Samsung Starts Mass Production of PCle 5.0 PM9E1 SSD

[GFreeman]

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced it has begun mass producing PM9E1, a PCle 5.0 SSD with the industry's highest performance and largest capacity. Built on its in-house 5-nanometer (nm)-based controller and eighth-generation V-NAND (V8) technology, the PM9E1 will provide powerful performance and enhanced power efficiency, making it an optimal solution for on-device AI PCs. Key attributes in SSDs, including performance, storage capacity, power efficiency and security, have all been improved compared to its predecessor (PM9A1a).

"Our PM9E1 integrated with a 5 nm controller delivers industry-leading power efficiency and utmost performance validated by our key partners," said YongCheol Bae, Executive Vice President of Memory Product Planning at Samsung Electronics. "In the rapidly growing on-device AI era, Samsung's PM9E1 will offer a robust foundation for global customers to effectively plan their AI portfolios."



Thanks to the eight-channel PCIe 5.0 interface, the sequential read and write speeds of the new SSD have more than doubled compared to the previous generation, reaching up to 14.5 gigabytes-per-second (GB/s) and 13 GB/s, respectively. This powerful performance enables faster data transfer even with data-intensive AI applications, allowing a 14 GB large language model (LLM) to be transferred from the SSD to DRAM in less than a second.

The PM9E1 offers a range of storage options, including 512 GB, 1 terabyte (TB), 2 TB and the industry's largest capacity of 4 TB. The 4 TB option is especially an optimum solution for PC users in need of high-capacity storage for large-sized files such as AI-generated contents, data-heavy programs and high-resolution videos, as well as tasks that require intensive workloads such as gaming.

Additionally, the significantly improved power efficiency of over 50% allows for longer battery life which is ideal for on-device AI applications.

For stronger security measures, Samsung has applied Security Protocol and Data Model (SPDM) v1.2 to the PM9E1. The SPDM specification provides "Secure Channel," "Device Authentication" and "Firmware Tampering Attestation" technologies that can help prevent supply chain attacks involving forgery or manipulation of stored data in the product during production or distribution processes.

Starting with PM9E1, Samsung plans to expand its advanced SSD offerings to global PC makers and expects to launch PCIe 5.0-based consumer products in the future to solidify its leadership in the on-device AI market.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Oblivion-330]

Is this what we've all been waiting for? Pcie 5 4tb fast and power efficient?

 

[Wirko]

Is this what we've all been waiting for? Pcie 5 4tb fast and power efficient?

But not cheap. 600 € (baseline set by Crucial and Corsair) plus xxx € Samsung tax.

This specific SSD is an OEM model anyway, we need to wait a bit more for the retail model to arrive. (Perhaps it will be called 1080 PRO, so we can have a good laugh.)

 

[Ravenmaster]

If samsung can make a PCI-E 5.0 NVME SSD that doesn't overheat like every other brand right now, they'll be on to a winner

 

[low]

Almost every review test ssds at their rated PCIe speed. Why? Most likely the ssds wont performance that bad at lower PCIe speeds.

Set SSD to Gen3 and they wont heat up and you will not recognice any speed loss beside synthetic benchmarks.

 

[INSTG8R]

If samsung can make a PCI-E 5.0 NVME SSD that doesn't overheat like every other brand right now, they'll be on to a winner

Precisely my first thought. I’ve seen a few that have absolutely massive heat sinks on them…

I mean look at this monstrosity, if that is any indication of what it takes to keep them cool it certainly doesn’t really instil a lot of confidence…

 

[Bwaze]

"industry's largest capacity of 4 TB"

 

[starfals]

"industry's largest capacity of 4 TB"

View attachment 363945

End of 2023 and this whole year has been the start of 4TB SSDs. Until this time... they didn't even sell any here. I managed to finally buy one December last year. This year, i got another 1 and the price was even cheaper. Now we finally got 150-250 bucks 4TB drives. Its finally affordable and available. I dare say, 2024 is the year of the 4TB SSDs.

Yes, its not a ton, i got plenty of 15-20TB hard drives... more than 50TB in total. 4TB SSDs are nothing.. but its the best we got, progress wise. Rather have 4TB drive for 150 bucks than 600-1000 bucks 8TB. Cus you know, they will def price them that much. Samsung even does this with their horrible SATA SSDs right now, imagine gen 5 one with 15k speeds? That might even be 2000 lolol. Samsung loves to overprice things.

 

[Bwaze]

End of 2023 and this whole year has been the start of 4TB SSDs. Until this time... they didn't even sell any here. I managed to finally buy one December last year. This year, i got another 1 and the price was even cheaper. Now we finally got 150-250 bucks 4TB drives. Its finally affordable and available. I dare say, 2024 is the year of the 4TB SSDs.

Sorry, but no, 2024 is not "the year of 4 TB SSDs". They were available in 2018. That is 6 years ago!

And even if you somehow disregard the SATA drives, NVMe 4 TB drives have been here for years, and last year you could buy them for as low as 150, 160 EUR for months - something that is unimaginable now after price increases in the autumn of 2023.

So how again is 2024 better than 3023 for 4 TB SSDs?

 

[Igb]

End of 2023 and this whole year has been the start of 4TB SSDs. Until this time... they didn't even sell any here. I managed to finally buy one December last year. This year, i got another 1 and the price was even cheaper. Now we finally got 150-250 bucks 4TB drives. Its finally affordable and available. I dare say, 2024 is the year of the 4TB SSDs.

Yes, its not a ton, i got plenty of 15-20TB hard drives... more than 50TB in total. 4TB SSDs are nothing.. but its the best we got, progress wise. Rather have 4TB drive for 150 bucks than 600-1000 bucks 8TB. Cus you know, they will def price them that much. Samsung even does this with their horrible SATA SSDs right now, imagine gen 5 one with 15k speeds? That might even be 2000 lolol. Samsung loves to overprice things.

On mid 2023 4TB drives were already somewhat common, and not much more expensive than 2TB currently are after the price hike. Take this review from Aug 2023 as an example: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/lexar-nm790-4-tb/ You can see the launch price in the review aswell, it was hovering around 200€/$ for some months.

For me the point stands, it is laughable that 1-2TB is still being marketed as "the standard", whatever that means, by manufacturers, and 4-8TB as enthusiast-grade. Some price/performance models like the WD SN580 still lack the 4TB option, and a big part of the ones offering it are QLC drives with serious performance implications, specially given the price. So I don't think that 2024 is the year of 4TB SSDs. I hope 2025 will be.

Regards.

 

[Bwaze]

First consumer 4TB M.2 SSD drive was Sabrient
Rocket Q4 NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280. Back in....

2020!

The same year that gave us the first consumer 8TB drive, Samsung 870 QVO SSD 8TB SATA.

But we're still being shown those capacities as something just released, and people have a memory of a goldfish, or are actually too young to remember this?

 

[bonehead123]

the world leader in advanced memory technology

How can this be true, if it's taken them this long to make a 4TB, Gen 5 drive that isn't any faster/better than the ones that most other mfgr's have had out for over 2 years now ?

Sounds like the hype machine is alive & hopefully well paid at Sammy

 

[Bwaze]

Months ago several companies revealed their high capacity NAND flash memory plans, and how it's coming to consumer market:

SSDs are about to become massive, thanks to WD

Samsung to showcase record-smashing 280-layer QLC NAND flash memory chip — expect cheaper, large capacity SSDs

Kioxia Introduces Industry’s Highest Capacity 2Tb QLC Flash Memory with the Latest BiCS FLASH™ Technology

I wonder if that was released a bit too fast, if it was planned before all the demand for AI servers became noticeable, and now they changed plans? Who wants to deal with frugal consumer market that looks at every cent when you have largest investments in computing ever at hand?

 

[kapone32]

Meanwhile Games get bigger and bigger.

 

[Bwaze]

Not only games - all productivity also demands much more space.

Video is now done in 4K even for stuff that's gonna get compressed by streaming it on Youtube and similar, 50 - 100 megapixel mirrorless cameras are now accompanied by large 50 + megapixel phone cameras that can save raw files too, graphics is done in much higher res than it was, all the while storage in PC completely stagnates.

 

[Prima.Vera]

By now 8TB, 12TB and 16TB SSD drives should have been the norm for all SSD drives. Just like 1TB to be the standard storage for all smartphones out there.
Is just the callous greed and NOT the technology that are keeping those down...

 

[Bwaze]

I paid 165 EUR for my Super Talent Ultradrive ME 64GB SSD in 2009, and in the next 10 years the available size really exploded to 8TB! And now we are at more than 5 years of same available capacity - and that capacity still hasn't become widely available or affordable, and everyone acts like this is completely normal...

Imagine, from 64 GB to 8.000 GB in 10 years, that's 62% growth every year, we could be at:

2020: 13TB
2021: 21TB
2022: 34TB
2023: 55TB
2024: 89TB
2025: 144TB

You think we could get 1/10 of that in the next year, please?

 

[ymdhis]

If samsung can make a PCI-E 5.0 NVME SSD that doesn't overheat like every other brand right now, they'll be on to a winner

I have the 990 Pro + heatsink model and even that one overheats (70-74C, enough for throttling to kick in), and that was a PCIE 4.0 drive that I'm using on a PCIE 3.0 bus. The heatsink they put on them aren't worth jack.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

First consumer 4TB M.2 SSD drive was Sabrient
Rocket Q4 NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280. Back in....

2020!

Also and 8TB nvme in 21 of May 2020.

 

[persondb]

Set SSD to Gen3 and they wont heat up and you will not recognice any speed loss beside synthetic benchmarks.

Then why bother with buying a Gen 5 SSD at all? Just get a cheap Gen 3 or Gen 4 SSD in the first place.
Gen 4s are actually pretty affordable now.

 

[ToxicTaZ]

Too meany wrongs with these Samsung drives....PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Drive Should be minamal 2 Million IOPS with 8TB options.

Till then I'll stay with my two MSI Spatium M480 Pro 4TB, PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Drive with 1 Million IOPS and only 4TB.

Cheers

 

[Sarajiel]

SSDs are about to become massive, thanks to WD

Funny thing I've noticed is the new 8TB version of the SN850X that retails for €700 and still uses ancient 112 Layer (BiCS5) NAND.

I'm actually wondering why Lexar doesn't offer a 8TB variant of the NM790? It's a single-sided drive with a 4-channel controller, just switch to an 8-channel controller and populate the back of the PCB, seems easy.

Unless Samsung's new controller also increases the random 4k performance massively, nobody is willing to pay 100% or 150% more for a Gen5 drive over a Gen4 one. Not to mention that the increased write performance for Gen5 drives is almost completely pointless in the consumer space, where most folks probably end up near a 90:10 read:write split for most use cases like gaming, etc.

 

[low]

Then why bother with buying a Gen 5 SSD at all? Just get a cheap Gen 3 or Gen 4 SSD in the first place.
Gen 4s are actually pretty affordable now.

Last year i felt like smaug - with 30 ssds under my wing.