Samsung to launch enterprise SSDs in new year

Electronics firm Samsung plans to launch high-density solid state drives (SSDs) based on multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory technology in January.

The firm is aiming the 100GB, 200GB and 400GB SSDs at enterprise storage systems and sees them becoming the primary model for use in large servers with green ambitions.

“As more and more server makers are adopting SSDs for use in eco-friendly platforms that consume less electrical power, the need for high-density SSDs in the server market is growing rapidly,” said Byungse So, senior vice president at Samsung.

So added that Samsung’s position in the SSD enterprise server market was strong, but had room for growth.

“While Samsung is already well situated in the SSD market for enterprise servers with high-performance SSDs using single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory, we are now expanding our line-up to include high-density SSDs using MLC NAND flash memory,” he said.

According to the firm, the introduction of 30nm MLC NAND flash chips, combined with a Toggle DDR interface and a controller that uses a 3Gb/s SATA interface, creates a drive that compares with many of the SLC NAND-based SSDs currently on the market.

In number terms, the drives can process random read commands at a rate of 43,000 input/outputs per second (IOPS) and random writes at 11,000 IOPS. Samsung said this compares favourably against a 15K RPM HDD, which has an IOPS rate of 350. In its own estimation, its drives offered a 120x gain in random IOPS read performance and a 30x gain in random IOPS write performance.

As well as being greener, the drives also include an advanced data encryption algorithm and end-to-end data protection, Samsung said.

The firm will start producing its enterprise drives in January.