The latest news to come out of the memory segment focuses on next-generation memories that slot in-between NAND and DRAM. This is an interesting turn of events, but in all honesty we haven't even begun to completely reap the benefits of NAND-based storage. Competing new types of memory will be expensive in comparison to NAND, but luckily we're just hitting the sweet spot of NAND's developmental cycle as the cost continues to plummet.
To be more accurate, Samsung is hitting the sweet spot. They are, after all, the only manufacturer shipping 3D NAND. When Samsung's first generation 3D NAND emerged many of the competition countered that Samsung likely wasn't turning a profit, and supply would be limited.
Samsung is now onto its second-generation 32-layer V-NAND products, and already has the next, 48-layer generation locked and loaded. Samsung continues to enjoy the benefits of its early entrance into the 3D realm, and questions about profitability aren't really of concern to the end users as long as the product is competitively priced.
The SM863 wields the latest V-NAND and comes with the normal high performance and endurance we have come to expect from 3D NAND products, but it also offers a very competitive price point. This doesn't bode well for the competition.
3D NAND changes our expectations of performance, cost and density. Take a look at the future of enterprise SSD technology in our Samsung SM863 3D V-NAND Enterprise SSD Review at Tom's IT Pro.
Paul Alcorn is a Contributing Editor for Tom's IT Pro, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.
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