Thursday, January 12th 2023

Samsung Electronics Unveils High-Performance PC SSD That Raises Everyday Computing and Gaming to a New Level

Samsung Electronics today announced production readiness of a high-performance PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, the PM9C1a. Integrated with a new controller based on Samsung's cutting-edge 5-nanometer (nm) process and the company's seventh-generation V-NAND technology, the PM9C1a will provide elevated computing and gaming performance in PCs and laptops.

"Our new PM9C1a SSD will deliver a robust combination of superior performance, greater power efficiency and increased security, which are the qualities that matter most to PC users," said Yong Ho Song, Executive Vice President of Memory Solution Product & Development at Samsung Electronics. "We are committed to creating storage that satisfies the diverse and changing market requirements as we continue to advance innovation in the PC SSD space."
With top-tier speeds, the PM9C1a SSD is ideal for everyday use as well as for more demanding computing and gaming applications. Leveraging the PCIe 4.0 interface, Samsung's PM9C1a boasts a 1.6x faster sequential read speed and a 1.8x faster sequential write speed than its previous storage offering (PM9B1), reaching 6,000 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 5,600 MB/s, respectively. Additionally, random read and write speeds can support up to 900K input/output operations per second (IOPS) and 1,000K IOPS, respectively.

The PM9C1a also offers up to 70% more power efficiency per watt than its predecessor. This means the new SSD can handle the same amount of tasks using significantly less power. Furthermore, when a notebook PC goes into standby mode, the SSD will use approximately 10% less power.

To address the rising need for stronger security measures, the PM9C1a features powerful security. The SSD supports the Device Identifier Composition Engine (DICE) security standard created by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), a global organization that develops open standards for computing security. DICE securely generates cryptographic keys inside the SSD, providing device authentication to protect against supply chain attacks—cyberattacks that target companies through vulnerabilities in their supplier network—as well as attestation to prevent any firmware tampering.

Samsung's PM9C1a SSDs will be available in 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB storage capacities in a M.2 form factor (22 mm x 30 mm, 22 mm x 42 mm, 22 mm x 80 mm).
Source: Samsung
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34 Comments on Samsung Electronics Unveils High-Performance PC SSD That Raises Everyday Computing and Gaming to a New Level

#1
GamerGuy
Bah, 1TB isn't big enough for storing games, which is my main use of storage devices....when there's a 2TB and higher model, I might circle back to take a look. But only if it's priced decently, and NOT exorbitantly as is the norm for newer SSDs.
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#2
Assimilator
I know PCIe 5.0 is overkill for SSDs, but releasing a new PCIe 4.0 controller at this time seems like a really poor decision. Of course, Samsung being Samsung, it'll be horrendously overpriced for almost no performance benefit but the fanboys will buy it in droves.
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#3
Wirko
There's no mention of it being OEM only but Samsung would not name a retail product "PM9C1a" or "PM9B1". So it's not a retail product.
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#4
noname00
I don't see a dram chip. I'm curious how these drives would compare to a dram SSD and if these drives actually work at the specified IOPS
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#5
bug
I all looked fine until the last paragraph :(

Probably an OEM part for ultra-portables.
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#6
Chrispy_
Bold claims, but even Intel Optane with orders-of-magnitude lower latencies and higher IOPS failed to make a significant dent in application and OS responsiveness for 99% of the user experience.

Storage performance hasn't been the problem for at least a decade now; It's down to software developers to fix the bottlenecks in the OS and applications,
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#7
Wirko
AssimilatorI know PCIe 5.0 is overkill for SSDs, but releasing a new PCIe 4.0 controller at this time seems like a really poor decision.
Why? Hundreds of millions more PCIe 4.0 SSDs will be made in the next couple years before 4.0 becomes obsolete. Samsung also didn't put huge efforts into developing this "new" controller, why would they, they just shrank and tweaked what they already have.
Chrispy_Storage performance hasn't been the problem for at least a decade now; It's down to software developers to fix the bottlenecks in the OS and applications,
That's what I've been saying too. Poor SSD performance in random reads without queueing? Improve the queueing!
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#8
Bwaze
WirkoThere's no mention of it being OEM only but Samsung would not name a retail product "PM9C1a" or "PM9B1". So it's not a retail product.
They didn't prepare anything else for CES, so they went with this presentation. Still better than companies that hype a product at CES or other shows, "to be released later in year", and then just never mention it again. :p
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#9
TheLostSwede
News Editor
WirkoThere's no mention of it being OEM only but Samsung would not name a retail product "PM9C1a" or "PM9B1". So it's not a retail product.
These are indeed OEM drives.
noname00I don't see a dram chip. I'm curious how these drives would compare to a dram SSD and if these drives actually work at the specified IOPS
Yes, these are DRAM-less drives.
BwazeThey didn't prepare anything else for CES, so they went with this presentation. Still better than companies that hype a product at CES or other shows, "to be released later in year", and then just never mention it again. :p
This is not CES news, the pressrelease had today's date.
BwazeThey didn't prepare anything else for CES, so they went with this presentation. Still better than companies that hype a product at CES or other shows, "to be released later in year", and then just never mention it again. :p
This is not CES news, the pressrelease had today's date.
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#10
bug
WirkoThat's what I've been saying too. Poor SSD performance in random reads without queueing? Improve the queueing!
Think a little about what you wrote. If you have many random reads, you can probably issue them all at once so they'll be queued up properly. But what if the 2nd read depends on the result of the 1st read? You can't mutithread/queue that properly. As for writes, you can hold them back until you have enough of them to issue. But what do you do in the case of a power loss?

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are a lot of software inefficiency to get rid of. But "improve the queueing" is not the miracle solution here.
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#11
TumbleGeorge
TheLostSwede256 GB, 512 GB
I am extremely disappointed that in 2023, production capacity continues to be wasted, for SSDs with such small volumes.
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#12
bug
TumbleGeorgeI am extremely disappointed that in 2023, production capacity continues to be wasted, for SSDs with such small volumes.
What production capacity? It's the same flash chips, you just put fewer of them on the PCB.
Admittedly, 256GB is a tad low. But both my OS drives are 512GB and they work just fine.
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#13
Chrispy_
WirkoWhy? Hundreds of millions more PCIe 4.0 SSDs will be made in the next couple years before 4.0 becomes obsolete. Samsung also didn't put huge efforts into developing this "new" controller, why would they, they just shrank and tweaked what they already have.


That's what I've been saying too. Poor SSD performance in random reads without queueing? Improve the queueing!
It's not even storage bottlenecks. You can watch something "load" in process explorer/task manager and it's sat there with minimal CPU load, unchanging RAM usage, zero disk activity and minimal network activity.

Likely it's pulling something off the web, waiting for a web response or searching the registry for something that could have been checked prior. Either that or it's stuck waiting for a timeout before continuing, a timeout that's necessary because services/drivers that it depends on are needlessly sluggish and incapable of being run alongside other threads in parallel.

It's unbelievably rare that any consumer OS or applications reach the sequential Q1T1 IOPS limit of a modern SSD. Even bad SATA drives from a decade ago can reach 4K IOPS and that's plenty to expose the dumb, unoptimised way the software and the OS are written as the weak links.
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#14
TumbleGeorge
bugWhat production capacity? It's the same flash chips, you just put fewer of them on the PCB.
Admittedly, 256GB is a tad low. But both my OS drives are 512GB and they work just fine.
On the same assembly lines that can produce significantly higher capacity devices. It's time, if anyone at all cares about continuing to produce such small SSDs (of which there are already probably a trillion tons in stock), to simply put that production in the hands of garage manufacturers.
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#15
delshay
GamerGuyBah, 1TB isn't big enough for storing games, which is my main use of storage devices....when there's a 2TB and higher model, I might circle back to take a look. But only if it's priced decently, and NOT exorbitantly as is the norm for newer SSDs.
2TB is too small now. There are old & some new upcoming games that easily exceed 100GB when you have 4 or even 8K texture.
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#16
bug
delshay2TB is too small now. There are old & some new upcoming games that easily exceed 100GB when you have 4 or even 8K texture.
I can go into any image editor and create an image that larger than 16TB. Does that mean 16TB is too small now?
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#17
delshay
bugI can go into any image editor and create an image that larger than 16TB. Does that mean 16TB is too small now?
16TB is more than enough. I have 2TB SSD & I'm having to uninstall games just to install new one. I don't like uninstalling the games as they are still getting patches/updates, so it's a pain to juggle them around.
4TB SSD will simple fix my issues, but look at some of the upcoming games, 100GB+ due-to more users moving to 4K.

I've also been watching a number of LIVE game-play on Youtube RTX 4090 owners @8K. ..Very impressed 8K max settings around 60FPS.
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#18
Arco
delshay16TB is more than enough. I have 2TB SSD & I'm having to uninstall games just to install new one. I don't like uninstalling the games as they are still getting patches/updates, so it's a pain to juggle them around.
4TB SSD will simple fix my issues, but look at some of the upcoming games, 100GB+ due-to more users moving to 4K.

I've also been watching a number of LIVE game-play on Youtube RTX 4090 owners @8K. ..Very impressed 8K max settings around 60FPS.
My current plan is to keep 100-200 GB free. I'll put any games that don't need the speed on an HDD.
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#19
delshay
ArcoMy current plan is to keep 100-200 GB free. I'll put any games that don't need the speed on an HDD.
For SSD Samsung software recommend 10% of total capacity to be free. If this is the case then it must more or less apply to most SSD. ..In my case it already shows 190GB is used for Over Provisioning which is free unusable space.
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#20
bug
delshay16TB is more than enough. I have 2TB SSD & I'm having to uninstall games just to install new one. I don't like uninstalling the games as they are still getting patches/updates, so it's a pain to juggle them around.
4TB SSD will simple fix my issues, but look at some of the upcoming games, 100GB+ due-to more users moving to 4K.

I've also been watching a number of LIVE game-play on Youtube RTX 4090 owners @8K. ..Very impressed 8K max settings around 60FPS.
Maybe you want to rephrase that: 2TB is too small if you're a gamer that insists on installing many huge games at the same time.

Funny thing is, many games are fine on a HDD anyway. HDDs are also pretty good at sequential reads. I mean, they don't touch NVMe, but they will pretty much use everything SATA/AHCI offers.
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#21
trsttte
WirkoThere's no mention of it being OEM only but Samsung would not name a retail product "PM9C1a" or "PM9B1". So it's not a retail product.
You can still find them available in some places, might even have a better price depending on current discounts on the 980/990 pro or whatever this one is based off. In the past the only loss was the samsung ssd utility with firmware update notifications, this should be about the same
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#22
delshay
bugMaybe you want to rephrase that: 2TB is too small if you're a gamer that insists on installing many huge games at the same time.

Funny thing is, many games are fine on a HDD anyway. HDDs are also pretty good at sequential reads. I mean, they don't touch NVMe, but they will pretty much use everything SATA/AHCI offers.
Perhaps it's my way of saying I hate uninstalling games when it still receives patches/updates. 2TB not enough space, At some point I will move to 4TB SSD.

As for HDD, some of my games are backed up on these, but most back-ups are on 2TB Portable USB SSD.
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#23
TumbleGeorge
I don't know why, but many modern games are now released with recommended SSD requirements, I even remember some games where even this is part of the minimum requirements. Which still seems crazy to me, but I don't rule out in the not-so-distant future that an SSD will become a requirement for all locally installed games. And for saving games of hundreds of gigabytes on the HDD, I think the time and noise when saving, affects the nerves badly.
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#24
Nuke Dukem
delshay16TB is more than enough. I have 2TB SSD & I'm having to uninstall games just to install new one. I don't like uninstalling the games as they are still getting patches/updates, so it's a pain to juggle them around.
4TB SSD will simple fix my issues
Come on, I like games as much as the next guy, but how many games can you realistically juggle at the same time? If you have 15-20 fat games to get you through the day (even assuming all you do is play and you have no life outside of your damn living room) and yet you somehow feel that this isn't enough, then I think the problem lies between your ears rather than in your PC.
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#25
FeelinFroggy
delshay2TB is too small now. There are old & some new upcoming games that easily exceed 100GB when you have 4 or even 8K texture.
Even at 100gb, that is still 15 games on a 2tb drive. Do you play that many games at once? I am sure my gaming is different as I like a lot of single player RPG, but usually I have a max of 5 games running in my rotation. It's more than likely 2-3.
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