Samsung is the world’s biggest memory chip maker, and the company consistently keeps pushing the boundaries of technology to bring cutting-edge memory products. This time, however, the tech giant has outdone itself by developing a 256TB SSD. Yes, you've read it correctly. This is the first 256TB SSD in the industry, and Samsung has teased the latest product at Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2023 in California, USA.
Samsung announces the world's first 256TB SSD
As you might imagine, Samsung is aiming this 256TB SSD primarily at hyper-scale data centers. According to Samsung, it uses the 3D QLC NAND technology and consumes approximately seven times less power than stacking eight 32TB SSDs. The tech giant hasn’t revealed any other details about this flash drive. However, considering that it is made for data centers, it most likely has an ESDFF or NGSFF form factor.
For hyper-scale data centers, the storage density and power consumption of a flash drive matter a lot as they have limited physical space and are always looking for ways to cut down operating costs. Samsung’s 256TB SSD excels at both of these aspects. According to the company, this SSD has the industry’s highest level of integration density and, as mentioned earlier, consumes seven times lesser power than stacking eight 32TB SSDs.
Samsung PM9D3a PCIe 5.0 SSD announced
Along with the ground-breaking 256TB SSD, Samsung also announced PM9D3a SSD. This, too, is aimed at data centers. It comes as a successor to the PM9A3, which was announced last year. According to the company, the PM9D3a offers 2.3x higher sequential read, 2x higher random write speeds, and 60% better power efficiency compared to last year’s model. Additionally, it is claimed to have enhanced Telemetry and Debug functions.
Samsung says that PM9D3a will be available in capacities ranging from 3.84TB to 30.72TB in the first half of 2024. Unfortunately, the availability of the 256TB SSD is still under wraps. Samsung hasn't announced the pricing of either storage drive as companies typically don't reveal the prices of products aimed at commercial use to the public.
