We found new clues in the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) database that Samsung might be developing one or two new storage solutions. One of the trademark applications suggests that Samsung is working on a follow-up to the 990 EVO SSD.
The latter is called 990 EVO Plus. The existing 990 EVO storage solution from Samsung, compatible with PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2 interfaces, was released at the beginning of the year as a more affordable alternative to the speedier 990 PRO SSD.
Samsung might now plan on closing the gap between the 990 EVO and the 990 PRO by releasing a 990 EVO Plus model. However, KIPRIS doesn't say anything about this new SSD's capabilities, so we can only guess what it might be judging by the trademarked moniker alone.
Mysterious 9100 PRO also gets trademarked
In addition to the 990 EVO Plus, Samsung also trademarked the 9100 PRO name at KIPRIS. The 9100 PRO doesn't follow Samsung's usual naming schemes for storage solutions, be it SSDs, USB sticks, or memory cards.
Nevertheless, the 9100 PRO and 990 EVO Plus share a few “Designated Goods” categories, including USB flash drives, NAND flash memory, data storage apparatus, SSD, and flash memory cards.
Unlike the 990 EVO Plus, the 9100 PRO application also includes designated goods such as semiconductor devices, semiconductors, semiconductor memories, and semiconductor memory units.
Designated goods categories at KIPRIS are often generalized, so this discrepancy doesn't confirm much. But one possible explanation as to why it exists might be that the 990 EVO Plus is an SSD and the 9100 PRO is an SSD component, like a memory chip.
All in all, Samsung appears to be preparing at least one new SSD for the consumer market. Trademark applications don't always reveal a company's launch plans, but given that the “EVO Plus” moniker has been used in the past for drives like the 970 EVO Plus, the chances that the 990 EVO Plus will become a real product seem high.
