A New Generation and Storage Technology to Supercharge the Cloud

The newest advancement in storage comes in the form of the Samsung PM1733, the company’s first enterprise-class dual-port solid-state drive supporting PCIe Gen4. It takes SSD performance to a whole new level and takes advantage of the latest version of the industry’s interface standard. The industry leadership of the 15.36TB PM1733 SSD was recently consolidated following its recognition at the CES 2020 Innovation Awards. It brings a host of improvements such as speed that is more than double that of the previous generation. In developing the PM1733, Samsung provides a window into the future where high speed data storage will always need to grow in line with customer expectations. Building better bridges So, what makes the PM1733 special? By making use of PCIe, PM1733 is built on what is widely regarded as a highly suitable interface for completing various tasks. Interfaces are used as the bridge to connect internal computer components together or to the motherboard. Think about the way structural bridges connect landmasses and enable traffic flow between them. Interfaces such as PCIe essentially do the same thing. The powerful interface and the advanced technology from Samsung position the PM1733 as an invaluable solution that is changing the way businesses create cloud applications – particularly now that 5G has opened new realms of possibility. Since its introduction to the market in 2003, PCIe has gone through four iterations, each with its own boost in data transfer speed. In the case of PCIe Gen4, the improvements include a bandwidth which is up to twice the size of Gen3 – 16GT/s per lane this time around. That means that with four lanes, PCIe Gen4 can potentially transfer data at around 8GB/s – twice the rate of the previous generation. The technology also allows for increased power efficiency. The PM1733 is the leading PCIe Gen4-supporting SSD through the development of Samsung’s own PCIe Gen4 CTRL. Exceeding the specifications of what was possible with Gen3, the PM1733 has a sequential read operation speed of up to 7 GB/s and a sequential write speed as high as 3.8 GB/s. The random read speed reaches as high as 1,500K IOPS, and the random write speed is up to 135K IOPS (according to the general test standard). The PM1733 comes as an NVMe SSD with a capacity ranging from 1.92TB to 15.36TB in a U.2 form factor. Plans are in place to support the new E1.S and E3.S form factors soon. This can facilitate disk endurance of up to 1DWPD for as long as five years, which satisfies the needs of a variety of different customers worldwide. By developing a PCIe Gen4 SSD, Samsung also established the PCIe Gen4 ecosystem. The PCIe Gen4 era has now arrived in the storage market and as a company with a heritage in SSD innovation, Samsung has a strong hand in building the future. Speed and scale One of the biggest endorsements of the reliability of Samsung’s PM1733 is large scale deployment among world-leading data-centers. Samsung is working in partnership with businesses to enable the PM1733 to be tested, manufactured at scale, and implemented in order to ramp up the quality of the cloud offerings they already offer to customers. As firms increasingly move more of their business to the cloud and big data centers become cloud data centers, it is important that the infrastructure is already in place to use PCIe Gen4 to its full potential. This includes supporting the high-performance SSD needs of the top cloud service providers with the PM1733. But it also includes collaborating on joint projects to build out the wider infrastructure that benefits more people. Not only has Samsung worked to deliver compatibility with Intel and AMD CPUs, the company has also completed PCIe Gen4 verification with select switch and retimer companies, establishing a PCIe Gen4 ecosystem. By working with those same select companies, Samsung also established an ecosystem of data centers and servers. From here, Samsung will continue to prepare new SSD products to meet the diversity of data center applications, especially those based on PCIe Gen4. But with this level of collaboration, the future doesn’t just belong to Samsung, it belongs to the wider industry as well who innovates in the cloud using PCIe Gen4. Samsung’s PM1733 is a state of the art PCIe Gen4 SSD. It’s a powerful solution to the industry’s search for fast speeds and reliability. And whether it’s for people looking for a better gaming experience, more immersive virtual interactions or just more agile data centers, Samsung is creating storage that will ultimately open up new revenue streams for businesses.