve security of the drive, Samsung's PM1743 come with an embedded security processor and Root of Trust (RoT) capability, though it is unclear whether both are integrated into the controller, or are enabled by a separate chip and firmware enhancements. 

Samsung's PM1743 SSDs are currently sampling with select customers and will enter mass production in Q1 2022 in a bid to be available widely in the second quarter, in time for the first Intel Xeon Scalable 'Sapphire Rapids'-based servers.